Who’s Steering? Driving in AI land
Our children are growing up in the swirl of algorithmic feeds and machine learning. We may be losing the discipline of study: the slow, curious work of connecting ideas and replacing it with instant answers leaving little room for original thought. If we allow those tools to steer the journey, we risk raising a generation that doesn’t realize they are at the wheel.
Discernment is the quiet art of asking: Where did this idea come from? What assumptions shape it? What might be missing?
It’s not just the technical skill of analyzing a source, it’s the deeper habit of becoming aware of how we think. In my own academic work, I explored how text and image intertwine to create meaning; today, we face technology that acts as both tool and image, both medium and message.
When AI presents a persuasive idea or offers an easy shortcut, we must remind ourselves that thought must always come before tool. Machines can calculate, summarize, and suggest but they should not decide. Our children still must decide.
The tech industry is sprinting ahead, rolling out models, platforms, and apps that shape attention and tailor experience. Schools, however, are still catching up. And while we wait, kids are learning habits of deference instead of discernment. They are becoming users instead of thinkers.
We can’t afford that gap. We must teach students to bridge tool and agency, to understand not only what technology gives them but how it shapes them.
Here’s how schools can begin:
Integrate discernment across every subject. In math, science, literature—ask: Who built this model? What data or bias might it carry?
Equip educators as translators of attention. Teachers must understand how AI systems stage what students see and what they don’t.
Practice “slow questions.” Technology moves fast; deep thinking does not. Build rituals of reflection: after using AI, have students rewrite, challenge, or expand what it produced.
Shift from answers to architectures. Teach kids that algorithms and interfaces are part of meaning-making, too. The question isn’t just what’s the answer—it’s how was this answer created?
Affirm agency, identity, and purpose. Our children must see themselves as authors, not audiences. Technology should support their creativity, not script it.
If we let AI steer without teaching children how to drive, we hand them maps without seats, without destinations without direction.
Our children’s future depends on their ability to think deeply, discern wisely, and act with courage. The guardrails won’t be built for them, they must learn to build their own.
As educators, parents, and advocates, it’s on us to create that foundation. Let’s make discernment a core skill, not an afterthought. Because a mind guided by purpose and reflection will always lead technology never be led by it.