I agree with what New York City is doing to limit AI in schools, and I think more school boards should be paying attention to it.
For those who don’t know, New York City put a ban in place for kindergarten through grade 8 for the new school year. It’s a full ban, not a suggestion or a set of guidelines, and it covers roughly 600,000 kids. There are some exceptions, of course, but outside of those, kids in that age range are off AI for at least a year.
Their reasoning is simple: young kids need teachers and real human connection to learn, not a chatbot doing the thinking for them.
I think that’s the right call. Young kids don’t need AI writing their assignments or solving problems for them. I honestly don’t see why younger kids need to even know what AI is.
They need to learn how to work through things on their own, and less reliance on technology at that age will be a huge help. Handing a nine year old a tool that can finish their homework for them isn’t teaching them anything, it’s just skipping the part where they actually learn.
When you add up SmartPhones, laptops, Google, ChatGPT, and whatever else kids have access to, there is very little they even need to figure out anymore.
Just once, I would love to see my kids have to go to the library, find an encyclopedia, and photocopy the information they need to write their paper.
This isn’t only relevant to parents in New York City. When a school district this size makes a decision like this, it tends to influence what other boards do, even if they don’t say so directly. I can’t wait to see what the TDSB does with AI in the classroom.
Sadly, the ban doesn’t apply to high schoolers. Students in grades 9 through 12 will continue to have to figure it out in real-time. In high school and post-secondary school, it’s largely left up to individual students and teachers to manage, and it doesn’t seem to be going well.
My own kids are in high school, meaning we will wait and see what rules, bans, guidelines, and regulations come their way. We have already had a few instances of teachers asking us if our kid uses AI to complete assignments. It’s such a grey area to me. Both sides can make a claim that AI was used or not used, and there really isn’t a true way to tell (yet). But that’s the thing. It’s all based on perception. A teacher thinks AI was used, they have justification to give a zero. But what if it’s not true?
This is where schools need help.
Ontario school boards, including Toronto’s, haven’t put out clear rules on this yet either. So I’ll be watching to see whether more boards follow New York City’s lead, especially when it comes to high school students, since that’s the part of this that still feels unresolved.
For now, I think New York City got this one right. Little kids don’t need AI doing the thinking for them, and it’s good to see a school district willing to say so directly instead of leaving it up to individual teachers and parents to sort out on their own.
A clear rule is easier for everyone to follow than a vague suggestion, and that goes for teachers, parents, and kids alike.
We shall see how it plays out. How is it enforced? Will it be similar to phone and social media bans? What I am already noticing is that, unlike social media and phones, parents all seem to be aligned that AI in schools is something worth squashing before it’s too late.
What do you think? Is there any reason younger kids should be using AI?
