Shortcuts Don’t Skip the Climb
Well, it happened. My teenage son said, “By the time I need English, I won’t need English.”
Ironically, that’s a pretty clever use of English. He explained that with tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT, he doesn’t see much value in putting extra effort into English class. Other subjects feel more demanding to him right now. (To be clear, he’s in no academic danger. He’s just… coasting.)
But it got me thinking.
Over the past couple of years, AI has helped me get better at things I was already decent at. It’s great for quick answers about plumbing, Pokémon, astronomy, and so on. But I can’t think of anything I was truly bad at that I’ve become even halfway competent in, just because of AI.
That might say more about me than the technology. Maybe if I followed an AI-driven curriculum, carved out dedicated practice time, and approached it with real intent, I could make that kind of progress.
But isn’t that the kind of effort AI was supposed to save me from?
Maybe it’s work either way. Maybe AI just makes the work more personal, more focused, and more enjoyable than any learning method we’ve had before.
(And yes, I still mourn the slow fading of a traditional general arts education. I’ve mourned it for decades. I don’t think schools assign classic literature just because they can’t afford new books. But it’s hard to see the deeper value when you’re sitting in a classroom full of restless teenagers.)
