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Beyond merely Dispensing Information: Teaching Students How to Think
In the context of great teaching, while AI can provide instant answers, it cannot establish an authentic relationship with children, the secret sauce in our efforts to nudge them from their comfort zones as we endeavor to teach them how to think critically: to question, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate those answers. Moreover, it cannot ignite the spark of curiosity or come close to coaxing it into a passion. In a world where information is abundant, discernment driven by a human passion to know, becomes THE essential skill. In the fog of data overload, and without a trustworthy guide of a great teacher, how does a young human being discern between the marginally related and the definitively salient?  As content and kid experts, teachers cultivate this discernment every day, modeling it and rewarding it as they help students ask Why?, connect ideas across disciplines, and reason through complex problems.  Of course, our teachers do this, in part, by first knowing the information, but in great measure, and in ways beyond the capabilities of AI, they do this by passionately demonstrating their own wonder, curiosity, and maybe even a bit of humility, which inspires their students to follow suit and, in so doing, becoming passionate, curious, wonder filled, and humble learners. 

A strong teaching staff brings both expertise and intentionality to this process. For example, teachers who understand child development know how to guide students from curiosity to comprehension, using questioning strategies, project-based learning, and discussion-based classrooms to help children practice reasoning rather than rote memorization. This is a more time consuming process than merely filling empty vessels with information but, at Ashbrook, our smaller class sizes allow us this time.  These are not skills that can be automated; they are relational and developmental, requiring the empathy and insight of skilled educators who deeply know their students. Beyond this, the critical years of synaptogenesis, or the laying down and consolidating these neural pathways, of establishing habits of mind, and of developing foundational skills, ARE the young childhood through the middle grades years. If these growth points are missed during these early years, the results will manifest in academic and social struggles through the high school years and beyond, underscoring the value of an Ashbrook education. 

Creativity: The Human Signature                               

Creativity in the age of AI is another area where great teachers make a difference. Although AI can mimic artistic styles or compose music, when it does this at a student’s request it removes the opportunity for that child to struggle through the process of making. Children are, after all, natural creators, and by missing opportunities to exercise this creative “muscle,” these abilities atrophy, like all underused muscles. Exceptional teachers, on the other hand, harness that innate creativity, giving students the freedom to imagine, design, and experiment, and in so doing, cultivate the innate creator in each child.

Through open-ended projects, storytelling, and hands-on exploration, teachers model the creative process, embracing mistakes (or, in the words of the immortal television painter Bob Ross, “happy little accidents”), encouraging iteration, and celebrating original thought. This work fosters resilience and adaptability, traits essential in a world where students will be asked to navigate technologies and choose professions that do not yet exist. A creative teacher sparks and supports the kind of thinking that AI cannot emulate, thinking that is innovative, empathetic, and deeply human, rather than doing it for them. When AI is used to generate an answer, a creation, or a solution, these outsourced moments mean that the teachable moment is lost forever. 

Critical Thinking and Embracing the Struggle  

A drill instructor of mine was fond of saying, “pain is weakness leaving the body.”  Fredreich Nietzche, in 1888, is credited with penning “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” Ben Franklin in the 1730s actually coined the phrase, “there are no gains without pains,” which was repackaged during the 80s fitness boom by the likes of Jane Fonda and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though the source of these quotations is mixed, common among them is the idea that without the grit to push through a challenge, growth does not occur.  It’s as simple as that.  In the age of AI, however, students increasingly face the temptation to outsource their learning by asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Llama, or any one of a number of existing and emerging products, to solve an equation, summarize a chapter, or form an argument. But when this happens, the most essential part of education, of learning how to be a student, is lost: the disciplined, slow, methodical, sometimes difficult work of thinking. After all, learning is more than simply providing the correct answers. It involves the time it takes to form an independent judgment, sustain curiosity, and establish the beachhead of intellectual resilience. AI can assist in this, of course, but it does so at the expense of supplanting the cognitive effort and growth that develop the capable mind.

This is why learning to write remains foundational across every discipline. Writing is not just a way to express ideas but, more importantly, a way to discover them, which is why great teachers often talk about that inflection point in a student’s academic career when they are no longer simply learning to write, but are actually writing to learn. When students write for themselves, they clarify what they understand, recognize what they do not understand, work to untangle the latter, and then wrestle with the obvious and the nuanced as they decide how to articulate these complex thoughts. Outsourcing this process deprives students of the very reasoning and critical thinking skills that allow them to speak confidently, build arguments, and participate meaningfully in academic life and, beyond school, to be productive and fulfilled citizens.

Likewise, the study and evaluation of historical events requires genuine engagement to build abilities and inclinations that atrophy if not exercised. Great teachers help students to weigh sources, consider context, and appreciate the complexity of human choices over time. If students rely on pre-packaged summaries, they lose the opportunity to form their own interpretations, to see how ideas shape societies, and to understand how the past informs the present. Perhaps most tragically, these students, caught in the echo chamber of AI, are less able to take their place at the table of an informed electorate making decisions that will impact the effectiveness of their local and national governments, hold elected officials accountable, or exercise their inalienable rights, negatively impacting the health of our nation. 

Across the disciplines, great teachers frame learning as discovery rather than mere completion, and models collaboration, curiosity, and integrity and encourage students to engage with curiosity rather than shortcuts.  As a result, they grow into thoughtful citizens, creatively solving problems, with integrity and courage, exactly the kind of humans our world needs. These values are the “hidden curriculum” that shapes character and citizenship. As students learn to use AI responsibly, they will need, more than ever, great teachers to help them know that artificial intelligence is just a tool, not a substitute for developing actual intelligence.

Investing in the Future at Ashbrook                                     

As AI continues to impact the landscape of learning, schools that invest in attracting, supporting, and retaining great teachers will lead the way. By providing our teachers with best practice professional development in technology integration, interdisciplinary teaching, and child-centered pedagogy, Ashbrook ensures that our great teachers will remain confident and creative guides in the digital age. In this effort, and according to our mission, they will continue to challenge our students, for it is in the effort students put forth to meet these challenges, nurtured along that path by their teachers, that real growth, both actual organic brain growth and a growth in skills, abilities, and confidence, occur.  Given the choice, many humans would choose to “cognitive offload” challenging or difficult to learn material, but the health of our students and our nation will hinge on this decision point. Will we, as a nation, invest in environments and people that normalize practices that invite our students to work hard to understand material that may not come easily (as the saying goes, “neurons that fire together, wire together”), or will we leave it to companies who profit from AI products, to market these products to our children and make it easier for them to, essentially, let someone else do the heavy lifting for them (no firing… no wiring)?  

Ultimately, the measure of a school’s strength has never been the sophistication of its tools, but the quality of its relationships between teachers and students, and while instructional technology can provide useful resources, these are useful only to the extent that they optimize this mission critical teacher-student nexus. In this spirit, it is clear that AI may forever change how we access information, but great teachers will always be the linchpin between simply knowing information, and a student’s ability to use what is known to think critically, to deeply understand, and to apply this knowledge in a way that makes the world a better place. 

In the months to come, I have asked Ashbrook’s academic leaders to develop an end of year recommendation to me regarding a student AI use policy and guidelines.  In addition, and alongside our parent AI reading group (see Compass, 11/7/25 for more information), a group of Ashbrook’s staff is currently pursuing professional development on the topic of AI’s impact on education and, in particular, will attend the Winter Learning and the Brain Conference in February.  I would also like to alert you to three cost-free PRAx events over the next few months, and hope to see you there (scroll down here).  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, maybe you have an expertise in the area of artificial intelligence or have thought deeply about its impact on our children. If this is you, I am wondering if you’d be interested in teaching our middle school students about the opportunities and risks associated with AI use, either as an elective or as a one-off after school session (please be in touch). And if you find yourself catching up, and who does not?, you can start with a very balanced and reasonable approach to this topic by visiting the website of Trevor Muir, an educational thinker and researcher who offers great advice on AI to schools and parents. 

Ultimately, true learning happens when students push through struggle, develop grit, and build relationships with teachers and peers. I think the same can be said about an institution. AI, while powerful, can undermine these critical “learning moments” if used without guidance, or if students are “left to their own devices,” expected to resist the temptation to use it. As an institution interested in growth, it behooves Ashbrook to also wrestle with these issues.  Together with the support of our parents, our investment in our great teachers will ensure that technology supports, and does not replace, our mission and the deeper goals of education.