My Experience

I was a debate teacher for 10 years; 2 years at Central Michigan University and 8 years in Beijing. At various times I taught kids from grade 3 up to undergraduate, but it was almost entirely in private schools and extracurricular settings. I gained a small amount of renown within the city; enough that I was invited to effectively start my own small cram school. I really enjoyed the business management aspects while continuing teaching. Almost everyone working for me was in their early 20's, so there was a common feeling between raising up teenage student athletes and training their coaches.

I wish I could say that this experience gives me great insight into education policy, but it doesn't. I did not go through traditional teacher training, I never worked in a traditional day school, and the teachers I trained worked in my system instead of the American system. Trying to replicate my experience within the US system would be unwise. Whereas in other issues like healthcare I support whole institutional change, I don't perceive the issues in America's education system as having fundamental root causes in their institutional design becoming outdated. So I will not approach the US education system with the same radical intent.

Instead, my experience makes me good at understanding the difficulties our teachers face in implementing the policies. I ran a successful program and then built up a 2nd successful program; I'm good at figuring out how to make policy work in the real world. I'm also someone very experienced in making private school work without needing support from the state; so I can bring a lot of credibility on not opposing private schools while also not letting them bleed resources from the public school system.

The NEA policy platform

I endorse the first eight of the National Education Association's nine policy statements. The complete list can be found here. To summarize, I support:

1. Affirmative action in hiring teachers

2. Not siphoning public funding to private schools

3. Universal pre-K

4. Standards for teacher evaluation and accountability

5. Incorporating digital technology and online classrooms into a student-centered education model.

6. Using charter schools as a tool for innovation within the education system rather than a tool to evade the normal standards of that system.

7. Support for the community school model

8. Support for a restorative justice approach within schools and anti-discrimination practices.

The last policy statement is on the role of Artificial Intelligence in education. The NEA's position is risk averse, setting a high standard that peer-reviewed research must validate the use of AI before it can be incorporated into classrooms. That stands in stark contrast to the way the internet and computers were much more eagerly adopted and the freer hand teachers had to experiment with and utilize new technology.

Teachers are obviously worried that the drive behind AI incorporation is to get rid of them, and they are not wrong about that. Just as some states utilized charter schools to enhance their goal of siphoning the public education system's resources out of the system, those same forces are excited at the prospect of cutting education budgets down to the bone without basic compensation for teachers. I fully agree with the part of the NEA statement that AI must not be utilized to displace educators because AI cannot fulfill that role.

What AI is close to replacing is textbooks. It can recite information and problem sets its been programmed with as well as any electronic textbook while at the same time answering basic questions and giving basic observational feedback. I remember having typing class in 2002, and the typing program realizing I had a problem with pausing after making mistakes, and giving me targeted exercises to solve the issue. I found that incredibly helpful, just like a teacher giving personalized feedback. But the fact that it can sometimes do the same thing as a teacher does not mean it replicates the teacher, in the same way that just because sometimes I can repair my car does not mean I can replace a car mechanic. Experts are expected to be able to assess the entirety of a system and be able to intervene where needed: AI is just not held to that standard because the current level of the tech can't reach it.

So while I fully appreciate the general threat AI represents to teachers in the education system, I worry about angst morphing into general hostility and resistance. The education system embraced the internet and computer tech quickly because they realized it was going to be omnipresent in my generation's adult lives and lack of familiarity would hamstring our futures. They were right and I'm extremely grateful for that. AI is here; it's going to become omnipresent in America over a similar timeframe. Kids are already showing how much use they get out of it to do their schoolwork. We can't afford to drag our feet and try to keep it out of kids lives, we have to try to master it and place it in its appropriate role instead. So I would encourage educators to adopt a more forward leaning approach about what that role is, and I think "the new textbook" is it.