Real Teachers v. Artificial Intelligence

Teacher displacement due to Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a resounding topic in education. Forbes Opinion Poll of Teachers and AI indicates that 30% fear AI will supplant them. When I spoke to lay people about AI, they envisioned robots teaching the next generation. However, as a veteran educator of 50 years, I know this will never happen! I know this because teachers do much more than merely teach a curriculum.

One can look to both biographical and inspired movies about educators for proof. Biographical movies such as Freedom Writers, Stand by Me, Lean on Me, and Dangerous Minds reveal successful teachers despite the odds. Movies inspired by true stories like Dead Poets Society, School of Rock, and To Sir with Love focus on change.

I watched these movies using my educator lens to analyze what was beneath the surface. These educators did two things: They stimulated learning by using unorthodox methods, non-traditional strategies, and exciting approaches, and they formed emotional connections by acquainting themselves with the students’ realities and what was important to them. They taught beyond the curriculum, making it come alive and realistic for the students’ academic needs.

By doing this, they developed students’ emotional quotient of self-reliance, confidence, and connection to learning. They taught students to believe in themselves, to have ambitious standards despite their socio-economic situations, and that they could change the world one step at a time. What mattered wasn’t how others pigeonholed them due to race or ethnicity but what they thought of themselves. They demonstrated that teaching was a collaboration between teacher and students, and they cared deeply about the students.

Isn’t that why teachers choose this profession? We aim to use our creativity and passion to teach concepts in interesting and inspirational ways, to positively impact our students’ lives because we genuinely care about them, and to avoid sentimentality in favor of fortifying action! 

Teaching is the hardest profession. Attending to the intellectual, emotional, and adaptability needs of 25-plus students all at once is challenging and draining work as teachers balance administrative requirements and parental demands. This is especially difficult in the age of social media and the post-pandemic age. The National Institute of Mental Health statistics indicate that 21% of youths aged 12-17 report anxiety, and 17% indicate depression. Teachers address these needs every day. They give hugs, fist bumps, “attaboy” encouragement, and love. Teachers listen, wipe away tears, and offer advice. Sometimes, teachers are the only positive people in a student’s life. And teachers face these difficulties and rise to the occasion every day because that is what teachers do.

AI cannot do this. AI is a tool. AI can reduce teachers' workloads. AI can assist teachers with unit planning, differentiating instruction, setting assessment frameworks, suggesting classroom management strategies, informing cultural competence techniques, and providing engaging and interesting activities. AI is useful for time-consuming, routine tasks. AI frees teachers to aim at the more important work that they do.

The teacher’s purview is to focus on the intellectual skills of critical thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving by asking meaningful and thoughtful questions. Teachers promote inquiry, analytical thinking, responsible decision-making, and weighing options through reflection and visioning. Teachers contribute to their students’ intellectual and academic development by directing them to conduct further research that identifies societal issues and develops solutions. Teachers advance society by encouraging students’ cognitive flexibility and innovative revolutionary thoughts.

While AI can support the emotions of competence in successful lesson planning, project design, or presentation representation, it cannot develop structural emotional intelligence. Teachers cultivate a broad array of fundamental, essential, and elemental student emotional skills at a profound level.

Teachers foster communication and connection. Teachers focus on students’ self-awareness, emotional regulation, and knowing their strengths and weaknesses, all taught through human interaction. Self-management, handling stress, and controlling impulses successfully are keys to the affective domain in education. Teachers’ modeling of perspective-taking, empathy, respect, and kindness speaks louder than any lecture on the subject. Opportunities for collaboration, teamwork, and staying motivated are keys that teachers can give students to unlock future success.

AI teaches us about the need for adaptability with many different and ever-expanding possibilities. However, teachers’ roles in accepting, reinforcing, and refining students’ flexibility of thought cannot be underestimated. Teachers know the value of encouraging persistence and perseverance and prevailing in every circumstance. The executive functioning skills of diligence, stick-to-it-ness, grit, growth mindset, and determination are gifts teachers give their students to ensure their future.

AI is here to stay. It becomes more powerful and pervasive every day. Industry and the professions use it. Students use it. It is a great tool!

Will AI replace teachers? Never! AI is transforming the teaching and learning processes, bringing these to a higher level! AI enables autonomous student learning, shifting the role of the teacher to the learning facilitator. AI allows teachers to concentrate on ensuring their students have positive mental health and self-confidence to function well in the world of work. With AI, students and teachers must think broadly, imagine the future, and make it happen.