MacKenzie Price is the founder of 2hr Learning.gettyI keep running into this false narrative about AI in education that I feel compelled to address. Let me set the record straight: No, robots cannot replace teachers. There is no world where AI alone can be responsible for educating children. I run schools that use an AI-driven, personalized learning model, and since we opened our first location in 2014, I've heard many different versions of this core fear: If you incorporate AI into learning, that means you are taking the teacher out of the classroom. Students will stay glued to screens, with no adult guidance, lose their reasoning abilities and miss out on opportunities to learn from one another.
That is not the way forward, but I understand why people are scared. People are afraid of AI in general. We’re being told that AI will disrupt every industry and big parts of our daily lives, and we don’t know if these changes will be positive or negative. People are concerned that AI will threaten their jobs and damage our collective ability to “think creatively and form meaningful relationships.”I’m a parent, as well as an educator and an entrepreneur, and I know that these fears are magnified when it comes to our kids because the stakes are high. We don’t want to get this wrong. But let's not let fear lead the way. The goal is not to replace teachers with AI. We will always need highly engaged, qualified educators in our classrooms. The teacher’s role may evolve, but there is no substitute for their ability to transform the life of a child under their mentorship.
