Don't Let AI Do All Your Struggling For You

“When will I have to use this in real life?” 

It’s a question every teacher is asked, and one I’ve always found a little funny.

Firstly, this is real life. I would remind the inquiring student that they are experiencing real life right now—and are compelled to do this geometry problem, or whatever else they’re feeling stubborn about, in real life as they are experiencing it. Childhood and schooling count as parts of our real lives, after all.

Secondly, we constantly do things that we’ll never “need in the real world” without batting an eye. Why do we learn instruments, play sports, or read books? Why do we attend religious services, join clubs, pick up hobbies, or vote? Why did I spend the better part of the last two weekends learning all the national capitals in the world after I missed a pub trivia question? Why does anybody do anything?

So, when will I ever use this in real life?

Why Students Ask This Question

Rather than answering directly, let’s consider why this question even arises. Kids demand justification for their education because they’ve been led to believe that school is intended to prepare them for work.

We have removed humanity’s universal curiosity as the animating principle behind the schooling process and replaced it with the grim understanding that if students do not learn, they will go hungry. Therefore, whatever does not directly relate to work must be justified in order to earn their attention.

Given that context, “When will I use this in real life?” is not an unreasonable question. Of course, students have always asked why they’re doing something they don’t feel like doing, but the context has shifted to make the question both more sensible to ask and harder to answer.

The Role of AI in Learning

Students today feel that sophisticated Large Language Models (LLMs) will always make better workers than human beings—and they may very well be correct.

If kids are just learning for the sake of working, what’s the point? In our day, we were told that we had to learn arithmetic because we wouldn’t always have calculators on us. But no one can look a student in the eye and tell them earnestly that they have to learn to write an essay or work through a complicated math problem because ChatGPT may not always be available to them. It will be, and they know it.

What Education Is Really For

It all comes down to the philosophy of education: Is education about preparing students for a job, or preparing them for a life?

The staggering capabilities of LLMs—and the questions they raise—have made it abundantly clear that the ability to hold down a job is a fortunate but incidental result of a quality education. Human beings of all ages learn because learning is good for the soul and leads to a more fulfilling existence.

This applies to every subject: math, physics, literature, ethics, geography, standardized test strategy, ichthyology—anything that can be taught, understood, or inspired. We ought to learn simply because it is good for us.

Learning Requires Effort

Learning anything requires considerable effort. I used ChatGPT to help in my quest to learn the capitals of the world, and it didn’t really make it easier—just smoother. I probably could have done without it, but the voice feature in the app allowed me to be quizzed while doing other things, like a phone call with a nerdy acquaintance who doesn’t have much going on and doesn’t mind that you’re washing the dishes during your conversation.

It helped!

The Right Way to Use AI

LLMs are not evil. They have uses—even educational ones. I might even argue that using LLMs and understanding their capabilities is good for students in the long run.

The problem comes when the LLM is doing the work for you. Using an LLM to learn that Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia is fine as long as you’re actually growing more learned.

It’s not about what you’ll use in real life. It’s about the effort you’re willing to put into bettering yourself.