When AI first came out, I thought it was useful, but I wasn’t all that impressed.
It could brainstorm titles for my writing. It was a decent editor (I’ve always been a terrible speller). But it was… and remains… a terrible writer. Why?
Because as I wrote in What AI Should NEVER Do For Your Kids, AI can’t generate novel solutions or countercultural ideas. It won’t suggest that you teach Shakespeare to your 8 year old, or tell you that skip-counting is harming your child’s math progress, or even that maybe the Tiger Moms had a point. These ideas go against the norm and AI (at least for the foreseeable future) can’t give you those ideas.
But that doesn’t mean AI won’t change everything. It already has.
I’ve seen AI-generated posts get millions of views. My husband has interviewed job candidates that used AI to answer questions. Nearly every kid I know in school is already using AI to help them with homework. And AI is just beginning to reshape the job market, eliminating or vastly altering entry level positions where our children will first make their way in the world.
So I’ve been spending a lot of time pondering how this changes the way I educate my children. In a world where AI gobbles up the low lying skills, what must my children do to set themselves apart? I do not have a finished map of this new world.
But what I do know is this.
Thinking never goes out of style.
AI is getting good, really good, at producing answers. My children need to become extraordinarily good at asking questions, making unexpected connections, and thinking…. orthogonally.
And for that, I’m leaning into a 2,400 year old technique.
Here’s what it looks like in my house.
We watch a short video about something fascinating — technology, art, history, psychology.
Then I ask one question, and we have a Socratic dialogue.
Last week, we watched a video about the lives of early American settlers. We learned how they made their own clothes, but it wasn’t just that. They also had to grow the plant fibers, turn it into thread and only then could they make their own clothes. Most settlers had only a single outfit they wore everyday.
Contrastingly, my children have always lived in a world where Mom orders something online and it shows up on their doorstep.
I asked my children: How would your view of life change if you had to make everything yourself?
Their first reaction was gratitude. We should be more grateful for all that we have.
But then the conversation took a turn.
We talked about convenience. What we gain from it. What we lose. How there seems to be something inside people that beckons for the old ways. Why do people still grow food in their backyard when they don’t have to? For example, we have a garden but get nearly all our food from the store.
Then, a really big question came up: What happens if AI eventually does everything for us?
My 9-year-old said: You lose something if you don’t do it yourself.
Exactly. My children had taken the conversation somewhere I never could have planned.
It’s such a simple practice: having conversations about the world. But through this process, children learn to question, examine, and think deeply about the life they’re living.
You don’t need a complicated curriculum.
You just need to give your children something interesting to think about, ask a question, and then listen... really listen.
Below, I share easy-to-follow rules for Socratic dialogue, a template for the developing that one great question, my favorite channels for conversation starters, and examples from my own home.
PS. We started Socratic discussions with books. All of the below works great for enhancing your literary conversations too!