Why I Banned AI in My Classroom

It’s back-to-school season, and one subject is top of mind: artificial intelligence. AI’s capabilities are expanding daily, transforming education and raising profound questions: Does it help or hurt students? What about teachers? And how can we use the technology productively—if that’s even possible?

Few people have a better vantage point on this debate than teachers. So we reached out to two of them to explore it from both sides: the case to ban AI in the classroom, and the case to embrace it.

Read on to hear from Deb Eaton, a high school English teacher from Philadelphia, who prohibits AI in all her classes—and believes other teachers should too. And click here for the opposing perspective from Rod Naquin, a high school English teacher from Louisiana, who believes teachers who refuse to integrate AI productively into their classrooms are missing a massive opportunity to change the educational landscape for the better. —The Editors

I am a high school English teacher. Year after year, I notice one thing almost all of my students have in common: a desire to find the easiest path to their goals.

This instinct is familiar to most of us. We all want the perfect detour to avoid morning traffic, a food service to plan our meals, a machine to clean our houses. Innovation has made many of these dreams into realities, and we should all be very grateful for that.

But school is different. For students learning to process information, find their voices, and demonstrate their understanding of the world, the ability to cut corners is catastrophic. Shortcuts are incompatible with learning.

That’s why, in 2023, I banned artificial intelligence in all of my classes.