EdSurge

This week, two educators trace what happened after a student said something that could have been dismissed as attitude but turned out to be something else entirely. One teacher heard it in the middle of a lesson on irony. The other heard it in a planning meeting for a brand new program. Neither could shake it, and both went looking for what it actually meant.

In an era where artificial intelligence promises to archive human culture at the touch of a button, Indigenous communities face a vital question: Who has the right to own, shape, and digitize sacred knowledge? Long before AI became a headline in education, this question fundamentally reshaped my work as the Instructional Technology Coordinator at Indian Community School.

The internet is increasingly awash with videos generated by artificial intelligence aimed directly at preschoolers and kindergartners. With literally hundreds of thousands of AI-generated videos to watch and plenty of lights and action to grab the attention of children under age 5, critics say the videos usually have little if any substance.

Students are facing a well-documented mental health crisis that was on the rise even before the pandemic, and schools have responded with social-emotional learning (SEL) and wellness programs. But what if some of these very practices are contributing to students’ stress?

This story was published in collaboration with The Associated Press. INDIANAPOLIS — There’s the mother of two who needs a full-time job to keep up with the bills, but can’t afford full-time childcare. There’s the medical technician who stopped buying groceries and turned to food banks so she could pay for her infant’s care. There’s the baby who remained in foster care, even after his mother completed the steps to bring him home.

This week, two stories look at what happens when rules written far from a classroom land on a teacher’s desk. One guest found guidance that barely mentions the youngest students. The other found a law that took away the exact tool his students needed most. Both raise a question that will sound familiar to any educator: When the rules do not fit, who is responsible for making them work?

Like so many educators, I was balancing more than a typical routine. I was teaching full-time in a Title I high school while writing, speaking, advocating, mentoring and trying to create learning experiences that honored students who often navigate systems not designed with them in mind. I was often somewhere between grading essays, responding to emails, and figuring out why half the class couldn’t log into Microsoft Teams because the Wi-Fi was acting up again.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teens on Aug. 18 as its new artificial intelligence (AI) platform for users ages 13 to 17. According to the firm, teens will be automatically placed into the new platform based on their estimated age, where they will encounter “an experience designed to help [them] learn, think critically, deepen understanding, and use AI with confidence,” OpenAI said in its product announcement.

For years, the United States has treated its reading crisis as an early grades problem. This narrow focus misses the bigger challenge: the “comprehension wall” that many students hit in middle school. As students move into middle school, they no longer focus on learning to read. They must understand what they are reading. Right now, they struggle to do so: Only 30% of eighth graders were proficient in reading in 2024, the lowest level in 30 years.

With the launch of ChatGPT four years ago, the graduating class of 2026 is the first to have full exposure to generative artificial intelligence. Many high school students in the United States have considerable experience using AI — and mixed feelings about its growing role in everyday life. They may take advantage of AI benefits, but some fear where the technology could take us in the future.