The risks of using generative Artificial Intelligence in education outweigh the benefits. That’s the warning in a seminal report from the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education.
After a year of study, focus groups and interviews with 500 students, parents and educators, Brookings warns that overreliance on AI could stunt skills like critical thinking before students have had the chance to learn them. Studies already show there’s cause for concern.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Brookings’ researchers note that AI technology can enhance student learning instead of supplanting it — if young people learn to think for themselves first.
Journalism class is the perfect place for students to learn AI-proof critical thinking skills.
I teach journalism at Jupiter Middle School in Palm Beach County. In our classroom-turned-newsroom, students analyze information, verify facts and consider different viewpoints for every story they publish. They wrestle with ethical dilemmas, use their own judgement and write their own copy.
They rely on their own brain power instead of offloading difficult tasks to a chatbot. In the process, they’re not only learning how to think for themselves but also getting an education in what it means to be an informed and engaged member of their community.
On deadline day, our classroom is buzzing. Kids are running around asking for a photo they can’t find, checking out a press pass so they can speak to a source and get a better quote, and our layout editor is frantically trying to ensure that the cropping of a photo doesn’t distort the image — all things journalists regularly do.
But well before publishing a word, students start with learning basic news literacy skills.
Sixth graders learn to evaluate the credibility of sources, understanding why a TikTok post may not be the most reliable place to gather facts. They learn to recognize bias by looking for emotionally charged words, noting whose viewpoints might be missing from a piece and comparing how different sources frame the same facts. They come to understand why accuracy matters — because a journalist’s credibility is all they have. It’s all critical thinking in action.
They continue building these skills in seventh and eighth grade, when they work in a real newsroom where facts, verification and ethical decisions are integral to every publication.
These are responsibilities that require human discretion and knowledge. They shouldn’t be trusted completely to AI. They are also the kinds of skills that bring us closer as a community.
Students see firsthand that credible information doesn’t happen by accident; it requires responsibility and care. When tweens and teens are trusted to produce real journalism, they begin to understand their role in contributing thoughtfully to their community.
Today, many of us are living in separate, screen-based realities. We spend hours scrolling social feeds or chatting with bots instead of interacting in real life. Our filter bubbles can prevent us from any exposure to ways of thinking and living that are different from our own.
In journalism class, I’m always asking my students to debate complicated issues and consider other perspectives. Journalism ethics call on reporters to be fair and nuanced, which is only possible when you purposely seek out all sides of a story.
Last year, one of my students wanted to investigate the effectiveness of practicing lockdown drills, but she was genuinely nervous about writing the story. She knew that school safety is an especially sensitive subject — Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people died in a 2018 mass shooting, is just an hour’s drive from our school. She worried that questioning a practice designed to protect students might be perceived as criticizing it.
I reminded her that the job of a journalist isn’t to decide whether the drills are effective. Her job was to ask a legitimate question and then do the work necessary to answer it responsibly. She researched the purpose and effectiveness of safety drills, sought out credible information like case studies and statistics and considered perspectives beyond her own experience as a student.
I want my students to be informed, engaged citizens when they leave this class. I want them to use their journalism skills to research issues, seek out nuance and make informed decisions. I want them to think for themselves about what’s important to them and why.
AI is moving quickly into our lives and into our classrooms. Our kids need to stay ahead of it. We need to invest our educational resources to ensure every student learns to think critically.
News literacy education and journalism class are the perfect places to teach these skills. The goal isn’t to raise a generation of journalists. It’s to equip Gen Alpha with the ability to ask the right questions and listen thoughtfully to the answers — skills that make us human and shouldn’t be handed over to bots.
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