Anne Lutz Fernandez
@lutzfernandez.bsky.social
9.3K followers 2.1K following 9.7K posts
Ex-banker, marketer, & English teacher: pick your ad hominem. Co-author of nonfiction books Carjacked & Schooled. Cranky in the AM. Newsletter: https://nobody-wants-this.ghost.io/
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lutzfernandez.bsky.social
I put together a 4-page doc for those wary of the rush to integrate in K-12 schools (though much applies beyond).

Four of the main arguments for teachers using AI tools & introducing kids to AI as early as kindergarten are addressed with rebuttals linked to sources.
Help Sheet: Resisting AI Mania in Schools

K-12 educators are under increasing pressure to use—and have students use—a wide range of AI tools. (The term
“AI” is used loosely here, just as it is by many purveyors and boosters.) Even those who envision benefits to schools
of this fast-evolving category of tech should approach the well-funded AI-in-education campaign with skepticism
and caution. Some of the primary arguments for teachers actively using AI tools and introducing students to AI as
early as kindergarten, however, are questionable or fallacious. What follows are four of the most common
arguments and rebuttals with links to sources. I have not attempted balance, in part because so much pro-AI
messaging is out there and discussion of risks and costs is often minimized in favor of hope or resignation. -ALF

Argument: “Schools need to prepare students for the jobs of the future.”
● The skills employers seek haven’t changed much over the decades—and include a lot of
“soft skills” like initiative, problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking.
● Early research is showing that using generative AI can degrade these key skills:
○ An MIT study showed adults using chatGPT to help write an essay “had the lowest
brain engagement and ‘consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and
behavioral levels.’” Critically, “ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay,
often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.”
○ A business school found those who used AI tools often had worse critical thinking
skills “mediated by increased cognitive offloading. Younger participants exhibited
higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical thinking scores.”
○ Another study revealed those using “ChatGPT engaged less in metacognitive
activities...For instance, learners in the AI group frequently looped back to ChatGPT for
feedback rather than reflecting independently. This dependency not only undermines
critical thinking but also risks long-term skill stagnati… Argument: “AI is a tool, just like a calculator.”
● Calculators don’t provide factually wrong answers, but AI tools have. Last year, Google’s AI
search returned, among other falsehoods, that cats have gone to the moon, that Barack
Obama is Muslim, and that glue goes on pizza. Even though AI tools have and are expected to
improve, children in schools shouldn’t be used as tech firms’ guinea pigs for undertested,
unregulated products while AI firms engage elected officials in actively resisting regulation.
● Calculators don’t provide dangerous, even deadly feedback. In one study, a ”chatbot
recommended that a user, who said they were recovering from addiction, take a ‘small hit’ of
methamphetamine” because, it said, it’s “‘what makes you able to do your job to the best of
your ability.’" Users have received threatening messages from chatbots.
● Calculators don’t pose mental health risks because they aren’t potentially addictive or
designed to encourage repeated use. They don’t flatter, direct, or manipulate. Chatbots have
been designed this way—and this has led to dreadful mental health outcomes for some,
including users in a New York Times report. Alleging a chatbot encouraged their teen to die
by suicide, parents in Florida filed a lawsuit against its maker.
● Calculators don’t lie. Chatbots, however, have misled users. Writer Amanda Guinzburg
shared screenshots of interactions with one that she asked to describe several of her essays.
It spewed out invented material, showing the chatbot hadn’t actually accessed and processed
the essays. After much prodding, it “admitted” it had only acted as though it had done that
requested work, spit out mea culpas—and went on to invent or “lie” again.
● Calculators can’t be used to spread propaganda. AI tools, though, including those meant for
schools, should worry us. Law professor Eric Muller’s back-and-forth with SchoolAI’s “Anne
Frank” character showed his “helluva time trying to get her to say a bad word about Nazis.” In
thi… Argument: “AI won’t replace teachers, but it will save them time and improve their
effectiveness.”
● Adding edtech does not necessarily save teachers time. A recent study found that learning
management systems sold to schools over the past decade-plus as time-savers aren’t
delivering on making teaching easier. Instead, they found this tech (e.g. Google Classroom,
Canvas) is often burdensome and contributes to burnout. As one teacher put it, it “just adds
layers to tasks.”
● “Extra time” is rarely returned to teachers. AI proponents argue that if teachers use AI tools
to grade, prepare lessons, or differentiate materials, they’ll have more time to work with
students. But there are always new initiatives, duties, or committee assignments—the unpaid
work districts rely on—to suck up that time. In a culture of austerity and with a USDOE that is
cutting spending, teachers are likely to be assigned more students. When class sizes grow,
students get less attention, and positions can be cut.
● AI can’t replace what teachers do, but that doesn’t mean teachers won’t be replaced.
Schools are already doing it: Arizona approved a charter school in which students spend
mornings working with AI and the role of teacher is reduced to “guide.” Ed tech expert Neil
Selwyn argues those in “industry and policy circles...hostile to the idea of expensively trained
expert professional educators who have [tenure], pension rights and union protection...
[welcome] AI replacement as a way of undermining the status of the professional teacher.”
● Tech firms have been selling schools on untested products for years. Technophilia has led
to students being on screens for hours in school each week even when their phones are
banned. Writer Jess Grose explains, “Companies never had to prove that devices or software,
broadly speaking, helped students learn before those devices had wormed their way into
America’s public schools.” AI products appear to be no different.
● Efficiency is not effectiveness. “… Argument: “Students are already using AI, so we have to teach them ethical use.
● If schools want ethical students, teach ethics. More students are using AI tools to cheat, an
age-old problem they make much easier. This won’t be addressed by showing students how
to use this minute’s AI, an argument implying students don’t know what plagiarism is (solved
by teaching about plagiarism) or understand academic integrity (solved by teaching and
enforcing its bounds)—or that teachers create weak assignments or don’t convey purpose.
The latter aren’t solved by attempting to redirect students motivated and able to cheat.
● Students can be educated on the ethics of AI without encouraging use of AI tools. They can
be taught, as part of media literacy and social media safety programs, about AI’s potential
and applications as well as how it can enable predation, perpetuate bias, and spread
disinformation. They should be taught about the risks of AI and its various social, economic,
and environmental costs. Giving a nod to these issues while integrating AI throughout
schools sends a strong message: the schools don’t really care and neither should students.
● Children can’t be expected to use AI responsibly when adults aren’t. Many pushing schools
to embrace AI don’t know much about it. One example: Education Secretary Linda McMahon,
who said kindergartners should be taught A1 (a steak sauce). The LA Times introduced a
biased and likely politically-motivated AI feature. The Chicago Sun-Times published a
summer reading list including nonexistent books—yet teachers are told to use the same tools
to do similar work. Educators using AI to cut corners can strike students as hypocritical.
● The many costs of AI call into question the possibility of ethical AI use. These include:
○ Energy - AI data centers need huge amounts of water as coolant as well as electricity, pulling
these resources from their communities—which tend to be lower-income—straining the grid,
and raising household cos…
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
gregsargent.bsky.social
Interesting point here from @lutzfernandez.bsky.social: MAGA hates their designated enemies of the moment (blue America, migrants, etc) so much that they're enthusiastically taking their rage out on their children, too:
annelutzfernandez.substack.com/p/americas-a...
America’s Assault on Children
Using kids to consolidate authoritarianism
annelutzfernandez.substack.com
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
urbwes.bsky.social
Public School Teacher:
Other Duties as Assigned
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
drsurekhadavies.bsky.social
Yes. More generally, this so-called tool ignores the knowledge & experience of all people & professions in favour of tech bro values, ignorances, and prejudice.

@merbroussard.bsky.social has a great word, technofascism: the notion that the best solution for any problem must be a technological one.
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
brendannyhan.bsky.social
"Look at the picture... One of these is a member of a private militia that supports the President and was involved in a violent effort to overturn the election, the other is an agent of the state. Can you tell the difference?" donmoynihan.substack.com/p/purge-merg...
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
"AI as an assessment tool represents an existential threat to education because no matter how you try and establish guardrails or best practices around how it is employed, using the technology in place of an educator ultimately cedes human judgment to a machine-based process."
The Dangers of using AI to Grade
Nobody Learns, Nobody Gains
marcwatkins.substack.com
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
zackford.bsky.social
The people who think this doesn't affect them have convinced themselves to hate empathy enough to think it doesn't affect anyone else either.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
"And when masked men grab a parent from the school car line or the corner coffee shop, all students in that school or neighborhood are subject to trauma and made to understand: The state can make people disappear. It is to be feared."
The Assault on Children
MAGA's use of kids to consolidate authoritarianism
nobody-wants-this.ghost.io
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
thomaszimmer.bsky.social
Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:
We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly
Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy
steady.page
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
patrickdhardy.bsky.social
In the criminal legal system, prosecutors often add an enhancement charge for crimes committed in front of children. But when the perpetrator is the state itself, what recourse is there for victims?
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
"And when masked men grab a parent from the school car line or the corner coffee shop, all students in that school or neighborhood are subject to trauma and made to understand: The state can make people disappear. It is to be feared."
The Assault on Children
MAGA's use of kids to consolidate authoritarianism
nobody-wants-this.ghost.io
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
subu.bsky.social
Always remember: the Trump administration's armed goons zip-tied children.

Children.

Armed men detaining children and tying them up. That's the US government today.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
"And when masked men grab a parent from the school car line or the corner coffee shop, all students in that school or neighborhood are subject to trauma and made to understand: The state can make people disappear. It is to be feared."
The Assault on Children
MAGA's use of kids to consolidate authoritarianism
nobody-wants-this.ghost.io
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
Something we keep having to remind the folks still screaming about COVID school closures.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
“Who was president in 2020?” remains one of the most pertinent questions in American politics—absurd, yes, but here we are—and that extends to “who was president January 1 - 19, 2021?”
joycewhitevance.bsky.social
That’s a nice trick, since Biden wasn’t the president on Jan 6.
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
selenalarson.bsky.social
The assault on children like kidnapping them and their parents, anti-vax nonsense, protecting and promoting child predators, accelerating climate change, destroying education, lying to their faces…makes me so, so sick. Children are watching their futures burn and we’re letting it happen.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
"And when masked men grab a parent from the school car line or the corner coffee shop, all students in that school or neighborhood are subject to trauma and made to understand: The state can make people disappear. It is to be feared."
The Assault on Children
MAGA's use of kids to consolidate authoritarianism
nobody-wants-this.ghost.io
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
"And when masked men grab a parent from the school car line or the corner coffee shop, all students in that school or neighborhood are subject to trauma and made to understand: The state can make people disappear. It is to be feared."
The Assault on Children
MAGA's use of kids to consolidate authoritarianism
nobody-wants-this.ghost.io
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
9 out of 10 US students -- roughly 50 million children -- attend public schools.

Despite RW efforts to frame their efforts as for parents ("parents' rights," "choice"), efforts to defund, deform. amd debilitate public schools is a broadscale attack on children and future generations.
Five Ways the Department of Education Is Upending Public Schools
The Trump administration has made a rapid succession of hires and decisions at the Department of Education that could spur profound changes in how schools operate and children learn. Here’s what to kn...
www.propublica.org
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
kylegriffin1.bsky.social
A library director in Wyoming who was fired two years ago because she refused to remove books with sexual content and LGBTQ themes from a library's children and young adult sections has just been awarded $700,000 in a settlement. t.co/EA5L1kOZfV
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/us/wyoming-library-settlement-book-bans-terri-lesley.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes&fbclid=IwdGRjcANWLXdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHhlnY6nKj_j4zuP3VjNSstXWBaV1t8-sPQ5C3b_jS6WN...
t.co
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
whatashrinkthinks.com
I'm sitting here thinking about having a 15 daughter being chased down and abducted by masked men while the local police watch and let them carry her away to god-knows where w/zero accountability

we have to understand that girls are in severe danger of sexual violence from anonymous ICE goons
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
MAGA works hard to make sure the most vulnerable children in America suffer.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
AI 🤝 fascism
huwcdavies.bsky.social
Imagine using Meta’s AI in educational contexts or having it integrated into edtech products. When it’s overseen by MAGA representatives like this, imagine asking it what Antifa means, if there is a relationship is between race and IQ or what is causing climate change.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
MAGA gets to be judge of the rest of us, but the only judge for MAGA is the god they imagine.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
MAGA's obsession with Epstein and with pedophilia has never been about protecting children. It has been about smearing and attacking their political enemies as individuals and groups. When it comes to abusing children, MAGA leaders get a pass.
Supporters of Pastor who sexually abused 12-year-old, say God has forgiven him
Child abuser is ‘forgiven and acquitted in the court of heaven where our Lord Jesus sits as the judge’, supporters say
www.the-independent.com
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
itsafronomics.bsky.social
lol gentle reminder that DEI is not illegal. Supporting marginalized groups is not illegal. Anyone reneging on support is making a CHOICE to do so.
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
thebethocracy.bsky.social
I’ve been saying this too! Which is why I find @wadems.org’s absolute cowardice on education funding and policy in WA so damn perplexing.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
I've said it before and again and I'll say it again and after: Dems and Inds should be running on education in every election.
Education is a Winning Issue for Democrats
Dems' popular policies are winners up and down the ticket
nobody-wants-this.ghost.io
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
"'My Latino students, they're fearing everything,' said Yaritza Santana, a science teacher at Nash Elementary. 'They fear that they're going to just be taken.'"

This is child abuse.
www.reuters.com
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
anthonymoser.com
This is the thing about ai. The benefits are nebulous hypotheticals but the costs are very high and immediate