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…
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
going to war for the peace prize
newsguy.bsky.social
The Guardian- The US president may impose tariffs, demand higher NATO contributions or even declare Norway an enemy, analyst says, if on Friday he is not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. www.theguardian.com/world/202...
Norway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prize
US president may impose tariffs, demand higher Nato contributions or even declare Norway an enemy, analyst says
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
ecmclaughlin.bsky.social
I had a call today with someone in OR who was talking about the need for more “agitation theater” in street protests to humiliate ICE and make people laugh.

Well done Portland chicken and Portland frog.
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
karlbode.com
you'd think a prominent news outlet like the New York Times might mention that "antifa" isn't an actual organization in a long story about antifa, but nope!

and the subhead helps props up a false claim this professor was up to something seedy as something up for debate
NYT headline: "Rutgers Expert on Antifa Tries to Flee to Spain After Death Threats"

subheadline: "Mark Bray was teaching courses on antifascism. Turning Point USA accused him of belonging to antifa, which he denies. His flight to Spain was canceled abruptly on Wednesday night."
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
The facts are always inconvenient to voucher proponents, so school vouchers can't be marketed honestly.

They never were and aren't meant to "rescue" low-income students from bad schools or give parents more "choices" or lead to improvement in the public schools through competition.
The Inconvenient Success of Mississippi
It's not just education reform skeptics who are giving the Mississippi Miracle the side eye
educationwars.substack.com
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
jenjennings.bsky.social
The 2025 version of “carry my books” is “do my homework." Perhaps chivalry isn't dead. It's just automated.

Great papers to be written on reproduction of regressive gender norms in AI "romantic relationships."
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
bernybelvedere.bsky.social
Doing politics the right way is when the far-right regime in power memorializes a fallen influencer by terrorizing an academic that the influencer's McCarthyist organization once baselessly singled out for abuse.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
Well…not total escapism but goodness
Drawing of the four workers from severance in front of the Cracker Barrel man on the barrel and the logo changed to release the files Drawing of the Cracker Barrel guy with the logo, saying release the files and the mutant ninja Turtles in front
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
In the face of disinformation, we get references to "critics" instead of experts. Malpractice.
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
chadstanton.blacksky.app
They’re working their way back to a Redemption Era if not antebellum theory of society.
joolia.bsky.social
Doug Wilson co-authored a (plagiarized) book that defended the institution of slavery *as it was practiced in the antebellum South*. This is how Douthat introduced the subject while providing him with the NYT's platform:
Douthat: So, just to take a related example, one of the controversies of many that you’ve been mixed up in has to do with slavery, and whether slavery is absolutely forbidden by the Bible, absolutely forbidden to Christians, or whether it is critiqued, but allowed for.

Wilson: Right.

Douthat: And you think it is critiqued, but allowed for.

Wilson: Right.

Douthat: On this, on a straightforward reading of the New Testament, I would agree with you. I would say, pretty clearly, there is a pretty clear path from the message of the Bible to the abolition of slavery. But there is no moment in the New Testament when Jesus insists on the manumission of slaves.

Wilson: Right.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
It is absolutely astounding what some legacy media has done to the concept of the consensus of experts: trash it.
design-law.bsky.social
If a bunch of smart, financially-disinterested experts take a look at something and they all come away with concerns, that's not "bias." It's data.
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
"But I think when people are harmed by Trump, there is an opportunity to say something like, 'I voted against that asshole because I didn’t want him to hurt anyone, including you. Maybe we can work together to make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else?'"
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
@nberlat.bsky.social on the problem with schadenfreude.

"The problem is that it’s difficult to revel in the suffering of Trump supporters without also reveling in the suffering of a bunch of people who aren’t Trump supporters."

MAGA disbelieves in human interconnection; we can't.
The Limits of FAFO
It’s hard to separate the suffering of Trump voters from the suffering of everyone else.
www.everythingishorrible.net
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
They are using Charlie Kirk's death to further their project of breaking down the wall between church and state in schools.

"Republican lawmakers want public schools and public universities to teach positive impacts of Christianity on American history. No other religion is mentioned in the bill."
Ohio Republicans want public schools to teach positive impacts of Christianity on history • Ohio Capital Journal
A pair of Ohio Republican lawmakers want public schools and public universities to teach the positive impacts of Christianity on American history. No other religion is mentioned in the bill, named the...
ohiocapitaljournal.com
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
#EduSky #AcademicSky
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
This important report reveals that increased AI use in schools:

-causes teachers and students to have more concern about AI

-makes students feel less connected to teachers

and that 71% of teachers worry AI weakens critical thinking & research skills.
Hand in Hand: Schools’ Embrace of AI Connected to Increased Risks to Students
Artificial intelligence (AI) has continued to alter the educational experiences of teachers, students, and parents during the 2024-25 school year. The frequency and variety of AI uses continues to gro...
cdt.org
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
amlibraryassoc.bsky.social
Today at 3:00 pm CT.
Find inspiration and ideas for your own advocacy from the students on the front lines of the fight against censorship.
bit.ly/YouthFightingBookBans
#BannedBooksWeek
bannedbooksweek.bsky.social
TOMORROW: Join #BannedBooksWeek youth honorary chair Iris Mogul & student advocates from around the country for a conversation about how young people can fight book bans! 10/8, 3pmCT

bit.ly/YouthFightingBookBans

#BannedBooksWeek #CensorshipIsSo1984

w/ @ncacensorship.bsky.social
A fight for our rights: Youth fighting book bans. A conversation with student leaders moderated by Banned Books Week youth honorary chair Iris Mogul. October 8, 2025, 3:00 p.m. CT. Register: bit.ly/YouthFightingBookBans
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
keithwdickinson.bsky.social
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
Reposted by Anne Lutz Fernandez
radleybalko.bsky.social
Syllogism time!

-- Real men are brave and strong.

-- MAGA men live in the suburbs because they're afraid of crime in the city.

-- Gay men live in the city.

∴ ______________________________________________________
bernybelvedere.bsky.social
fellas is it gay to live in a city