The Dangerous Rush to Push AI Into Schools

Recent testimony to a senate committee by Dr. Jared Horvath, neuroscientist and educator, presented studies that showed alarming downward trends in student cognitive development since the mid-2000s across developed nations.  This was the first decline since the beginning of the 20^th century, when standardized education sparked a century long improvement in those same cognitive abilities.

Dr. Horvath concludes that the aggressive introduction of technology and extended periods of screen time have had a deleterious effect on education and cognitive development.  This testimony will no doubt be strongly contested by the technology establishment, as it calls into question one of the key claims that AI makes for its future profitability – the goal of enhancing human intelligence and lives across class and cultural barriers.

 

I have some anecdotal evidence that supports Horvath’s thesis as I have spent the last 6 months tutoring Hispanic high school kids in math.  All of their work is on Chromebooks.  There is no math textbook and every problem is presented and worked on the computer.  The students enter every calculation into a subject line as part of their solution and use associated calculators to perform them.  Not a single student has immediate recall of multiplication tables (8 times 7 for example) or knows how to add fractions using common denominators.  Even basic addition is wanting.

 

This would perhaps be ok if their command of higher-level concepts were solid, but their work is almost totally mimicry or use of AI in other web windows.  They struggle to do any problems that truly require deeper understanding of the theory.  These students are much less capable than the very weakest students I taught in my three years as a high school mathematics teacher from 2006-2009, before any significant introduction of technology.

 

Schools and universities are desperate to avoid the stigma of missing the boat on AI, so they appear to be embracing AI and other technology components with willful abandon and probably spending funds that could have been used to hire and train teachers.  The hype and pressure from AI companies and their legions of pundits is immense.

 

Horvath’s research on cognitive development theorizes that human evolution is much better adapted to person-to-person learning focusing on a single task.  The combination of screen time trances, application multi-tasking and non-academic app distraction create a net negative effect when technology is the centerpiece of instruction.  His survey of research indicates that reading comprehension and retention are much stronger on paper, as is note-taking, particularly for complex or extended texts or tasks.  

 

Technology used for practice and remediation to support learning objectives has been shown to be net positive in many studies, but this type of limited utilization is anathema to the tech titans who see their products being center stage and ubiquitous.  They will no doubt be relentless in their insistence that the future is in AI education and that it is only a matter of educators adapting to the new tools.

 

Public policy failed us completely during the advent of social media and legislators allowed tech apps to foul the waters of social intercourse and adolescent mental health in the name of so-called free speech and the free market.  Let us hope that Horvath’s warnings will be heeded and that the avalanche of AI-based education ‘miracles’ will be subjected to careful scrutiny, monitoring and control before we find that we have irreversibly damaged our species.  But then again, those future generations will be so much more easily manipulated by AI, so perhaps it is all just part of the master plan!

Our Better Angels Are Quick to Flee and Slow to Reappear

After the Kent State massacre in 1970, where four students protesting the Vietnam War were shot dead by national guardsmen, a Gallup poll found that 58% of the nation blamed the students for their own deaths.  

Interestingly, The President’s Commission on Campus Unrest came out with a report later in that year that called the shootings “unwarranted, inexcusable and unnecessary”.  It concluded that even if the guardsmen faced some limited danger (a few rocks were thrown), it was not a danger that justified lethal force.  The commission stated that the shootings occurred in the most divisive time in America since the Civil War.  

 

People polled fifty years after the shooting in 2020 had a very different opinion, with only about 14% blaming the students.  

 

Americans can be vicious, and I suppose we are not alone in this regard.  Anger and violence lie close to the surface in all human beings, especially when our closely held tribal beliefs are threatened.  The fact that 76% of Republicans say that the shooting of Renee Good was justified demonstrates the kind of bloodlust that occurs in times of great conflict and division.

 

A recent poll by Emerson College found that 41% of Americans believe we are more divided now than in 1970, and another 20% said it is about the same.  We are clearly a very troubled country.   

 

When passions run high about political, economic and social issues, our better angels take flight and we succumb to our baser instincts.  The social media machine and an ever-increasing number of demagogues inflame these passions and render civil discourse and critical thinking ever more difficult.

 

It may be that the clearly documented murder of Alex Pretti has prompted serious reflection in the hearts of many independents and more moderate Republicans.  It may be that we are on the verge of reawakening some of the better angels in our society.  A small seed of doubt may have been sowed in the MAGA heartland.  We will pray that at least enough eyes have been opened to begin the shift back toward a more humane and less brutal America.

The Anti-Fascist Dilemma

Trump and the MAGA world love to conjure up the image of a nationwide conspiracy of violent Antifa radicals threatening democracy in America.  In September, 2025, Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa as a terrorist organization despite the fact that the Antifa movement has no centralized organization and mostly consists of people opposing and protesting aspects of the Trump agenda in peaceful ways.

The term ‘antifa’ has its origin in the short-lived German ‘anti-faschistische’ movement in the early years of the Hitler regime.  It was, of course, rapidly annihilated by the fascists it was opposing.  The Antifa in the USA has a variety of political groups loosely connected to it – communists, anarchists, left-wing progressives, anti-racists, anti-capitalists, anti-authoritarians and others.  The movement became much larger and more visible after Trump was elected in 2016, and especially after the Charlottesville riots in 2017, but it is relatively small.

 

A basic, shared tenet of these groups is that the slide toward an authoritarian or even fascist state in the USA must be confronted vigorously.  Most of the people identifying with this movement are dedicated to employing non-violent tactics, but there are some who believe that, ultimately, violent opposition may be required to stop the Trump regime from becoming fully authoritarian.

 

Many in this movement use the Hitler example as motivation and justification for more energetic opposition.  Their belief is that one must act decisively in the early phases of a move toward fascism before a dictator has the ability to fully control the key foundations of the state – police, military, justice department, courts, legislature.  They fear that in a truly ruthless move toward fascism the election process is too slow and unwieldy to act as a brake, and that more direct and immediate activity in marches, protests and mass disobedience is indispensable.

 

The counter argument to this line of reasoning is that mass action verging on violence or mass disobedience would be an excuse for Trump to declare martial law and employ national guard or even military troops to re-establish control.  This is the dilemma for Antifa, and indeed for all true patriots.  

 

How close we are now to a true authoritarian state is not totally clear, though there is enough evidence and enough of a breakdown of traditional democratic processes to make one quite fearful.  And there is no doubt that Trump is the type of personality that will not hesitate to go as far as he can in having complete control.

 

In my view, the strategy to oppose Trump and the MAGA movement in the absence of any congressional will to counter him is to use the legal system and the courts as much as possible to limit the damage, to peacefully express public opinion in marches and protests, and to work toward a resounding repudiation of all things Trumpian in the midterm elections.  

 

If the good people of this country are not capable of seeing the truth, fearing the worst and changing their minds, then all is lost anyway. No amount of violent action can substitute for the majority will of the people, and at this time any violence would most likely be counterproductive and hasten the end that we all dread.

Fear and Opportunism – The Twin Tools of Tyrants

When I hear the absurd and infantile utterances of Trump, and look in dismay at his mean-spirited policies, I find myself perplexed at how reasonable human beings can find him anything but pathetic and dangerous.  Narcissism, vindictiveness, idiotic rants, bombast, threats, absurd levels of self-praise – who could possibly want to serve under such a man?

But the sad truth is that human frailty enables tyrants.  Politicians that might otherwise be outraged by Trump and oppose him live in fear of his animus.  Their own lust for power makes them powerless before him. Their craven pandering to him and his MAGA mobs is partly motivated by fear and partly by opportunism.  Sadly, conscience plays no role at all. 

 

Some of Trump’s cabinet and advisors are true believers and are as damaged as he is – Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Robert Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard come to mind.  But there are others who in their previous lives seemed to have some semblance of dignity and good faith but now are full-throated advocates of the Trumpian dystopia – here Marco Rubio comes to mind.  Marco desperately wanted power and fame, and he has it for a moment, but he will go down in history permanently tarnished as a Trump lackey.

 

JD Vance has been a shameless opportunist from the start, so his evolution into an almost demonic mini-Trump is not surprising.  The video of him berating Zelensky in the oval office will serve for all time as evidence of how hunger for power can create a monster.

 

The broligarchs – Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Thiel, Andreessen,  and the like – also fall into the crass opportunism category, with AI, crypto and pretensions of hyper-masculinity and libertarianism serving as their animating impulses.  They were never admirable characters, but their craven kowtowing to Trump is final proof of how low their massive egos and sense of entitlement have brought them. 

The cast of the fearful and the opportunistic is also populated by law firms, universities, media empires and other businesses.  Fear and opportunism go hand in hand.  There is the fear that Trump will withhold government funding or have his pet Attorney General Pam Bondi initiate lawsuits, but also the opportunism that believes that capitulating to all of Trump's petty demands will result in more business, more influence, a closer proximity to power.

 

The Trump parade of the fearful and the opportunistic is a nightmarish real-life production of the Emperor Has No Clothes.  Since few of the powerful in the USA seem willing to scream out the obvious truth, we look to our erstwhile allies – the Canadians, Brits, Germans, French, Danish, Norwegian, etc. – to take up the banner of good will and sanity and have the courage to confront and stand firm before the Trumpian onslaught.  And we pray that their resolve and reason will be rewarded by a massive rejection of Trump and his enablers in the midterms.

When Your Country is a Pariah

Growing up as a middle-class American I felt very fortunate.  The USA was the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.  I was proud of its history and felt that we were a force for good in the world.  

As I grew older my understanding of both our history and our role in the world became more nuanced.  As a child of the 60’s and a possible soldier in the Vietnam War, I began to question the wisdom of some of our foreign policy decisions – the Vietnam War, proxy wars in Latin America, CIA misdeeds.  During a college year in Europe, I found myself both defending my country and acknowledging its mistakes.  

 

As an adult and a longtime very serious student of history, I recognized the complex nature of America’s role first as a counterbalance to the USSR during the cold war, and then later as the lone super power promoting globalization and intermittently attempting to police the myriad conflicts that arose between minor powers, all while protecting our interests.

 

Nations do not have the same moral impetus as individuals.  A nation is bound to serve its own interests before performing any altruistic acts.  But in the long run, every nation is more likely to have a better future if it acts in accord with the interests of other nations.

 

American presidents have immense power as the leaders of the most powerful nation.  In my view, none of them have been extraordinary in my lifetime.  But until Donald Trump was elected, I believe they made sincere efforts to manage the complex issues that the world faces with motives of long-term peace and prosperity for the whole world.  Certainly, many mistakes were made, and the typical human foibles of arrogance and simplistic analysis produced some very sad results – the Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq wars being the best example.  

 

But the man who now inhabits the White House is a totally different character.  He is quite simply a horribly damaged human being who by a quirk of fate is in a position to destroy eighty years of progress in working toward international law, cooperation and respect.  His imperialistic swagger and breathtaking narcissism would seem comical (and formerly did) if he were not at the helm of this incredibly powerful nation.  

 

The rest of the world fears the military and economic consequences of not placating this megalomaniac, so we see an almost surrealistic pretense of normality.  But this is not normal and we are on the fast path to dire circumstances if something doesn’t happen to check him.

 

So, what does one do if one’s country has become a pariah?  Do you go to protests?  Do you send donations to organizations that have at least a minute chance to place legal obstacles in his path?  Do you move to another country?  Do you plead with the people you know who have voted to elect this monster to come to their senses?

 

There is still hope I believe.  I know that at least half the country is horrified by what is happening.  The question is whether there will be enough momentum to elect a congress that will have the courage to stand up to Trump in midterms elections in 10 months.  And the most sobering question is whether that will already be be too late.

Jews and Christians: Facing the Same Existential Crisis

The gleeful cruelty of American Christian Nationalism in its vilification and targeting of undocumented immigrants and the vengeful brutality of Netanyahu’s Israel in its persecution and treatment of Palestinians are creating deep schisms in both religions.  Many Christians and Jews are justifiably doing deep soul-searching and questioning the moral and ethical decisions that confront their faiths.

Christians and Jews have long traditions of social activism as at least part of the expression of their faith. Christians were at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement in the 1800’s and Jews were in the vanguard of the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s and in establishing workers’ rights earlier in the 20^th century.  

 

The conservative Christian evangelical movement, which has embraced Christian Nationalism and Trumpism in recent years, is clearly the antithesis of the Jesus that exhorted us to ‘welcome the stranger’ and to ‘love our enemies’.   Similarly, the brutal killing machine and apartheid state that Israel has become under Netanyahu and his extremist Israeli partners is a far cry from the long tradition of Judaism’s solidarity with the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden.

 

Both religious and cultural Judeo/Christians must ultimately recoil in horror at what their faiths have become.  The hypocrisy screams out for acknowledgement and correction, but hearts are hardened in many of the adherents of both faiths.  

 

Still, there are signs of an awakening and a rejection of how these religions have been appropriated for selfish political goals.  Whether this rejection will take the form of a mass exodus from religious and even cultural affiliation or whether it will provoke a reform from within remains to be seen.  What is clear is that currently the most visible and vocal elements of both Christianity and Judaism have completely lost their way and are no longer a force for good, but rather a force for evil in this world.

MAHA, Medicine, Big Pharma and Science

The Trump appointment of RFK, Jr. to the cabinet position responsible for health and human services unleashed a mob of medical and pharmaceutical skeptics, contrarians, charlatans and outright anti-science crazies.  It is difficult to predict the long-term harm it will have on the medical and scientific community in the USA.  The anti-vaccine movement that propelled RFK, Jr into the political realm is on the ascendancy and there is little doubt that it will cause countless unnecessary sickness and deaths in the future.

 Make America Healthy Again (MAHA), like its forebearer MAGA, is a simplistic and specious concept that appeals to an uneducated and conspiracy-minded public. However, there are elements of this movement that bear closer and more sympathetic evaluation. The focus on nutrition and food additives is laudable.  The concern for environmental toxins is also praiseworthy, though certainly not revolutionary.  What is new and troubling in MAHA is the disdain it has for medical science, for pharmaceuticals and especially for vaccines.  

 

There is no doubt that chronic diseases and conditions like obesity and diabetes are epidemic in the USA.  The role of sweetened drinks and ultra-processed foods in these problems is well known and every administration has attempted to make the public more aware of this crisis.  

 

There has also been growing concern among scientists and physicians for many years about the potential role of environmental toxins due to pesticides, chemical waste, plastic pollution and population concentration in the rising cancer rates among younger people and various diseases, such as Parkinson’s.  Ironically, the Trump administration’s evisceration of the EPA makes it more likely that these toxins will proliferate.

 

But how poor is America’s health really?  When was America healthier?  Life expectancy at birth has risen from around 40-45 years in 1870 to 79 years today.  In the 1950’s, a period that seems to warm MAGA hearts, it was 68 years, 11 years lower than today.  The major factors in this amazing trajectory of life expectancy are multiple, but vaccines, antibiotics, sanitation, medical advancements in cardiology and oncology and healthier lifestyles (less smoking, more exercise, etc.) have all been critical.  

 

The improvement in longevity and in fighting disease is a testament to both medical science and the pharmaceutical industry.  The major problem with MAHA is that it is promoting a healthier America while fomenting distrust in the very institutions that will play an important role in achieving that goal.

 

There is no doubt that so-called Big Pharma is very energetic, like every profit-oriented industry, in its efforts to encourage use of pharmaceutical products.  Do Americans use too many drugs?  Very possibly.  But it is the responsibility of every individual to educate his or herself and work with the medical profession to determine what drugs should be taken.  America would be much less healthy without antibiotics, vaccines, blood pressure and cholesterol medications, diabetes medications, chemotherapy and many other amazing creations of the pharmaceutical industry.

 

There is an implicit assumption in the MAHA movement that nutritious foods can somehow eliminate the plague of chronic disease in our society and make the use of pharmaceutical products unnecessary.  This is simplistic.  Chronic disease is a complex phenomenon and nutrition is a notoriously difficult thing to study given the number of variables and the challenges of isolating them in studies.  If MAHA can influence lifestyle changes in children and adults to reduce obesity and diabetes (exercise, eating less and healthy, etc.) then that would be a noble achievement.  But every recent administration has pushed hard on that agenda with relatively small success, so one is doubtful.

 

Perhaps the most pernicious aspect of the MAHA movement is its vaccine skepticism and often outright anti-vaccine stance.  Vaccines are not perfect.  There are minute numbers of people who are injured by vaccines.  But these numbers are miniscule in comparison to the number of people who would sicken and die without vaccines and without a high percentage of public vaccination.  The autism link to vaccines has been debunked and discredited repeatedly, but the MAHA movement has used it to create hesitancy and doubt in the minds of millions of people.

 

What I fear about MAHA is that the good parts of its agenda will flail helplessly against societal habits - overeating, sitting in front screens all day long, etc. – and that its only legacy will be a lingering distrust of science, vaccines and medicine among a small but sufficient number of people to bring back the scourges of previously vanquished disease and open the door wide to future pandemics.  Let’s hope that RFK, Jr. will be unceremoniously kicked out before that becomes our reality.