🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
I've been teaching high school seniors how to write college essays for over 20 years. Whether they're writing about selling hot dogs at Wrigley Field, mowing a 90-year-old neighbor's lawn, or scuba diving in the Galapagos, their essays inevitably are thoughtful and honest.
They should be. The college essay is the one part of the college application process where students speak from the heart. The drafting process, which takes several weeks, helps all students, regardless of whether they intend to go to college, because it empowers them to sort through memories and express what really matters to them in writing. Unfortunately, it's become difficult for them to value their own original thoughts because artificial intelligence (AI) does it for them.
On the surface, it might seem like AI helps, but it's actually robbing them of the crucial drafting stage where they grapple, sometimes in fits and starts, and think through ideas. It's where they learn and grow—the point, of course, of school. As AI continues to infiltrate the educational landscape, original thoughts will become increasingly devalued.
That's not how the technology is advertised. AI has been brilliantly branded as a tool for teachers, a tutor and thought partner for kids. Billions of dollars have been spent to bring AI into schools and train educators. We've been told AI meets students where they are and works alongside them at their pace like a coach.
Yet AI wasn't designed for school. It was created by people at Big Tech companies who don't teach or have degrees in education and have little incentive to act in the best interest of children.
Teachers are concerned. A 2024 Pew Research poll reported that 35 percent of high school teachers said AI tools do more harm than good. We have reason to be worried. A school in Texas has used AI to completely replace teachers. Others are deciding what aspects of teaching should remain human.
Another reason to be worried is that students still cheat. No matter how much educators have students use AI to brainstorm outlines or drafts, one in five high school students use AI to do their schoolwork, according to a 2023 Pew Research poll.
Several of my colleagues plan to have students use blue books and pencils when they write so they can't cheat. Others use detection sites like GPTzero and ZeroGPT but as AI evolves, it's harder to prove. Educators don't want to play "gotcha" with students. We want to get to know them, and help them get to know themselves.
Besides, who can blame them for being tempted to cheat? They're teenagers.
They're also getting mixed messages. They've been told they need AI-proficiency for jobs when they graduate. How confusing for kids: Use it for this, don't use it for that. Last year, one of my colleague's students used AI to create her entire final project. He told her to redo it, and she used AI again. Given the competing narratives about AI, this wasn't a surprise.
The tech proficiency argument assumes no difference between an adult brain and a teenage brain. High school students are still learning what it means to think critically, to work through problems, to develop their own voice. Taking a shortcut in high school will only make the increasingly complex adult world harder for them.
Writing the college essay from start to finish is a good place to hone these skills, and besides, college admissions officers don't want AI-generated essays.
In fact, it's become such a problem for colleges that some are considering removing the college essay altogether, which means applicants will no longer be able to demonstrate their uniqueness to prospective colleges.
"The idea that this central component of a story could be manufactured by someone other than the applicant is disheartening," Lee Coffin, dean of admissions at Dartmouth College, said.
Fortunately, leaders in education still believe students should learn to think for themselves.
"It's just as important that students continue writing original content to build critical-thinking skills and learn to express their thoughts truthfully and coherently," AFT President Randi Weingarten said, "so they're adequately prepared for opportunities when they enter the world."
When school starts in a few weeks, I'll understand why students will be tempted to use AI when they write their college essay. I'll tell them they're capable of their own original thoughts, that they deserve to organize their own ideas. I'll tell them they're getting mixed messages and it's not fair to them.
These competing messages couldn't be coming at a worse time. Students need critical thinking skills for what may be the most important election in their lifetime—and for their future. We risk failing them on both counts.
Mostly, I'll tell them no one's imagination or creativity should be outsourced, especially theirs.
Liz Shulman teaches English at Evanston Township High School and in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
