Is It Just Me Or Are Some Teachers Overusing AI In The Classroom? What Parents Need To Know
Last month, I sat across from my 10-year-old at our kitchen table, crumbs from his post-soccer practice granola bar scattered between us, while he pulled up his homework for the week. His 4th grade class had just finished growing bean plants in cups for a mini science unit, and the final assignment was a 5-sentence reflection on what surprised him most about the project. What popped up on his Chromebook was a 4-paragraph essay that included phrases like “photosynthetic rate variation” and “observable deviations in root structure.” I pointed to the first big phrase and asked him what it meant. He shrugged, wiped peanut butter off his sweatshirt, and said, “Ms. Lee said after we brainstormed our ideas, she could run them through AI to make it sound better. That’s just what it came up with.”
That moment made me start asking around. At parent-teacher conferences a week later, I mentioned it to three other parents while we waited in the hallway, and every single one had a story. One mom’s 7th grade math teacher posts AI-generated study guides before every test, and last month half the answers on the algebra guide were wrong, so half the class failed the review quiz. A dad told me his 8th grade son wrote a personal narrative about losing his great-grandma, and the AI grading tool marked it off-topic because it didn’t hit all the bullet points the prompt required—he got a C, and the teacher never even read it. Another mom, whose kid has dyslexia, said his special ed teacher now sends home AI-written progress notes that don’t match what her kid is actually working on that quarter.
I used to work as a paraeducator in an elementary school, so I know how overloaded teachers are right now. Most have 25+ kids, more paperwork than ever, and salaries that haven’t kept up with inflation. AI is a tool, and a good one, when it’s used right. I know teachers who use it to translate newsletters for parents who don’t speak English, or to generate 10 different versions of a math worksheet so kids can work at their own level, or to cut down time writing routine progress notes so they can spend more time one-on-one with kids. No one is mad that teachers have a new way to cut down on busywork.
But the problem comes when teachers offload the work that actually matters—either the work that kids need to do to build skills, or the work that connects teachers to their students. When a kid doesn’t get to write their own messy, grammatically incorrect reflection about how their bean plant died and they forgot to water it, they don’t get to practice putting their own surprise and disappointment into words. That’s the whole point of the reflection, not a polished essay that sounds like a textbook. When a teacher lets AI grade personal writing without reading it, they miss the chance to see what a kid is going through, and the kid misses the chance to get feedback that actually helps them grow.
Over the past few months, I’ve figured out small, concrete things parents can do if they notice overuse happening with their kid’s class, and none of them require a big, dramatic meeting with the principal. First, add a quick check-in to your homework routine: when your kid brings home a written assignment, ask “Can you read this out loud to me, and explain what that line means to you?” It takes 30 seconds, and if they can’t explain it, you’ll know right away that the core of the work wasn’t theirs, and that they’re missing out on practice. No yelling, no big confrontation, just a quick check.
Second, if you see a pattern, talk to the teacher directly with a specific, kind question instead of an accusation. When I talked to Ms. Lee about the bean plant essay, I said, “I love how much work you put into this unit, but I noticed my son didn’t write the reflection himself, and I’m worried he’s not getting practice putting his own ideas into words. Can we figure out a way for him to do that next time?” She didn’t get defensive at all—she’s a first year teacher, she told me she’d been staying up until 1am every night trying to keep up, and she thought using AI to polish assignments was saving her time and helping the kids look better. She just hadn’t stopped to think about the skill kids build when they write their own messy work. After we talked, she changed the assignment for future units: kids write their own full reflection first, then AI can help fix spelling and grammar if they want. That’s a tiny change that makes a huge difference.
For teachers who are reading this and trying to figure out their own boundaries with AI, the simple line I’d draw is this: don’t let AI do the work your students need to do to learn, and don’t let AI do the work that requires you to know your students. If you use AI to generate a first draft of a lesson plan or study guide, spend 10 minutes checking it for errors and adjusting it to fit your class—AI doesn’t know that your class struggled with fractions last week, so it will include problems that are too hard. If you use AI to help grade multiple choice or math problems, always read every personal or narrative assignment yourself, because AI can’t pick up on the nuance of a kid’s story about their family or a struggle they’re having.
Last week, my son brought home his reflection for his latest social studies project about the Wampanoag tribe he chose for his report. He wrote it all himself, it has three spelling mistakes, and he wrote that he thought it was cool that they still make the same baskets their great-grandmas made hundreds of years ago. Ms. Lee wrote a little note in the margin that said “This is such an interesting observation—great thinking.” It’s messy, it’s not perfect, but it’s his. I still hear about teachers who use AI for everything, from writing assignments to grading to parent emails, and I still think we’re all just figuring out where the line is. AI isn’t going away, and it shouldn’t. But I don’t think any tool can replace the messy, human work of learning and teaching. Right now, that’s the best I’ve got—check in with my kid, talk honestly when something feels off, and hope more teachers and parents keep working it out together.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » Is It Just Me Or Are Some Teachers Overusing AI In The Classroom