If a machine can write your essay, what is school for?

A mother told me recently how proud she was of her son’s polished, structured essay. Then he admitted he’d used AI for most of it. She said, “But it’s so good.” And I remember thinking - yes, that’s the problem.Education isn’t about producing something that looks impressive. It’s about becoming someone who can think. I remember writing terrible essays at university. Pages of muddle. Books everywhere. Completely stuck. But in that stuckness, something was forming. I was learning how to wrestle with ideas, tolerate confusion, find my own point of view. No one saw that process. It didn’t look clever. But it built me.AI can now perform understanding without the discomfort of learning. And discomfort isn’t the bug in education - it’s the engine.So maybe instead of asking, “Did you use AI?” we ask, “What did you learn?” Not to catch them out. But to protect something precious. Because the real question isn’t whether our children will use AI. They will. It’s whether they can think without it. Whether they can sit with uncertainty long enough for their own ideas to emerge.School isn’t just about grades. It’s about building a mind.Let’s not hand that over too cheaply. And let’s not panic either. AI can be a tool. But it mustn’t replace the slow, awkward, glorious work of becoming a thinker.Thank you for pausing with me. Take care. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kimmccabe.substack.com/subscribe