Your child’s homework isn’t the problem, but the machine might be

If your child can produce a perfectly polished essay in 12 seconds, should we be impressed - or worried?I asked girls how they were coping with the homework load goes up in secondary school and one said, very matter-of-factly, “Oh, it’s fine, I just get ChatGPT to write it and then I change a few words.” No shame. No secrecy. She genuinely thought she was being sensible, efficient and ahead of the game. And then she said, “It saves time.”Saves time for what?The real work of education isn’t the finished work, it’s the wrestling with the blank page. The irritation of not knowing what you think yet. The frustration. The slow dawning understanding. That’s what builds a mind.When we outsource that too quickly, we’re not just outsourcing sentences, we’re outsourcing thinking. And I’m not anti AI. I use it. I see its brilliance. It can spark ideas. It can open doors. But tools either strengthen muscles or quietly replace them.And if we’re honest, we love a shortcut too. We skim. We optimise. We rush. We model speed over depth without even noticing.So maybe the question to our children isn’t “Are you using AI?” but “What did you think before you asked it?” Or even, “What part of this was hard?” Because hard is where growth is happening.I don’t think we need to panic. But I do think we need to protect the process. That slow, awkward, glorious business of becoming someone who can form an idea and stand behind it.The future won’t belong to the fastest producers. It will belong to the clearest thinkers. And clarity still takes time.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