In an advanced English essay writing class, I asked students to discuss the boundary between compassion and technological development.
Just a few minutes after receiving the assignment, while many of you were still diligently drafting an outline on the computer, one student submitted an amazingly well-written essay: Vocabulary at the B1-C2 level, complex inversion structures, and coherent historical evidence.
When I asked her about her personal feelings behind a troubling argument in the article, she bowed her head in confusion. That article is the product of a command line (prompt) sent to an artificial intelligence model.
In classrooms from high school to college today, a generation of students is facing an unprecedented "power": possessing all the answers with just one click. Homework, presentations, book summaries, and even life experiences can all be crafted to perfection in seconds.
But that magical convenience is silently posing a big question mark for education: When machines have replaced all the most difficult parts of the thinking process, what is really left for learners?
Many people worry that AI will make people lazy. I think the risk is greater than that: AI creates an "illusion of competence". When a perfect answer appears before their eyes, learners easily mistakenly believe that that knowledge already belongs to them. They forget that knowledge is not something to be collected like items available on the shelf, but is the result of a process of pondering, interacting, doubting and connecting the pieces of thinking themselves.
Artificial intelligence can quickly synthesize millions of pages of documents, but AI will never be responsible for what it has just written. Most importantly, AI never analyzes with a feeling from the soul.
It can accurately define the word "compassion", but cannot feel the pain of a miserable life; he can write an inspirational speech about the environment, but cannot have passionate love for every tree branch and river of his homeland.
If education only stops at scoring to see who gives the correct answer faster, we are unintentionally turning students into copying machines that are inferior to the algorithm they are using.
In the digital age, the value of an intellectual is no longer measured by who knows more. Information has become endless and almost free. The true measure of an educated person today lies in how we deepen our understanding, how we work, and most of all, how we use knowledge responsibly.
To prevent learners from turning into passive "shadows" behind computer screens, education needs substantive changes:
First, fundamentally change the way questions are set and evaluated. It's time to put an end to tests that simply require reproducing information or solving stereotypical problems that AI can do in the blink of an eye.
The exam needs to shift towards assessing personal reasoning ability, critical thinking in multi-dimensional situations, and especially assessing the process of creating a product instead of just looking at the final text. Direct criticism sessions and research projects linked to real life will force students to truly embark on a thinking journey.
Second, shape a "culture of digital responsibility" in schools. Banning technology is an impossible and outdated response. Instead of banishing AI, teachers need to teach students how to dialogue with AI as a value appraiser: knowing how to ask sharp questions, knowing how to doubt the authenticity of algorithms, and knowing how to take responsibility for their own products.
Finally and most importantly, education must return to the mission of cultivating the "human" part. It is about cultivating emotions, cultivating compassion and awakening the ideal of serving the community.
Studying is not to accumulate scores or collect diplomas to use as personal jewelry, but to empathize more deeply with human problems and use your knowledge to make life around you better.
The most valuable journey of a school lies not only in its age or modern equipment, but in the ability of each generation of teachers and students to light up the light of trust and responsibility.
When students enter the world with an independent thinking mind and a compassionate heart, that is when technology returns to its rightful position as a tool to serve people, but can never replace people.
