Against The Machine: Classical Schools Should Ban All Screens on Campus
My apologies to Paul Kingsnorth for plagiarizing the title of his recent book– a scathing neo-Luddite treatise ending with the grandiose prescription to let modern western civilization (“the Machine”) implode and die while intrepid off-the-grid Christians preserve the embers of learning and faith for future generations. I begin with Kingsnorth’s rather extreme point-of-view in order to make the manifesto you are about to read seem moderate by comparison. That’s a little rhetorical trick I learned back in the day during my own classical formation. Back in the day: before the Dark Times. Before AI.
My proposal is right up there in the subtitle. I think it’s modest and sane, even without comparison to Kingsnorth; but for readers who are still dubious, let’s frame the whole idea with a simple question.
Q: What if every student on your campus had access to a private, invisible, morally unaccountable superintelligence as a constant companion? One that flatters, lies, and offers said student assistance with every task and advice on any topic, for one small contractual price which is, conveniently, too far in the future and too vague in scope for the student to really understand?
If you’ve read Marlowe’s Faustus, I think you know how this ends. If you haven’t, buy a copy. And then add it to your required curriculum.
If you’re feeling a tad queasy, keep reading. Let’s follow up this disquieting question with a list of things these glowing rectangular Mephistopheleses (grammarians’ input on the plural form are welcome in the comments section) are now capable of doing, thanks to the embedded AI in nearly every application:
Scan, digest, and summarize any text or set of texts
Compose essays, poetry, reviews, exams, dialogues, artistic images, and music
Make executive decisions, generate agenda, prioritize the flow of processes, and recommend strategies and techniques for any task.
Integrate, organize, and infinitely retain any and all information
Engage in humanoid conversation and offer encouragement or feedback
…. Instantly. Without any effort or delay in gratification required.
That is to say, the little devils can functionally replace or render unnecessary the following powers of the human soul:
Intellect
Imagination
Practical wisdom (phronesis or prudence)
Memory
Interpersonal skills
Fortitude, Determination, Focus, and Patience
That’s right: the exact same powers of the soul which liberal education seeks to cultivate. It’s not hard to see what this means for our students. As common experience witnesses, younger siblings in large families are often language delayed because they have so many voices to speak for them; the fabulously rich are often incompetent in everyday tasks because they have servants to do menial work for them; those who live with a translator need not learn a new language; those who have GPS need not learn to navigate; those who live on crutches seldom learn to hike ten miles. The question is what happens when developing souls have a machine that can be human for them?
We don’t have to predict the outcome anymore. The results are now observable in our classrooms. And the answer is: those young souls never develop their full human capacities. They cannot read well, they cannot write or think well, they cannot study independently, they cannot keep track of tasks or manage complex ones, they cannot communicate face to face with ease, they cannot remember very much for very long, they cannot persevere through frustration, and above all they cannot stay focused. They need a machine to “help” them accomplish these basic human functions; in short, they have been habituated to dependence, and therefore to incompetence.
The common rhetorical topos that education ought to “prepare” students for their adult existence in the digital world – that means the AI-saturated world – is not relevant here. Christian Classical schools don’t exist to produce machine-dependent humans primed and ready to plug into the Borg. We exist as intentional communities for learning how to be fully human, to form men and women through a Christ-centered liberal education: to encourage faith and build up all the powers of soul listed above. Like any excellence, those powers are built gradually through hard training and practice. The screens, or at least that to which they are open portals, actively interfere with this soul-discipline. The realm of AI is not simply a novel variation on the age-old problem of cheating, nor does it provide merely sideline temptations or distractions; it is an omnipresent threat to the school’s central mission. You can’t set prisoners in Plato’s Cave free while permitting mini-Caves on every table, in every backpack and pocket. And those addictive, invasive, soul-gutting machines are not to be used “in moderation” any more than fentanyl or blasphemy are to be used in moderation.
The solution is not to regulate, control, or “contain” them in the spirit of the 20th century Cold War. The only tenable and honest solution – the only one that fully acknowledges the eviscerating damage AI does to developing minds – is to ban screen devices from campus entirely. Here’s what that means in the concrete:
Recommended General Policy
Guiding principle: make the school a guaranteed AI-protected zone.
No screen device is allowed to be visible and in use by any student on the physical campus, including cloud-connected watches, tablets, cell phones, and laptops, with the following two rare exceptions: (a) documented medical need or (b) inside a classroom supervised by an adult in authority for the purpose of typing compositions already drafted by hand and evaluated by the teacher, or a similar educational task.
Recommended Portrait of a Graduate
Guiding principle: form real humans in a transhumanist age
“Our graduates will be human beings who are fully capable of reading, understanding, and interacting with a text or with other humans in verbal conversation; who can formulate, organize and express their own thoughts; who can create original works of the imagination; who can manage and deliberate about the best ways to accomplish a complex task; who can remember and synoptically integrate vital ideas and information; and who can navigate through a moral, intellectual, or practical problem with confidence; and all this independently of ANY machine assistance whatsoever.” Amen, alleluia.
Recommendations for Classroom Practice
Guiding Principle: transform classroom practice so that there is no plausible reason to have a screen device on campus, and transform assessment so that no machine can make the grade.
Require students to annotate (by hand, in the physical text) all core readings. Summaries, content quizzes, and so forth can no longer test for reading comprehension. AI can now read, summarize, and respond to any text whatsoever. Even an interpersonal conversation with a student might be based on a previous AI generated summary of a text. Thankfully, pencil on paper annotation is one thing it cannot yet accomplish.
Compose all essays and creative writing assignments in the classroom, under supervision, by hand (pencil and paper). Feedback should be based on original, hand-written drafts and outlines. Citations and sources should be found and incorporated into a hand-written document while the student is in the classroom. AI can now research, synthesize previous scholarship, and generate both outlines and complete essays. It can also mimic the writing style and vocabulary of any given skill level. Typing and formatting should be taught and practiced after fully developed hand-written drafts have been approved.
Memory work is a must. As grueling as it seems, make sure your students are exercising the internal power of recall and memory. Use this as an assessment tool when possible. AI does not (yet) extend into the human brain itself.
Give assignments verbally, post them on a physical bulletin board, and make students keep a physical paper planner. AI can now effectively strategize and prioritize tasks, creating tiered agendas and using notifications to prompt action. Students who lean on digital planning aids never fully develop basic executive function.
Lean into dialogic assessment over product-based assessment. While AI can produce a mathematics exercise, a short essay, a timeline, a report, or any other academic exercise that has a pre-set “frame” for completion, it cannot sit in a room with on behalf of a student and defend, expand, or refine its thesis in a face-to-face conversation. This means teachers must reduce the number and increase the relative weight of each ‘graded’ assignment, because this kind of assessment is time consuming.
Homework should be limited to annotating readings, memory-based work or paperless preparation for in-class verbal debate, discussion, or presentation. Concrete artistic productions are probably also safe. Schools with hybrid programs should call a war-council immediately… without parent commitment to the same principles outlined here, a truly classical independent study program will soon be impossible.
No classroom activity should require student use of an individual screen for any reason. If some kind of documentary video or PowerPoint illustration is to be viewed, it should be cast to a public screen by the teacher. Overall, however, teachers should soberly consider whether ANY digital display is needed.
Practice note-taking without visual cues except a few helpful key terms on a board or occasional reference to a map, diagram, etc. Students trained to screen dependency will revert to copying off slides in lieu of listening. The recovery of live – not recorded - auditory processing is a top priority. Teach techniques for condensing and recording lecture; make students summarize each other’s contributions to discussion; test listening comprehension often and thoroughly. Work key concepts into verbal memory banks to be assessed periodically.
Create on-campus tutoring centers or office hours in which students can receive human, personal assistance with work. Many turn to AI because of a perceived tutoring-scarcity. This means course loads will have to be reduced; schools which overwork teachers leave no scrap of time or energy for student interaction outside the collective lesson.
Create paper-based filing systems where students can find assignments and vital documents when they miss class. Short-circuit the need to open a computer to access anything vital for education. This also discourages “distance” learning as a lifestyle, a common problem in the post-COVID era.
Recommendations for Teachers’ Personal Discipline
Guiding Principle: practice what you preach. Students deserve an imitable example of real humanity in the transhumanist age.
Don’t use AI yourself. Do not create assignments, quizzes, lecture notes, slides, rubrics, samples, emails, essay feedback, syllabi, excerpts, translations of a language you are teaching, or anything using artificial intelligence. Physician, heal thyself.
Build up your own weak spots. Do you struggle with memorization? Reading speed, depth, fluency, variety? Are you a weak writer? Public speaker? Do you struggle to balance your schedule and complete tasks? Identify weaknesses and engage in a training program of your own. Practice every one of the soul powers in the list above; we cannot impart what we do not possess. We cannot model what we do not practice.
While most schools require the use of certain digital interfaces for staff, thoughtfully minimize your own use. Attendance and grade records are unlikely to revert to paper form anytime soon; pare down your computer use to the bare minimum possible. In general, DO NOT bring a computer into a classroom, or if you must, put it away out of sight as soon as its required function is complete.
Do everything you require of your students – complete each assignment yourself in live time, without computer assistance. Besides training your own mind, this gives you a realistic and personal gauge of the difficulty, texture, effort and time required for each activity. The educator is not a processor of paperwork; he or she is a co-learner. Be the guide that walks the path alongside your students, not the one that hands out maps and waits at the finish line.
Live as you teach. This is a controversial exhortation- but if your habits alter dramatically as soon as you leave campus, what real weight and meaning do they have? Be a real human in a transhumanist age. Embody the fully human, both at school and off campus. Liberal education is not a one and done process that ends at graduation; it is a way of life, and teachers ought to be living embodiments of it. Many students assume that adult life without AI dependency is impossible. Prove them wrong.
There are doubtless many other recommendations and practices that could be incorporated into a healthy anti-AI policy; my hope is that school administrators, faculty, and concerned parents will rally around this basic call to action. There is no diplomatic solution to the problem of AI; there is no easy compromise. We must be faithful to our mission, be faithful to our personal calling, be faithful to the trust our students place in us. We must stand for full humanity. We must stand against the machine.
