AI is ruining English class as we know it. Teachers are quitting, students are cheating, and overall performance is down. But AI itself is not the problem. In fact, when used correctly (or, as people like to say, “ethically”), AI could be one of the best things to ever happen to writing education. It might just elicit a writing renaissance, bringing great writing — and I mean, really great writing, the kind of juicy prose and delicious ideas that burst across your intellectual taste buds like a ripe summer peach — back into education.
Because let’s be honest. It’s way overdue.
Many educators, politicians, and tech bros alike think AI will give writers the boot. Thanks for your time as a writer! Happy career-hunting! But I say the opposite. AI will not make great writing obsolete. It will make it necessary. It will put it on the map.
Today’s writing education mostly sucks (sorry)
Writing has a notoriously terrible reputation in school. Remember the five-paragraph essay? My guess is these five paragraphs are where the initial joy of writing is often laid to rest. If we’re being honest, English class teaches you how to make your writing as boring as possible. It’s like a graveyard for play and experimentation. Students who do enjoy writing most likely do so because they enjoy reading: a novel hidden inside a textbook, a memoir devoured in the carpool line. They love writing despite English class, not because of it.
Unfortunately, this boring, formulaic way of writing does not leave us in childhood. It haunts us into adulthood — specifically, the workplace. Our Slack messages and email threads sag beneath the weight of the same ole’ tired cliches. Most press releases and product announcements have all the flavor of an unseasoned chicken breast. This isn’t a knock against writers, but a testament to how traditional writing education falls short. Boring English class leads to adults who struggle to communicate anything that isn’t steeped in stuffy professionalism. No wonder AI is posing such a threat. (Who does stuffy professionalism better than ChatGPT?)
Here’s why this matters. In our hyper-digital age, writing is how we communicate: texting, Tweeting, emailing, blogging, marketing — the written word is how we share our ideas with the world. (And, how we discover new ones.) If future generations want their ideas to rise above AI-generated content, then kids need to learn two things:
