Asking AI

For the first time in a really long time, I actually had time this summer—in large part because my three children were at sleepaway camp for two months. I had time for reading and even conversations about what I was reading. It was really special to spend time thinking about education without the pressure of immediate application or constant time-sensitive interruptions. I wish it for everyone.

One topic I've been reading and thinking about is on everyone's mind: artificial intelligence. In education leadership circles, there's endless discussion about student use of AI and what rules should govern it. This isn't super interesting to me because I'm not the biggest fan of rules or education from a place of prohibitions. Plus, I think the focus on regulating student AI use misses the more fundamental question: How does AI change what children should be learning in school?

Think about the internet. It made memorization less crucial while making research skills essential. Many schools didn't adapt until it was too late for the first generation that grew up in this new reality. We saw this again with phones—most New York schools only banned them weeks ago. (FYI, we never allowed them... Thank God.)

What can we do right now to prevent some of the challenges or maximize opportunities that we won't fully understand until ten years down the road?

So I went straight to the source of the problem—and opportunity. I asked AI: "What skills do children growing up with ubiquitous AI need to learn?"

Claude responded: "Children will need a distinct blend of uniquely human capabilities and AI-complementary skills... The key insight is that education should focus on the things that make us most human." Claude identified six specific areas children should be learning:

• Critical thinking and evaluation skills — Children need to learn how to verify sources, spot inconsistencies, ask probing questions, and understand the difference between correlation and causation.

• Creative and original thinking — The ability to make novel connections, engage in divergent thinking, and approach problems from unique angles that AI might not consider.

• Emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills — Understanding emotions, building trust, navigating complex social dynamics, showing genuine empathy, and managing teams.

• Systems thinking and problem decomposition — The ability to break complex problems into manageable parts, understand how different elements interact, and see the bigger picture.

• Adaptability and continuous learning — Children need to develop comfort with uncertainty, resilience in the face of change, and the ability to quickly acquire new skills.

• Ethical reasoning and values-based decision making — Humans need to define what outcomes are desirable and ensure AI systems align with human values and societal good.

This list offered a moment of professional pride. These are exactly the habits of mind and heart that Beit Rabban was built on. They are at the core of every educational decision we make.

This is noticeable in every classroom, from our youngest to our oldest grades, where our social-emotional learning isn't a checkbox or buzzword—it's operationalized through everything we do, from the conflict resolution lessons we teach to the literature we read, to how students work in pairs.

This is especially true in our Jewish text learning. As many of you know, we are all in on the methodology called Pedagogy of Partnership—PoP. This approach invigorates the ancient Jewish practice of havruta (partner learning), training teachers to help students build habits of wonder, empathy, and responsibility. Our director of Judaic Studies and Ivrit, Lisa, has been collaborating with the creators of this methodology since day one, piloting and prototyping with our children and extending it into general studies. When you see our children break into their chevrutot and immediately know what to do, that's not an accident—it's a cultivated habit, a delightful and fulfilling habit to practice.

In case you missed it, Lisa Exler and Rebecca Leicht, Director of Admissions and Community Development, are also piloting an adult learning program with the PoP team so parents and grandparents can learn to learn in this way and apply PoP stances and techniques to opportunities for learning with their children, even during casual conversation.

So, yeah, AI... thanks for the guidance, but we're three steps ahead of you.

And, here's what AI couldn't tell me, because I'm human and can see what's incomplete in that list: Our children need to strengthen and define their spiritual muscles. We need our texts, our traditions, our obligations, and our people precisely when the world is so confusing—when we're not sure if we've moved forward by 100 years on any given day or moved backwards by 250 years in the blink of an eye. We need the grounding of Judaism. We need the meditative practice of tefillah—prayer—to check in with ourselves, to think about others, to recognize there is something greater than all of us. We need the power of our stories to remember that we belong, that we overcome, that miracles happen—usually after a lot of human effort. And we need the structure of our obligations to force us to pause and think, whether it's before we eat a piece of fruit or post on Instagram.

The good news is that the skills our children need to learn are built into the Beit Rabban education and into Jewish education more broadly.

We're doing okay, and they're going to be okay. All of us, together, we got this.

So let's take some time to enjoy the nachas of our children and our beautiful community as we take stock in the new year.

Wishing everyone a restful and rejuvenating Shabbat and the most meaningful, uplifting, and renewing Rosh HaShanah,