‘We Have to Really Rethink the Purpose of Education’

I honestly don’t know how I should be educating my kids. A.I. has raised a lot of questions for schools. Teachers have had to adapt to the most ingenious cheating technology ever devised. But for me, the deeper question is: What should schools be teaching at all? A.I. is going to make the future look very different. How do you prepare kids for a world you can’t predict? And if we can offload more and more tasks to generative A.I., what’s left for the human mind to do? Rebecca Winthrop is the director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. She is also an author, with Jenny Anderson, of “ The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better .” We discuss how A.I. is transforming what it means to work and be educated, and how our use of A.I. could revive — or undermine — American schools. Mentioned: Brookings Global Task Force on AI Education Winthrop’s World of Education Book Recommendations: Democracy and Education by John Dewey Unwired by Gaia Bernstein Blueprint for Revolution by Srdja Popovic Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show…