AI blurs the line between a helpful tool used to help students, and a tool that helps a student cheat their way through a class without truly learning anything.
By: Shaylin Bogart
AI has developed and become more advanced in the latest years, due to this it has begun to appear in schools, even though the intention of AI is meant to be used as a tool, it is up to us to determine where the line is drawn between a tool or a way to cheat in school.
The line between a tool and a technique to cheat is a very fine line that many students who use AI are walking on, there are students who are able to use AI to help them with an assignment and some who rely too heavily on AI to help with assignments.
Ella Noblitt, ’27, says, “I’ve seen people who used AI once and then never stopped.”
There are times where students cannot determine when AI is being used as a tool, and the time where AI stops just being helpful on an assignment, and becomes a way to cheat.
Liz Garcia, ’26, says, “A lot of students rely on it way too much that they start believing AI on everything. They start thinking they’re better because they have a better grade, [and] they get a large ego for the work they didn’t do.”
Another huge problem that has come with the rise of AI in schools, is the fact that students are using it to create essays without doing any of the work, and then they think they’re better because they get the good grades without doing the work to get that grade.
Mr. Paul Freeborn, an American Lit teacher at Redwood, says, “My job is to help students learn reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. And AI writing a paper for you is not going to help you do that.”
The difference between a way a student writes an essay vs how AI writes an essay is stark.
A student using AI to do homework, or to write an essay just strips the life and passion out of an essay, and it doesn’t help students hone their writing and learning skills.
which could lead to a lack of intellectualism in schools, possibly in society at large.
Mr. David Clements, an English teacher at Redwood, says AI is going to be integrating into schools eventually, he argues that AI is already in schools and he uses examples such as grammarly and the grammar check on google docs.
Noblitt says, “I feel like AI isn’t that far behind in being integrated into our lifestyles. And I think that’s a really bad thing. I’d be very scared if I walked into school and they said “Alright guys, look up how to write an essay,” cause like you know?”
The use of AI has the potential to normalized and integrated into schools at large, whether this is a concern or not is up to interpretation.
The upsides and downsides seem to be about equal among staff and student opinions here at Redwood, though factually there has been evidence of students abusing AI, even though it’s purpose is simply being a tool not another option for cheating.
Mr. Freeborn said “AI is a tool which is going to have implications for society moving forward, and we certainly need to think about how we are going to incorporate this tool into our daily lives.”
Shaylin Bogart
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