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American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten believes our schools are not ready for the 鈥渟eismic shifts鈥� that artificial intelligence is bringing.

鈥淲e’re in the middle of an industrial revolution that’s bigger than the dot.com revolution, and the world is not prepared for it,鈥� Weingarten told 社区黑料. 鈥淎nd our country鈥檚 leaders have a laissez-faire attitude about it. So I feel a huge responsibility to try and get it right.鈥澛�

Weingarten has proposed reshaping how U.S. public schools navigate AI in particular and technology more broadly, saying our kids are experiencing a crisis of attention and well-being 鈥� and that teachers are getting precious little guidance on how to help young people navigate these challenges.

Her proposal: Trim tech use, especially for younger kids, and teach all students how to think critically, communicate, collaborate and persist.鈥淥ne of the worst things we’ve done in education was to call collaboration and communication 鈥榮oft skills,鈥欌�� she said, 鈥渂ecause applied learning, problem solving, communication, collaboration, persistence 鈥� all of these 鈥� are the skills that any young adult is going to need in an AI world. In fact, these are the skills that are going to be much more competitive in an AI world.鈥�

In a May 27 at the National Press Club in Washington, she proposed a near-ban on computer screens for students through second grade, including for assessments. She proposed banning student-facing AI in elementary schools, arguing that young children need to build foundational skills without algorithmic shortcuts. 

And she said that young people should not have access to 鈥�social companion鈥� chatbots that simulate human relationships until age 16.

The speech makes Weingarten and AFT, the second-largest teachers union in the nation, new and potentially powerful supporters of a growing parent-powered movement to trim technology from U.S. classrooms, even as the union pushes to train thousands of teachers on how AI works. 

Weingarten proposed that schools redesign their offerings so that 鈥渁ctive learning, including project-based, experiential and career-connected learning,鈥� is the norm across all grade levels. She decried 鈥渄rill-and-kill” rote instruction, saying that in an age when any fact is retrievable with a single prompt, the ability to apply knowledge, think critically, communicate and collaborate matters far more than memorization.

鈥淭o really prepare young people for complex challenges, our true goal is to have students who can work together and problem solve,鈥� she said.

Weingarten noted that 31 states have now adopted some form of phone ban, and that several countries that were early adopters of education technology are pulling back. Sweden, she said, has returned to printed textbooks. Estonia, where research linked higher screen time in young children to weaker language skills, is calling for more human-to-human interaction. And Italy is re-emphasizing handwriting and traditional instruction.

Weingarten also called for establishing a rigorous new national safety and privacy standard for AI products sold to schools and creating an independently funded research consortium to study tech鈥檚 effects on children. And she proposed a new tax on Big Tech companies鈥� earnings to offset the environmental and societal costs of AI-driven disruption, including workers 鈥渂eing displaced by AI.鈥�

In an interview Monday, Weingarten said AFT’s own $23 million AI academy, launched last year in New York City to help teachers understand and shape how AI enters their classrooms, exists in part to provide crucial guidance on how to understand the technology. Over the next five years, the National Academy for AI Instruction is expected to provide hands-on workshops for 400,000 educators, or one in 10 U.S. teachers, effectively reaching the more than 7.2 million students they teach. 

She said the institute鈥檚 mission and her new stance on tech aren鈥檛 incompatible.

鈥淭he AI Institute is really about teachers teaching teachers, and how the tech companies are not in control,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is a people-first, safety-first focus.鈥�

When she announced the academy in July, Weingarten said teachers face 鈥渉uge challenges,鈥� including navigating AI wisely, ethically and safely. 鈥淭he question was whether we would be chasing it 鈥� or whether we would be trying to harness it.鈥�

Nearly a year later, she said the institute now serves a crucial role in the absence of guidance from the Trump administration, which last week issued a U.S. Surgeon General鈥檚 urging families and schools to reduce children鈥檚 screen time. It suggested that schools limit school computers to computer labs, invest in physical textbooks and 鈥減rioritize pen-and-paper curricula, hands-on activities and social activities for all grade levels.鈥�

In a media appearance last week, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said schools 鈥渘eed to embrace A.I., and to use it .鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Weingarten said it鈥檚 鈥渃razy鈥� that the U.S. Surgeon General鈥檚 office is offering more detailed recommendations than the Education Department. 

鈥淲hen you actually have two-thirds of teachers in the United States having no idea how to use AI in schools, and when you have one-third saying there’s no formal guidance, and then you have the Education Secretary saying they should use it 鈥榓ppropriately,鈥� I mean, this is part of the problem,鈥� she said. 

U.S. Education Department Press Secretary Savannah Newhouse said McMahon 鈥渉as highlighted the many types of schools that are successfully and responsibly integrating AI in the classroom to help our nation鈥檚 students meet the challenges of today.鈥�

Weingarten also took a swipe at Melania Trump鈥檚 recent tech-and-education event, in which the First Lady the White House alongside a humanoid robot to highlight the potential benefits of robots replacing teachers. The stunt, Weingarten said, 鈥渟poke volumes. So did the responses from teachers wondering how a robot was going to build trust with students or know when someone was having a bad day. There鈥檚 no algorithm for that. Students need their teachers 鈥� real human beings, not robots and not chatbots.鈥�

Newhouse didn鈥檛 address Weingarten鈥檚 allegations about the administration鈥檚 leadership on AI, instead criticizing union priorities more broadly: 鈥淚f there鈥檚 finally going to be an honest conversation about the damage done to American students, it should begin with the teachers unions鈥� enthusiastic support for a federal bureaucracy that has spent over $3 trillion only to watch student outcomes decline, along with their relentless push to keep schools shuttered during COVID,鈥� Newhouse said. 

鈥楰ids are getting burned鈥�

The effort to curb tech in schools comes on the heels of a similar one, led in large part by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, to limit cellphone use in schools.

Weingarten on Monday said she has steeped herself in research on educational technology and artificial intelligence. But it wasn鈥檛 until she spoke to Haidt last summer about young people鈥檚 worsening that she knew she had to draw a line. 

鈥淲hat really drove me was the issues around attention,鈥� she said. 

Haidt, author of the best-selling 2024 book The Anxious Generation, has said short-form videos and other social media tools have decimated our kids鈥� ability to pay attention in school, resulting in fewer books read, poorer basic skills and worsening mental health. A more recent book, The Digital Delusion, by the educational neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath, argues that basic classroom technology has had a similar effect on skills.

In her speech, much of Weingarten鈥檚 criticism centered around increasingly widespread fears that our society is losing its way when it comes to young people鈥檚 technology use. She noted that more than half of 11-year-olds already carry smartphones, a figure that climbs to 95% among teenagers. Four in 10 teens report being online almost constantly, she said. 鈥淭he pace of this tech revolution has been blisteringly fast, and kids are getting burned.鈥�

She pointed to Haidt’s research linking heavy smartphone and social media use to rising rates of social isolation, anxiety and depression among young people, with academic consequences as well from the rollout of classroom technology. Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which had been climbing steadily, have in many cases worsened after widespread digital adoption. Weingarten acknowledged that correlation is not causation, but said the pattern, appearing consistently across states, grade levels and subjects, deserves serious attention.

She also pointed to research showing that 88% of teachers in a survey reported that their students’ attention spans were shrinking, which she attributed in part to the instant-rewards of online platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. Cognitive scientist work, she said, suggests students are not incapable of focusing, but are increasingly unwilling to do so when schoolwork feels dull by comparison to their online lives.

But she cautioned that she鈥檚 not anti-tech.

鈥淚鈥檓 not calling for an AI ban or a Chromebook bonfire,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat I am calling for is getting the balance right to harness the benefits of technology while mitigating the harms. I鈥檓 wary of the dangers of AI, but it is here to stay. We need enforceable guardrails and help to cushion the disruption to people鈥檚 lives.鈥� 

Alex Kotran, the founder and CEO of , said Weingarten is 鈥渞ight where it counts鈥� about limiting AI for younger students but giving teachers access to the tools. 鈥淚t’s about getting the balance right,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I really don’t talk to anybody that believes that we shouldn’t have some sort of balance.鈥�

Kotran said he鈥檇 recently spoken at an National Education Association meeting and saw that, like AFT, they鈥檙e focused on understanding AI. 鈥淭here’s this almost-meme, ‘Oh, the unions are getting in the way of AI transformation, AI readiness,’ and I really disagree with that fundamentally. The unions have a very sophisticated understanding of what really matters here.鈥�

Weingarten鈥檚 push to give teachers a better understanding of AI makes sense as well, he said. 鈥淲hen teachers feel like they are the main characters of the story of AI transformation, their willingness to really lean in and learn, it’s a lot more. You see a lot more buy-in.鈥�

More broadly, Kotran said, supporting active learning, project-based and career-connected learning is 鈥渨hat all the smartest people in the field,鈥� including CEOs and labor economists, are recommending. 鈥淲hat everybody’s basically saying is that the skills that matter now are people who can just get shit done, who can work independently and proactively on projects, who can create and build. And so it’s really, really important to hear a union actually naming that.鈥�

On Monday, Weingarten said parents are leading the way on this issue 鈥� and that schools risk being caught between parents who opt their children out of classroom technology and those who want to keep it. 鈥淗ow does a teacher in kindergarten work in a classroom where half the kids opt out of screens and half the kids are on screens?鈥�

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