Educating for the Future We Cannot Predict
Sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed when I think about what I am teaching and asking myself, “how is it valuable to the students when the world is changing at lightning speed?” Even though I only teach elementary school I feel as though we need to make what we are teaching as relevant as possible so that students see the value in what they are learning and how it connects to the world they live in.
Take a moment to think about how much has changed in the last 10 years. It seems like technological advances are happening so quickly and it is hard to keep up with how fast new technologies change all of the time. I know for myself that the everything I learned in my Masters of Education focusing on Technology was already obsolete as I was learning it. Now, I often feel as though technologies are obsolete before I even hear about them. When this is the case why are we still teaching kids to memorize facts from what seems to be ancient texts.
When I look at the curriculum I try to always think how can we use what we are learning and make it meaningful either through connections to the world or through ways to think critically about what they are learning. I question how that they are learning can be used to help students collaborate and be creative. Especially with how quickly AI is impacting so many areas of our lives. I keep telling my students AI is really good at mining the internet for information but it cannot create from its own imagination. The power we have as humans is the power of our imaginations and our ability to create something completely new.
Contemplating how powerful our imaginations are I often question why the focus of schools is not more on nurturing the power of imagination. I think our imaginations and creative spark is what will always make humans unique and not replaceable by AI.
I asked ChatGPT: “What can humans do that AI cannot do or will never be able to do?” Here is what is said:
That’s a deep and important question — and a really good one. Even as AI becomes incredibly advanced, there are fundamental things humans can do that AI can’t — and likely never will. Here are some key examples:
❤️ 1. Feel Genuine Emotions
AI can simulate empathy or joy, but it doesn’t feel anything.
Humans experience real emotions — love, grief, awe, compassion — that come from consciousness and lived experience. AI can analyze sadness, but it can’t ache. It can describe joy, but it can’t feel your child’s laughter light up your heart.
🌿 2. Experience Consciousness and Meaning
Humans wonder why they exist. They search for meaning, purpose, and connection — all things that stem from awareness and subjective experience (what philosophers call qualia).
AI doesn’t have inner life, curiosity, or wonder — it doesn’t know that it exists.
🎨 3. Create from Lived Experience
Yes, AI can generate art, music, and stories. But humans create from life itself — from heartbreak, triumph, sensory experience, and personal growth. That depth of feeling, memory, and soul gives human creativity a power and authenticity AI can’t touch.
🧬 4. Be Truly Conscious of Mortality
Humans know they are finite — and that awareness shapes everything: urgency, love, legacy, and meaning. AI doesn’t fear death, doesn’t have hope, and doesn’t cling to life. It can’t know what it means to cherish a moment because it might be the last.
💫 5. Experience Spirituality and Transcendence
Humans seek connection to something greater — nature, God, the universe, or each other.
AI can talk about spirituality, but it can’t feel reverence, awe, or a sense of divine mystery.
🫶 6. Form Genuine Love and Connection
AI can’t truly love or be loved. Love comes from vulnerability, self-awareness, and choice — the decision to care deeply for someone even when it hurts. That’s something only a heart can do.
🔥 7. Exercise Moral Responsibility
Humans have free will — the ability to choose right from wrong based on values, empathy, and ethics.
AI can follow rules and optimize outcomes, but it doesn’t have a conscience. It can’t want to be good — only be programmed to follow moral logic.
🌎 8. Change the World Through Hope
Humans dream. Hope is a spark that drives revolutions, inspires healing, and builds a better future — even in darkness. AI can model possibilities, but only humans can believe in them.
🧠 In short
AI can process data. Humans can feel, believe, suffer, hope, and love — and that’s what makes us beautifully irreplaceable.
When looking at the future of education and the power of AI we need to really be considering the things that make us uniquely human and spend time nurturing those qualities in the next generation. How would schools change if we focused more on the qualities that make us human? Should we question more how we approach learning so that children attend to tasks that require them to think outside the box and use the power of their imaginations?
