Dead Poets Society — the most beloved and popular classic school film, although alleged to be misleading and anti-intellectual, effectively employs Walt Witman’s celebrated poem, “O Captain, My Captain”, to acknowledge the teacher’s critical role in shaping a student’s worldview, while emphasizing a holistic learning experience that goes beyond the classroom.
But the phrase ‘going beyond the classroom’ has likely become hackneyed, as learning dynamics have changed with the digital revolution and the current ushering in of AI. So the need for guidance coming from a captain or teacher is arguably deemed to be a fifth wheel in the contemporary discourse of education.
The question remains: do the trends of self-education and individualized learning address the issues that critical thinkers and philosophers have raised in the field of education?
Because when education is characterized by Umberto Eco as a perpetual practice of “neoteinia” — a sham defense mechanism against societal crises, or described by Chomsky as indoctrination to discourage rebellion and free-thinking, or viewed by Foucault as a process for creating compliant subjects to maintain power structures, and criticized by Russell, Freire, and Illich for being rote memorization, inherently oppressive, overly bureaucratic, and standardized, we can all agree that it is fundamentally flawed in its failure to encourage creativity, independent thinking, and a love of learning.
Moreover, it helps us recognize that the problem lies more in the structural and institutional nature of education rather than in the actions of individual teachers.
So, in the absence of a traditional teacher and institutional setting, can we assume that when AI-powered tools for personalized learning, like ChatGPT, Bard, and Khanmigo, take the front seat, we have the potential to become intellectuals who embody the virtues of Plato’s so-called ideal man or Philosopher King —a wise, courageous, rational, critical, independent and just thinker?
Perhaps we can, or perhaps cannot.
The true answer lies in our understanding that knowledge, learning, and wisdom are not categorically distinctive notions, but cannot be treated as identical either.
Why not?
Because ChatGPT can liberate us from the oppressive power play of teacher authority, and allow us to become the agents of our own learning. It cannot impart the wisdom of the traditional master, who has achieved it through a lifelong journey of delving into grand scientific, metaphysical, teleological, or ethical inquiries.
Knowledge may be interchangeable with facts, but wisdom, which is a unique blend of intuition, experience, and of course, knowledge, demands a deep understanding of the complexity and nuance of our world and ourselves in order to live a fulfilling life.
The counterargument suggests that true wisdom is attained through personal exploration and self-discovery, as portrayed by German author Hermann Hesse in his novel Siddhartha. The protagonist rejects the traditional learning processes of his Brahmin father in favor of a more personal and experiential approach to gaining wisdom.
Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.
Who knows personal inquiry and exploration in conjunction with AI would transform us into wise intellectual beings.
Nevertheless, with a varied concept of wisdom and a plethora of knowledge and learning content at our disposal via AI, one may still wonder whether we still require a teacher on our path towards becoming a philosopher king, or whether AI has what it takes to give us the intellectual and artistic freedom to reach the zenith of human potential.
Without an utter sense of conviction, the solution could be in the categorization of the content of learning.
Who should learn What and from Where?
To answer that the context needs to be narrowed down.
Pakistan is a nation where we have a profound history of leapfrogging, with a knack for skipping traditional stages of development and embracing advanced technologies. Despite lacking proper landline infrastructure, we made a remarkable leap to mobile technology. Similarly, we skipped the age of conventional taxis and straightaway embraced Uber.
Now, without fully exploiting the potential of printed books and effectively designed pedagogical methods of instruction and curriculum, we are poised to take another giant leap toward Artificial Intelligence in education.
What should we expect from the sudden integration of AI?
When Master Gradgrind from Dickens’s Hard Times, advocated for facts as the only thing that matters in life, perhaps he understood that in a world where information is readily available and constantly changing and to keep up with the fast pace of technological advancement and scientific discovery, it is crucial to have a solid understanding of the underlying facts and principles.
Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.
AI can indeed make us smart in Master Gradgrindian sense.
The best thing AI can do for Pakistani kids is to enable them to grasp the foundational knowledge of scientific and technical fields and problem-solving in an efficient and dare we say, fun way.
Of course, this is no less than a breakthrough, where the conventional learning system suppresses the natural talents and aptitudes of children.
Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, recently gave a TED talk on how AI could save education and would not destroy it, as fear-mongers anticipate. He explained that with the extension of AI at Khan Academy, students will learn at their own pace and master concepts before moving on to the next topic. AI will provide more data-driven insights into student learning to help us identify areas where they are struggling.
Hence we can say AI is a way to implement the ‘No child left behind’ policy effectively, even without building factory model schools. What AI could do in the Pakistani setting is break the standardized patterns of learning and solve the significant problem of illiteracy which affects around 90 million people, leaving them without the necessary skills to meet the demands of the job market.
Whereas, to become an expert, a mad genius, or a master, we might need to cultivate a microculture of “learned from the master,” — a culture where creativity has space to flourish and be experimented with through apprenticeship.
Creativity is a continuous process that spans across generations, and its execution demands constant refinement and also a human teacher.
It’s the way cultural progress takes place generally. Classical artists, for example, came out of a tradition of craftsmanship that was developed over long periods, with master artisans and others, and sometimes, you can rise on their shoulders and create new marvelous things. But it doesn’t come from nowhere.
As contended by Noam Chomsky
Unfortunately, Pakistan has lost its tradition of learning from the masters, and even with the help of AI, we can only become good at specific trades or skilled labor. It cannot make us the next Mozart, Da Vinci, Chopin, or Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.
Achieving a new masterpiece at the level of the Mona Lisa or reaching the intellectual heights of Aristotle is an elusive goal for the masses, but probably attainable for a privileged few with access to a learned master or educator and the opportunity to discover their potential and committed to investing in nurturing the intellectual capital.
AI-based interactive tools that empower the masses with self-sufficient skills prompt a question about the purpose of true education. Is education solely for those who aspire to become creators, innovators, scholars, and intellectuals in society? Or is it also for those who only need to learn basic work skills?
If yes, the affirmation would only serve to uphold existing power structures in society, where the elites and privileged few are the active participants in shaping the grand scheme of things, while the rest of the people are relegated to the role of mere spectators.
Not a surprise. Education has always been designed to prioritize certain groups. Ancient Greeks believed that rational and philosophical learning was only for those who would run the state, while in the Renaissance, higher education was reserved for elites. In modern times, education is ostensibly open to all, but it is often controlled, with manufactured thoughts and a disregard for critical thinking.
Furthermore, AI is not an objective tool and it may not have a significant impact on power dynamics for the masses because the ownership of technology remains in the hands of a powerful elite. This allows those with the ability to manipulate and exploit others to continue controlling the dissemination of knowledge and the grand narrative. As Michel Foucault suggested, those who control the discourse and distribution of knowledge hold power.
And AI may appear to be a tool available for anyone to learn from, it is merely a product of learned facts and a replication of human opinions that are tainted by biases and prejudices.
Once more, the underprivileged and marginalized individuals are being excluded from the mainstream.
It is not necessarily due to the manipulation and control of available knowledge, but also simply because some of them lack access to such technology.
In Pakistan, the issue of who controls AI may be secondary since there are people who do not even have internet access, let alone access to AI education.
So AI will perpetuate the social and economic disparities, with certain groups being left behind, rather than eliminating them.
Another concern that persists is the belief that it is shameful and degrading to seek help from Artificial Intelligence as it is not a replacement for human interaction and learning.
Indeed in posthumanist times, learning from non-human entities may seem like a sci-fi dystopia coming to life, but throughout history, societies have used different approaches to master the art of living. As some believed in gaining experience from nonhumans directly.
Spartans sent children into the wild at age 7 to learn survival and military defense tactics while coexisting with wildlife. Athens had formal schools where scholars and teachers imparted knowledge to create erudite individuals.
Why?
Because both societies believed in different philosophies about the purpose of life, for Spartans it was to defend against the hostility prevalent in the world. For Athens, man is supposed to become intellectually cultivated to reach the height of human civilization.
Is it a matter of perception or is it more than that?
Nevertheless, AI is another nonhuman high-level tool with which we need to learn to coexist and leverage to our advantage as we navigate this ever-changing world, instead of rejecting and regarding it as an enemy to human intelligence.
This article is part of an upcoming series that will address the topic of education and AI.
