Recently, a shift has slowly started to occur in St Mary’s, hinting at a possible change for the future of education. Mr Kim, the school’s 8th-grade English teacher, has embraced the AI tool Flint and encouraged its use. As the adoption of artificial intelligence as an educational tool is now seen less as taboo and more as a necessity by many educators worldwide, this event marked a significant first step for the larger movement to eventually integrate generative artificial intelligence as part of the existing curriculum.
Generative AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, first gained prominence only a few years ago. Still, it has quickly taken the world by storm as people recognised its usefulness and efficiency, with Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, even forecasting that ‘AI will be part of every industry, enhancing our abilities in ways we can’t even imagine yet.’ Further, this is not only speculation as, according to the Stanford 2025 AI Index Report, ‘a growing body of research confirms that AI boosts productivity and, in most cases, helps narrow skill gaps across the workforce.’
However, while generative AI was initially designed to assist with tasks like translation, text generation, and summarisation, it quickly found its way into classrooms as students began experimenting with its capabilities. At St. Mary’s, Mr Kim believes that its adoption is not inherently problematic. ‘I don’t think it’s the student’s fault,’ he says. ‘It’s like a new thing that is available and of course students want to use it… because it promises a lot of different things.’ Rather than discouraging use outright, Mr Kim sees the issue as one of intention and engagement. ‘When it becomes a problem,’ he continues, ‘is when students use it to not learn the skills they need to be good communicators, to be good writers, to be good human beings.’ The real concern, he explains, is when AI is used as a shortcut—for example, when a student receives a revised draft from Flint and submits it without even reading it. ‘That’s a very big missed opportunity,’ he comments, because tools like Flint can explain why they made changes. When used thoughtfully, they can deepen a student’s understanding of writing. But when used passively, ‘it’s kind of like copying and pasting the first results on Google search and then trying to say that was my work.’
Therefore, the pedagogical goal is not to replace student work with AI output, but to use AI to enhance the learning process. As Mr Kim emphasises, when students take the time to examine what the tool produces—and why—it becomes a form of guided learning. Flint’s capacity to explain its choices offers students insights into writing techniques, structure, and clarity. But if used passively, that opportunity is lost.
In this way, the conversation around AI in education becomes less about restriction and more about responsibility. As generative tools like Flint become more accessible, the emphasis must shift toward fostering digital literacy: teaching students not just how to use these tools, but how to engage with them critically. Mr Kim remarks that ‘There are many things that we need to be cautious of…we can’t just ignore [AI] and say we’ll learn about these things later…it’s really important to teach students to use AI as a skill to be able to enhance their work, and identify if the AI’s help was actually beneficial to what they’re trying to achieve’, hoping that his students are, with his encouragement of learning to utilise Flint, able to become proficient and responsible users of the technology in the future. The success of AI in the classroom depends not on the technology itself, but on the intentions behind its use and the structures educators put in place to support it.
Ultimately, the integration of AI in schools like St. Mary’s is not a question of ethics alone, but of design. With proper framing, tools like Flint can support deeper learning, critical thinking, and student agency. Thus, the question moving forward is not whether AI should be in the classroom, but how schools will build systems that ensure its thoughtful and effective use.
