Letting AI do our thinking will wreck the purpose of education

Educators must use AI sparingly and only when it doesn't harm the process and goals of education

- ANURAG BEHAR

No plan survives first contact with the enemy." This military maxim, often attributed to Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, the Prussian strategist who reshaped modern warfare, carries a basic truth about the nature of reality. The world is too chaotic and unpredictable for rigid blueprints. Mike Tyson, in his characteristic bluntness, distilled it further: "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." And Dwight Eisenhower, the architect of World War II's D-Day, offered his own more profound version: "Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

These words resonate far beyond battlefields and boxing rings—even in the world of education.

Over the past two decades, a minor industry has emerged around pre-packaged lesson plans for teachers. These are meticulously structured templates, detailing how a teacher should conduct a class—what to say, when to say it, even how students might respond.