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\n Photo: Kaitlin Newman\/The Baltimore Banner\n <\/p>\n
Amira is listening to the kindergarteners read aloud. Her flowy purple hair and her big green scarf frame her face as she teaches the children to read full sentences. A classroom full of 5-year-olds is a hectic place, so kids are advised<\/a> to speak up \u2014 all the better to hear, and correct, their pronunciation mistakes. But Amira is not your average teacher. She is the eponymous avatar of an AI reading app, Amira, that uses<\/a> the \u201csynergy of AI and neuroscience\u201d to teach kids to read \u2014 sort of like Duolingo but for a first language. Since 2024, New York City Schools has implemented the program in around 150 schools across the city. There are now thousands of kids in the city who learn to read in school from an AI-enabled iPad app.<\/p>\n I first learned about the AI incursion into public-school kindergartens from Kevin Dugan, my former colleague<\/a>. He mentioned that the AI-enabled iPads in his daughter\u2019s classroom in Brooklyn were infuriating parents. There is the continued annoyance of more screen time for kids. But the fact that the app takes recordings of their voices so that it can teach itself how to teach \u2014 with the app listening at scale \u2014 has taken complaints to a new level. Dugan is one of many parents in the city who feel trapped<\/a> as their schools go all in on AI. \u201cYou\u2019re just teaching children how to use consumer products,\u201d he told me, \u201cnot to use their imagination or develop social skills, especially at the level of kindergarten.\u201d (In a statement a spokesperson for Amira said that the app \u201csupports teachers rather than replaces them\u201d and \u201chelps differentiate instruction based on each child\u2019s needs.\u201d)<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Dugan and his wife, Rachel Pelz, learned that they could take their daughter out of AI reading (because Amira collects biometric data, kids\u2019 voices, its use requires parental consent). But the couple couldn\u2019t avoid all AI, they soon discovered. Their daughter was learning to count, in part, from a program called ST Math, another gamified, AI-enabled learning app in use in five schools in New York City. In the ST Math app, kids follow JiJi, a penguin with a green backpack, through a series of point-and-click math games to \u201cimprove focus and fine motor skills,\u201d according to<\/a> the app\u2019s promotional materials. (If a student really loves JiJi, they can buy a stuffed-animal version<\/a> of their AI math teacher for $20.) The app\u2019s parent company, MIND Education, says that it mines<\/a> \u201cvast amounts\u201d of data from kids\u2019 interactions to improve its teaching process.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think my kid should be drilling multiplication tables, but I think that one of the really important things is learning how to interact with other people and not to get sucked into a screen,\u201d Dugan told me. His daughter appears to enjoying the onscreen AI math games almost too much: \u201cShe\u2019s already said to us, \u2018You know I love iPad math, but regular math is boring.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Dugan is among a growing cohort of New York City public-school parents who view AI use in the classroom as parasitic \u2014 siphoning their children\u2019s intellectual curiosity, capacity for boredom, and data in order to make money. \u201cThese companies are literally mandated by their corporate charters to maximize profits in any way possible,\u201d said Bridget Kessler, a mom of elementary-school-age children in Flatlands who also serves on her local community-education council. \u201cSo how can I trust that they have the best interests of my kids in mind?\u201d<\/p>\n Jessica, a kindergarten parent in Brooklyn who preferred to stay anonymous, says there are also immediate problems when schools off-load teaching to a tablet. \u201cHalf the class would get an iPad and they would be learning ST Math, while the other half has the teacher\u2019s attention,\u201d she said. Or at least some of their attention: The teacher was running around helping kids set up their iPads. \u201cWhen I try to ask about how ST Math is going, my kindergartner spends a lot of time talking about the log-in process,\u201d she said. \u201cOur teachers\u2019 jobs are becoming more about managing these devices versus actually teaching the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Across the country, many public schools are embracing AI \u2014 like the iPad before it \u2014 arguing that the technology can level the field for students and ease the burden for overwhelmed teachers<\/a>. In March, First Lady Melania Trump made the case at the White House for personalized education with AI. It backfired when she debuted a faceless automaton<\/a> as the future of teaching and talked about \u201chumanoids that deliver utility\u201d in the classroom. But the jokes about the robotic First Lady and her robot friend aren\u2019t stopping a real push in the U.S. toward AI education. In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order<\/a> that aims to integrate \u201cAI literacy\u201d beginning in kindergarten and launch a task force in \u201cArtificial Intelligence Education\u201d to boost public-private partnerships to get AI in schools.<\/p>\n Though phones are banned in classrooms across the state<\/a>, New York City Schools has embraced AI for years.\u00a0Three years ago, Google partnered with the AI-focused investment firm Global Silicon Valley Ventures to \u201cadvance technology\u201d in education \u2014 through programs like Amira, which GSV Ventures has a stake in<\/a>. Top education administrators have joined the Google GSV Education Innovation Fellowship, including superintendent of Manhattan high schools Gary Beidleman and chief academic officer Miatheresa Pate<\/a>, who is responsible for the city\u2019s AI guidelines. In a policy document<\/a> from the fellowship, Beidleman advises educators on how to get parents and teachers to accept AI: Find \u201cearly adopters and key messengers\u201d to convert skeptics and achieve a \u201ccultural shift\u201d from within. The fellowship\u2019s director declined to comment on the efficacy of AI in schools. But the fellowship document on the importance of AI adoption is riddled with spelling errors: a city in Ohio called \u201cColubmus,\u201d a discussion of an AI \u201cframjework,\u201d and a headline about \u201cAI literacty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre they taking over? Yeah, they\u2019re taking over,\u201d Lauren Monaco, a pre-K teacher in Brooklyn, said of AI. A mother of three, Monaco was formerly a kindergarten teacher before the encroachment of ed tech, iPads, and a more strict curriculum<\/a> meant that \u201cplay was almost practically eliminated.\u201d She was part of a petition<\/a> last month calling for New York City schools chancellor Kamar Samuels and Mayor Zohran Mamdani to enact a two-year moratorium on AI in schools. The petition cited evidence that AI in schools can \u201cundermine\u201d students\u2019 privacy<\/a>, creativity<\/a>, and critical thinking<\/a>. \u201cI think a lot of these principals and superintendents really believed that doing the best for kids meant putting them at the forefront of knowing technology,\u201d she said. \u201cUnfortunately, now we know better. And when you know better, you need to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n Listening to parents of kids in kindergarten, it became clear to me that schools\u2019 growing reliance on AI is a final insult in the yearslong advance of education tech in the classroom. It\u2019s not just that the AI is listening to their kids. It\u2019s that they\u2019re playing gamified math programs that experts say don\u2019t work<\/a> as they scroll on the same screens that parents are trying to cut down on at home. The pushback is particularly strong at the kindergarten level for an obvious reason: Why would children need an iPad game to learn how to count when tools like building blocks \u2014 and other proven methods of tactile learning<\/a> \u2014 are right there? (Many tech<\/a> executives<\/a>, and New Yorkers who can afford private school<\/a>, seem to agree, prioritizing what they call a \u201clow-tech\u201d education for their own kids.)<\/p>\n This cohort of parents may also be particularly incensed because, unlike for the parents subjected to the trials of remote school during the pandemic, the onslaught of classroom iPads has come as a surprise. \u201cI\u2019m the elder parent now, and I see my daughter\u2019s kindergarten friends whose parents, it\u2019s their first kid,\u201d explained Kessler, the parent from Flatlands. \u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018Wait, this is not what I\u2019m signing up for. This is not what I want to see my kid doing in school all day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n School administrators now have to listen to the parents who are upset about the iPads listening to their kids, too. On April 27, Chancellor Samuels announced that the city would suspend the opening of the AI-focused Next Generation Technology High School amid a wave of criticism<\/a> and open mockery<\/a>. Two days later, Samuels and other administrators listened directly to parents at a policy hearing, sitting onstage for over six hours as parents chewed them out in the white-walled auditorium at M.S. 131. (For nonparents, that\u2019s the Guggenheim-looking building in Chinatown next to Time Again.) According to a New York City Schools spokesperson, the hearing was part of a 45-day public-feedback window \u201cto gather meaningful input\u201d from parents before the city decides on a new framework for AI in the classroom. \u201cWe remain grounded in a core principle: AI can never replace the care, love, and dedication that defines exceptional teaching,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n When Pelz, Dugan\u2019s wife, came to the microphone, she had her young son in her arms and her kindergarten-age daughter at her feet. \u201cYou are experimenting on our children,\u201d she told Chancellor Samuels. School administrators are telling parents \u201cthat AI is inevitable,\u201d she said, but when Pelz asked about specifics, no one had answers. How are AI-based learning programs learning from her children? What do the programs really help her kid learn? \u201cIf it is so good for my children, why is it a secret?\u201d she asked. Every few sentences, she shifted her son, now sucking his thumb, back onto her hip.\u00a0She warned of a \u201cgroundswell\u201d of rage from public-school parents as the city stocks classrooms with AI-enabled screens: \u201cMy kindergartener has been given an iPad. It came home in her backpack. Shame!\u201d<\/p>\n Parents clapped for everyone who pushed back on the inevitability of AI in the classroom. The loudest round of applause was for Dina, a 6-year-old in a pink dress who walked up to the mic but froze and turned to hide her face in her dad\u2019s sweater when it was her turn to speak. After a moment of terror, she gained the confidence to give her message about AI-enabled iPads during indoor recess.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look at screens all day, so it\u2019s not actually good for our brains,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I think with indoor recess we could do something more fun.\u201d She was gaining momentum, and the crowd cheered her on. \u201cYou could play with a friend, you could bring toys,\u201d she said. \u201cOr you even could read.\u201d<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Kaitlin Newman\/The Baltimore Banner Amira is listening to the kindergarteners read aloud. 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