A Few Thoughts on AI in Education: Educating Kids and Counselors
- Jordanthecounselor
- Jun 2
- 5 min read
Educating Kids (and Counselors) in the Age of AI
As an AI in education enthusiast, when the latest episode of The Ezra Klein Show dropped, I was excited.
I mean, it’s called Educating Kids in the Age of AI.
How could I not be?
Then Ezra started the episode talking about how he’s worried about the educational future of his kids. He's got two of them, ages 3 and 6, and I was hooked. I also have young kids, aged 2-7.
So you can imagine how disappointed I was when the interview turned out to not be very good.
It’s not Ezra’s fault. He’s a great host. No, I was disappointed by his guest, Rebecca Winthrop, mostly because she didn’t say anything. She basically spent an hour giving vague answers and dodging the question.
"What's AI going to do for education? I'm worried about my kids."
"That's such an important question. What do you think you should do about AI in education with your kids?"
I don't think people like this. Or at least I really dislike it when people dodge questions.
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The Purpose of Education in the Age of AI
That being said, there was something that really stood out to me.
There's a clip right at the beginning of the video where Ezra asks some version of, "what's the purpose of writing essays when AI can write better essays? What’s the point of multiple-choice tests when AI knows all the answers?"
Of course, Winthrop doesn't answer the question. But it's a good question. Education used to be about transferring knowledge from one generation to the next. What is the point of transferring knowledge when AI knows it all?
Honestly, I don’t know the answer. But I do want to point out something.
AI can write essays and solve complex math homework, but I’m not convinced that it can do much in the physical world. Much real-world action requires advances in robotics. It seems to me robotics is still a long way off.
Robotics are improving really fast. And at some point we will have humanoid robots. But will that come soon?
My brother-in-law is a small engine mechanic. Will robot mechanics have the mobility and awareness to work outside of a factory in an actual garage with parts and tools strewn about?
My sister-in-law is a neonatal nurse. Are we really going to hand over a 23-week-old baby to a robot nurse and hope it doesn’t crush the baby’s legs?
To be clear I'm not saying it will never happen. More I'm drawing a distinction. The AI revolution is here and will continue to roll out over the next two years. Robotics, is not here yet. This means the realm of doing things in the physical world is still uniquely human.
The Gap in Public Education
To me, this is the obvious gap, so obvious that you would assume that schools would all see it and instantly pivot to being more skills-based.
However, I don't think this shift will happen easily or quickly within public school systems. These schools often move too slowly and are too entrenched in bureaucracy to adapt rapidly.
This creates a significant gap. If you are an administrator or educator within a private school system, cracking the code on how to effectively teach and assess these "doing" skills could yield outsized returns compared to others. You should exploit this gap. I think this is what Alpha schools are doing. Alpha schools are private schools where students spend 2 hours a day learning on computers (AI), then the rest of the day learning real-world skills. Their students, at least according to advertising, are in the top 1-2% of national standards.
Implications for AI in Counselor Education
The challenges and opportunities presented by AI are equally relevant in counselor education. Most counseling education is done not based on skill building, but based on writing papers to demonstrate abstract understanding. While some students will actually read the books and articles, most students will use AI to do the work. So what does this mean for counselor education? We need to design our courses to train tangible skills, not abstract understanding.
The trouble is 99.999999999999999% of graduate programs can’t do this. Not won't. They can’t.
I mean, if you wanted to create a skills-based graduate counseling program, you’d have to do everything through role plays. But role plays of which skills? And how would you define the skills? Many students would be triggered by those scenarios, so how do you handle that? If one student gets triggered, do you attend to them, and what happens to the rest of the class? And how would you grade student performance? What rubric would you use? And how do you structure the role plays? And who pretends to be the client? If you get the students to role-play with each other, you’ll probably have to write various client prompts for the students to enact, but each student will enact the prompt in different ways, so how do you get the student therapist to practice the same skill if the student isn’t giving the same responses? Also, students need some theory, otherwise they won’t understand how the different skills stack together. What’s the optimal ratio of theory to role play?
And then you’d have to do this for every class.
While meeting state and university credentialing requirements.
Oh, and you’d have to do all of that by committee.
That’s a nightmare.
The only program I know of which can address this is Sentio. Sentio teaches students mostly through deliberate practice style role plays and bases much of their curriculum off of common factors. They also teach certain models, in depth, which other programs are afraid to do as they don't want to “bias” their students. All of this happens because they are lean and are starting a program from the ground up.
They are the only program positioned to exploit the gap AI is creating in education.
Which is a shame, because counselors are hungry for skills. I mean, just look at how many people flock to certification trainings right after grad school? It’s because this is one of the only places where clinicians actually learn and practice concrete skills.
Best,
Jordan (the counselor).
Paul Peterson and Jordan Harris are co-founders of Private Practice Incubator, a consulting firm dedicated to:
Helping clinicians earn more money.
Helping clinicians help more clients.
If you'd like to learn more about launching your practice, visit us here.
Jordan Harris, Ph.D., LMFT-S, LPC-S, received his Doctor of Philosophy in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Louisiana Monroe. He is a licensed professional counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist in the state of Arkansas, USA. In his clinical work, he enjoys working with couples. He also runs a blog on deliberate practice for therapists and counselors at Jordanthecounselor.com
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