Back to the Future: How AI will Revive Ancient Classroom Traditions
Generational Series #1: Future of Education
Hi everyone,
I recently met a bright high school student, Theodore Kronby, from New York. We decided to share our cross-generational perspectives on future trends shaping essential pillars of American interest. First up: Education.
Pete — and introducing, Theo!
AI's Impact on America’s Treasure: Education
America’s greatest treasure is its people, and education has always fostered that ingenuity. Suddenly, AI is flipping the tables on classroom teaching.
No doubt: AI will change classroom learning forever, but not how people think. Our prediction: the future classroom will resemble the ancient classroom. If AI complicates grading written work, future teachers will do what ancient teachers did: grade the spoken word.
November 30, 2022: A Turning Point
November 30, 2022 changed classrooms forever. On that day, ChatGPT’s public debut, students gained a tool diminishing the “work” required by “homework.”
Now we’ve all heard the stories of GPTs “crushing” major exams: an MBA exam given at Wharton, most exams at law schools, various AP exams, and so on.
What was Day 1-GPT like for a freshman in high school? Here’s what it was like for Theo:
My first exposure to ChatGPT was in my high school’s computer lab. While my usage initially was limited to generating satirical poems with friends, I remember being awed by the quality and diversity of prompt responses.
Teachers Adjust: Short vs Long Term
In response to AI, Theo has already seen adjustments in the high school classroom:
Faculty requires students to declare if AI was used for an assignment. We often need to submit our work to both a Google Assignment Center and an AI originality checker, like TurnItIn. In some classes, grading emphasis has shifted to in-class essays to avoid any risk of AI generation.
Some classes have embraced AI as a learning tool. For example, a major assignment at my school is now focused on critiquing an AI-generated paper instead of writing an original paper.
But these are short-term adjustments. In the long term, we believe a total change is inevitable.
What kind of change? Before we get into that, let’s look back in history though.
The Oral Tradition in Education
584 years, or 0.29% of human history: that’s how long we’ve had mass-produced printed paper (thanks, printing press). So short!
For most of human history—or 99.71%-- education was oral.
Teachers in Ancient Greece made persuasive oratory a classroom cornerstone. Democracy demanded skilled speakers, evaluated by "pisteis," or means of persuasion. Orators mastered ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic), concepts from Aristotle's "Rhetoric."
Same in Ancient Rome. Teachers had a more mature “rubric” for grading students. They used the Five Canons of Rhetoric, elaborating on Hellenic public speaking theory. These canons were: inventio, or the creation of the argument; dispositio, the organization of the argument; elocutio, planning presentation; memoria, or memorizing the speech; and pronuntiato, or delivery of the argument.
Public speaking was not just a “thing” for ancient Western classrooms: it was for other cultures too.
Ancient India’s public speaking philosophy placed a large emphasis on memorization, with history largely passed down orally. There was also an emphasis on persuasiveness, and the “upper class” Brahmins practiced debate routinely.
Ancient China elevated rhetoric and eloquence so high that it was considered an essential aspect of forms of knowledge. Like the Greeks and Romans, the ancient Chinese broke effective speech into language choice, argumentation, expression, and persuasion.
In North Africa, Ancient Egyptians' public speaking valued persuasiveness above all. Rhythmic poems like the “Story of the Eloquent Peasant” show that eloquence was valued in all walks of life and was an effective tool for upward mobility.
In West Africa, the griot traditions of Mali, Senegal, and Nigeria emphasized oral tradition through a rigorous apprenticeship model.
So, if education used to be oral, why did it switch to written at some point? Two words: Printing. Press.
The Printing Press: Hello Homework!
The printing press changed the classroom forever. Mass production of written material made books more accessible, and education moved from oral to written. Good: literacy rates rose. Bad: oratory skills sank.
The printing press created conditions for the “modern school”—but it decimated, for many, our ability to persuade with the spoken word. The printing press allowed documents to be rapidly and efficiently reproduced, which decreased the value of spoken word, while written work reigned supreme. As a result, the modern student’s speaking skills and memorization atrophied.
AI’s Inevitable Loop: A Return to Oratory
Today, students increasingly rely on AI for writing help. Over time, AI will make “homework” almost impossible to grade authoritatively. In that’s true, then aren’t speeches and debates as assignments the last refuge for student assessments?
Also, wouldn’t a pivot to oral assessment be one of the greatest good things ever?
Imagine what it would be like:
English class. Instead of an essay on Orwell’s 1984, students would be required to deliver a speech in front of the class? There are elements of this in my classes already—but it could be taken one step further. Assignments could encourage the students to create a speech connecting their own experiences to the text in a uniquely human classroom exercise.
Or biology class. Instead of an exam on the circulatory system, a student could get up in front of a class and explain in their own words how the body works. This active demonstration would be significantly more enriching-- it would require students to think on their feet and explain these biological processes in their own words.
In history class, in-class presentations could become even more prominent, requiring a mix of a digital interface like a slideshow and speaking skills to get a message across. What were the causes of the American revolution? Let’s hear it in your own words!
The Future is Being Built: Tech and Public Speaking
Startups like Orai, Speeko, and Yoodli use tech to make you a better public speaker. Speech patterns, filler words, words per minute, style, clarity, impact—these are all tools these AI-powered technologies offer. These are good things. There will only be more and more technologies rolling out to enhance the quality and caliber of our public speaking.
As we look towards the prospect of an “oral-first” education system, the good seems to outweigh the bad of such a shift. The world these days is complex, challenging, volatile. Won’t we all be better off if we were better at talking to each other, communicating, and working hard to understand each other, the mutual challenges and opportunities before us?
We think so.
We’d love to hear what you think.
Pete and Theo
Stay tuned for the next topic in the Generational Series: Future of Electricity!
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