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The back to school season is always an adjustment; as students adjust to classrooms, a bell system, lunch lines and homework.
Teachers are facing an adjustment in 2026. Artificial Intelligence technology has advanced to a point that it can complete homework assignments for students. They might be tempted to take shortcuts by using AI.
There are good ways to counteract the AI factor. One is to have students write essays in class right away, in order to gauge their writing ability. If a homework assignment would far exceed their writing level, it would be obvious that they had AI help.
Over the course of a semester, it seems like a good idea to have class participation grades and at least one oral presentation. There should be tests with written short identification and essay responses.
If the class is assigned a research paper, there's a need to have students turn in notecards and an outline. Their sources should include books and magazine articles as well as websites. It should be a step by step building process, one which flows from notecards to outline to the paper itself.
Those steps are necessary for making sure that students think for themselves. They need to earn their grades. It takes more than clicking and dragging.
I remember when I was first introduced to computers. It happened in fifth grade. My teacher, Mary Arneson, brought her husband John into the classroom to share his professional computer experience. He taught us how to play Oregon Trail and several other games.
We pretty much used the computer only for enrichment. We played electronic touchdown and BLIP digital derby, along with Pong video games. They were fun. They were entertainment after we did our school work. In eighth grade we did a research paper with notecards and an outline.
I wasn't taught keyboarding until the summer after my eighth grade year. I took summer school typing with Mrs. Otterson, learned as much as I could without having it count on my grade point average.
I gradually built up my familiarity with computers in high school and college. As a professional journalist in the early 1990s, I became proficient with Video Display Terminals for writing. The layout for the paper was still done with knives, pica poles, broadsheets and wax.
After 14 years at the paper, which included covering the MCP corn plant sale to ADM and the bond issue to build the new Marshall High School, I opted for a graduate education (business with a marketing emphasis).
Editing would have been a logical progression, but I didn't want to just sit behind a desk and try to keep pace with publishing technology. By 2004, it had already passed me by.
I reached my goal of earning a master's degree and then had four different jobs which included technology. I was able to learn each application as needed.
I'm concerned in 2026 that electronic technology is still rapidly changing but that it's emphasized in early elementary grades. Maybe our young children need the chance to learn like I did. Maybe they shouldn't even be exposed to hard core keyboarding until at least fifth grade.
In elementary school they need to learn how to think. They need to learn communication skills. They need opportunities to be creative.
I think that's still happening at least for some. When I see the results with activities such as music, speech, school plays, science fairs, art exhibits and agronomy; I know that those students can still innovate.
I just wonder if some are stifled by technology. We've raised an entire generation of young people who do practically everything online. I stopped in this week at my insurance agent's office to pay my bill. He was glad to see me. He said that not very many people pay in person anymore.
We've had lazy federal officials who've failed to govern technology companies. They just let them run wild. The companies keep changing their products with new bells and whistles, and they keep overcharging consumers. I pay far too much just for needing a phone to make calls and get messages.
Hopefully in the next generation we'll see a change in how people approach technology. I hope we learn to use computers and smartphones as complicated tools rather than getting used by them, rather than being glued to them.
We can start by carefully deciding what we teach our kids. It doesn't do any good to make them wizards with electronics if they fall short on everything else.
Inspiration doesn't come from AI. My pledge to you as readers is that everything I produce will always be my own thoughts. Professionals from all walks of life should have the same sort of commitment. It's necessary if we want to make the world a better place.
-- Jim Muchlinski is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent