Where We Stand: Devices-Down, Eyes-up, Hands-On Learning

We in an era of massive disruption. Artificial intelligence is triggering seismic shifts in virtually every aspect of society. The affordability crisis is squeezing working- and middle-class families and pushing those living in poverty over the edge. Addictive technology and social media platforms are deepening anxiety and depression—especially among our youth. People with enormous resources and power are stoking division. And the democracy we have built over 250 years is being assaulted from within.

Teachers are no strangers to disruption; we’re often the first responders to it. Time and again, teachers provide stability amid chaos, and the human connection at the heart of the student-teacher relationship, and we help our students navigate a changing world. But this turbulent moment requires a concerted national response to prepare our young people for life’s opportunities and challenges.

Whatever the future holds for students, they need:

• A broad base of foundational knowledge, starting with literacy and numeracy skills.
• Curriculum that is relevant, is engaging, and fosters curiosity, including subjects like the arts, athletics, and civics.
• An emphasis on active learning through meaningful projects and opportunities to apply knowledge in ways that connect learning to real life.
• Safe and welcoming classrooms and campuses where young people feel seen, supported, and ready to learn. That includes promoting well-being and protecting students from gun violence, immigration raids, and bullying.

These basics equip students for the deeper learning and problem-solving that will be crucial throughout their lives. They help make students more confident and more engaged learners. It’s how we promote curiosity and critical thinking and ensure all our students have the agency and persistence they need to confront challenges.

Young people are resilient, but too often, the kids are not all right. A major reason is that they are drowning in tech.

As Jonathan Haidt, professor and author of The Anxious Generation, says, cellphones and social media are making our kids sedentary, solitary, anxious, and depressed.* On top of that, there are growing concerns about the adverse effects of all this tech on students’ cognition, attention, and achievement.

Jared Cooney Horvath, a leading neuroscientist, recently analyzed how reading and math trends shifted after state-by-state expansion of education technology. Prior to large-scale digital adoption, fourth- and eighth-graders’ scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress had been rising steadily for years. After adoption, the trajectory shifted, often sharply, toward decline. Correlation is not causation, but Horvath cites research indicating that this pattern appears across states, countries, grade levels, subjects, and years.

Now, with artificial intelligence, we are at a crossroads that will define the future of work and society. Without proper oversight and strong guardrails, there will be real dangers to our safety and privacy, to the climate and the very fabric of society.

One thing the AI revolution does not change is the essential purpose of education: teaching students how to think and how to connect, and giving them enough knowledge to do both well.

I’m not calling for an AI ban or a Chromebook bonfire. What I am calling for is getting the balance right to harness the benefits of technology while mitigating the harms. I am proposing a 10-point plan to boost student learning and success in the age of AI:

1. No screens (including online assessments) for students in prekindergarten through second grade, unless there is a compelling reason, such as to most effectively support a student with special needs.
2. No student-facing AI in elementary schools—not only to prevent harm, but to build children’s skills like relationship-building and persistence. All other student-facing AI, including digital literacy efforts, must be supervised by educators. And until at least age 16, there should be a total ban on so-called “social companion” chatbots, computer programs that simulate human relationships.
3. Redesign schooling so active learning, including project-based, experiential, and career-connected learning, is the norm across all grade levels. That means redesigning accountability as well.
4. Ensure students have a solid foundation in literacy, numeracy, and civic engagement.
5. Focus on well-being, so that students and their families have their basic needs met and students are prepared to learn, as community schools do so successfully.
6. Protect intellectual property and academic freedom, and support educators to understand, effectively use, and make classroom-based decisions about technology integration.
7. Establish a new gold standard for safety and privacy for the use of AI in schools. Providers that cannot meet these requirements should not be eligible to serve the K–12 education sector.
8. Establish an independent research consortium to build a strong knowledge base for effective practices for education that can be sustained and scaled. The research should include the effects of AI, screens, and technology on students, and should not be paid for by the industries whose products are being researched.
9. Ensure adequate funding of education by states and the federal government. This means reversing the trend of disinvestment since the Great Recession and targeting funding to level the playing field and promote opportunity for all students—and not letting AI and vouchers further defund public education.
10. A “tech tax” on Big Tech’s earnings and on some business operations, to ensure they pay their fair share for the adverse and disruptive consequences of this technology on American families, such as workers being displaced by AI.

In sum, to ensure our students are prepared for the future, we need a “devices-down, eyes-up, hands-on” strategy.

Research already attests to the value of engaged and active learning. It’s a pedagogy we know works, especially when students are solving real-world problems and receiving meaningful feedback. And in the AI era, it is even more important than ever. It needs to be the way every student can learn, in an age-appropriate way, in every grade.

This does not replace the need for a broad foundation of knowledge starting with literacy and numeracy. But today, students need a new set of basics built on the ability to think critically, communicate, collaborate, and apply knowledge.

To really prepare young people for complex challenges, our true goal is to have students who can work together and problem solve. They must be able to pool their collective knowledge, strengths, and perspectives, because today’s problems are greater than each of us, but they are not greater than the sum of us.

Brain science tells us that kids can’t learn unless they feel safe, and unless school is a welcoming environment where they feel they belong. Students can’t learn if they are hungry, or coping with stress from home, or don’t have a home. One way to support student and family needs is through community schools, which connect services and activities to the school itself. Community schools produce among the best returns on investment in the research record—an average of $7 to $15 for every $1 spent.

Speaking of investment, over the past 20 years, study after study has shown that money matters in education, and it matters a lot; investment in schools improves student outcomes, while funding cuts hurt those outcomes. Yet 42 states devote a smaller share of their economies to their K–12 public schools than they did in 2006, representing a loss of hundreds of billions of dollars in potential revenue.

This disinvestment is particularly acute in states such as Arizona, Florida, and Texas, where recent voucher expansions will exacerbate the cycle of underfunding and underachievement. We must stop the runaway train that private school vouchers are becoming. Vouchers have produced some of the largest declines in student learning in the research record.^†

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation, public schools remain—as the founders argued—essential to forging a pluralistic, unified nation that is stronger tomorrow than today. Indeed, I just wrote a book about this.^‡ By bringing together children of different races, religions, languages, and cultures, public school classrooms are laboratories of democracy that forge bonds and bridge our differences—if we support and nourish them.

The 10-point plan is grounded in what I’ve witnessed firsthand over the last two decades, visiting hundreds of schools and listening to thousands of educators, parents, young people, and others. The plan addresses the enormity of the tech earthquake, dealing with screens and student-facing AI; creating an enforceable privacy standard for the use of AI in schools; calling for deep, classroom-relevant research in education; insisting on protections for intellectual property and academic freedom; and demanding a tech tax to compensate the country for the consequences.

We need a relentless, intentional focus on what our young people need: greater literacy, numeracy, and civic engagement, and active learning that excites and engages them—all while ensuring their social and mental well-being and ability to form healthy relationships. Devices down, eyes up, hands on.

America’s teachers—as they always have—are doing noble work; they’re showing up every day to help young people realize their potential and build our collective future. Today’s students will be the ones who heal, help, and lead us. They will be the environmental stewards, the innovators, the artists, the first responders, and the teachers of tomorrow. The other side is trying to exploit the current crisis to destroy public education and pluralism as we know it. We have a different vision: to revitalize and reimagine public schools so every one of our students can harness their future and build the country they dream of.

*To read an excerpt of Haidt’s book, see “Distracted by Design” in the Spring 2026 issue of American Educator. (return to article)

^†For details on vouchers’ impact, see “Ideology Over Evidence” in the Fall 2025 issue of American Educator. (return to article)


^‡To read an excerpt, see “Why Do Fascists Fear Teachers?” in the Fall 2025 issue of American Educator. (return to article)