A teacher in Fort Worth, Texas, has found a way to push AI out of her classroom. She went analog.
Chanea Bond, an American literature and composition teacher at Southwest High School, says returning to the basics, pencil and paper, is paying off for her students in the long run. In an interview with NPR, she shared how the old-school approach is strengthening their core skills.
“If you walk into almost any one of my classes today, you will see that all of my students are handwriting,” Bond said. “They are journaling, and they are constantly and consistently doing everything with a pen or a pencil.”
The shift came after an assignment where students were asked to use AI to craft a thesis. The results, she said, were eye-opening. Many students struggled to tell whether what the AI produced was accurate or even good, exposing gaps in their ability to build clear arguments on their own.
It was, in her view, undermining the development of fundamental skills.
“Where are those skills going to be built, if not here?” she told the outlet.
Even as AI becomes more widely embraced in classrooms, and despite questions from others about whether her students might fall behind with the technology, Bond believes a strong foundation matters more.
“I know that when my students leave my class that they know how to think and they know how to write,” she said.
In a post on Instagram celebrating the article and shouting out her bright students for participating in the piece, Bond wrote, “This article showcases what I’ve known: teaching students to think and showing how thinking = learning is always right.”
She added, “I’m proud of the hard work we do in my classroom, and I’m excited to keep growing.”
