“Is Schoolwork Optional Now?” showed up in my feed recently. It is an article by Lila Shroff that appeared in The Atlantic (in the online version) on April 10, 2026.
The article should cause concern for educators. They will read how AI has been used to complete schoolwork. The rationale behind the decision by those who made one of the tools Shroff described seems to have been dismissed by educators. Educators want the tools banded, they do not want to realize what its existence means.
For the last school year or so, my answer to the question in the title has been “yes.” Shroff’s article clearly describes just how easy it is to justify the answer.
Late in the article, Shroff tells the story of Natalie Lahr, a student who met with a peer tutor who copied and pasted Lahr’s essay into and AI tool with the prompt to improve it. When the peer tutor handed it back, Lahr’s response was, “Why am I even here?”
For students the answer must be “I am here to learn what my teachers ask.” Well, that is partly true. They are there to learn what teachers can justify. We have all heard the question from students “Why do I need to learn this?” Often the answer is justified by some additional schooling: “you will need it next year.” If this is the bet the teacher can do, then students can justify not learning it. If the teacher can explain the answer through a clear problem that is relevant and interesting to the students, then they should take the advice and learn it.
For teachers, the story in the previous paragraph tells them the biggest (but not the only thing) they can do to motivate students to stop using AI. Learn how to explain and demonstrate the ideas in your curriculum in problems of interest to students. Yes, it may take a little longer, but it is necessary. It has always been necessary, but now it is really necessary!