I was given a homework assignment some time ago. It required me to watch a video and answer questions based on it. I watched the video a total of three times, but I couldn’t fully answer the questions. They all pertained to the overarching topic of the video, but almost all of them did not correspond to the specifics presented. I finally relented and turned to my textbook and online resources to answer the questions that were not answered by the video. I came to class the next day confused, but with completed homework in hand. In fact, I worried whether my teacher would question my answers, since they weren’t derived from the video I was supposed to use. But it turned out that my confusion was shared by the entire class, and my teacher had an announcement to make: they apologized for the homework. They said they’d been in a rush the day before and so had used an Artificial Intelligence program to generate the assignment.

To us students, this mistake was quite frustrating, though understandable; teachers are notoriously overworked and underpaid, and AI tools can be quite helpful. It isn’t the use of AI alone that is the problem here. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are increasingly used on the job by many professionals. When used to augment tedious tasks, brainstorm ideas, or deepen research, it can be a powerful time-saver, especially in classrooms where teachers already dedicate long hours. Teachers at Haldane sometimes use AI to draft emails, brainstorm lesson ideas, and even check for AI-assisted plagiarism in student work. For example, High School Principal Julia Sniffen told me that she uses AI to help other teachers. She said, “I used [AI] to start the thought process for myself on what is the best way for me to develop this course for teachers.” In many of my classes, teachers use AI-powered resources like turnitin.com to aid in discovering student plagiarism. However, in the absence of a clear overarching AI policy for Haldane School District, it is easy for lines to be blurred and mistakes to be made–by teachers and by students both. In the case of my AI-generated homework, AI didn’t help my teacher teach us better; it just made me wary of future assignments. Worse, it eroded some of the trust that I had in my teacher.

To protect this important foundation of trust, Haldane should institute a policy to make it clear how teachers, not just students, may use AI in the classroom. Haldane has no current policy on the use of AI, but the high school’s guidelines on plagiarism and AI state, “A form of academic misconduct that is detrimental to a community of learning is plagiarism.” When adults create assignments or material for students using AI and LLMs and do not disclose the use to students, they erode the community of learning and the trust students have in their teachers. The use of AI to generate assignments risks weakening the bond that a teacher has with a specific class, which they, not a computer, are uniquely positioned to teach in a responsive and personal way. Teaching is the heart of what educators do; if they become too reliant on these AI tools, I fear that the personal aspect of learning will be lost. Teachers are the most important part of a school, and the uniqueness in perspectives that they provide makes them, in my mind, much more valuable than an LLM, which by definition tends towards the median. A policy that encourages trust and academic integrity in both students and teachers would not only help students’ learning, but would also emphasize the true value of human teachers over AI instructors by highlighting all of the vital work that they do without the use of AI.
An overarching and inclusive Haldane AI Policy should require educators, as well as students, to disclose exactly how they use AI in their classrooms. This would strengthen the trust between teachers and students and provide clear guidelines to ensure that any assignments and content created with LLMs benefit from the expertise and personal touch of our Haldane teachers.

Although I didn’t mention my personal experience with my own teachers, I did ask Principal Sniffen about the administration’s stance on teacher use of Artificial Intelligence. She said, “I’m not opposed to teachers using it to develop courses and develop lessons to think about what are the resources and materials out there. But [teachers] should never not review something and present it to a class of students without it going through. It’s not real.” In my opinion, it is this sense of “real” that deserves to be protected by an AI policy inclusive of both teachers and students. In order to encourage all of us to use Artificial Intelligence responsibly and transparently, the Haldane Board of Education should adopt a policy that establishes clear guidelines and requires all members of the school community to disclose their use of AI so that the mutual trust that is the foundation of the learning environment here at Haldane remains intact.

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