Anyone reading this, if they haven’t used or heard about AI then they’re either lying to themselves or they’re living under a rock.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has completely changed the way school is handled by students. According to a recent article from the College Board, “The percentage of high school students who report using GenAI tools for schoolwork is growing, increasing from 79% to 84% between January and May 2025.” This raises the question — is AI doing more harm than good in the classroom?
The same study teaches that AI is a field of computer science focused on helping people think, learn, and help people do tasks and track other goals someone might have. Students use AI to help begin assignments or have AI make a study guide using notes that you can put into the program. According to recent surveys, over 80% of high school students report using AI tools for schoolwork, and the number is growing every year and it won’t stop any time soon.
Which leads people to ask themselves — “Is AI beneficial?” The answers vary between teachers and students.
“AI intimidates me, so I don’t use it in my classes – which I guess means I think it’s detrimental for students,” St. X’s excel coordinator Mr. Yochum said. “In my case, I’m imagining students taking easy routes in unsupervised settings – which is bad learning and is not skill building.”
“Some of my peers have developed lessons that use AI during class discussions and processes,” Mr. Yochum added. “This lets the teacher be the guardrails for students as they learn to use AI critically and with integrity. So that learning process is an example where AI is beneficial for well-guided students. And those teachers are my role models!”
“AI brings a super unique opportunity for students to both abuse and thrive from new technology,” Senior Anthony Passafiume said. “My opinion is that AI has completely changed the way students operate and will operate forever. Therefore, classes and assignments should reflect that change, and give students the opportunity to think critically both with and without AI. In other words, while AI obviously provides opportunities for dishonest students to abuse its ease of use, it provides an equal opportunity for teachers and students to change the ancient classroom dynamic and improve the efficiency of the upcoming workforce of students who should be AI-proficient.”
Pros and Cons
Pros:
• Saves time: AI can help students with brainstorming and making study guides.
• Improves organization: Using AI with making study guides, summarizing an article, or creating an outline for your notes can help keep everything you want in one space.
• Provides instant help: AI gives information from multiple sources and turns it into one giving you a quicker response and more reliable response than google or safari does.
Cons:
• Over reliance: AI can get students into the habit of not even using their own self to try and solve a problem or think of an idea and just get AI to do it for them because it’s fast and easy.
• Cheating / plagiarism: All students at St. X know it’s not fun to have to sit in the JUG room for three hours for getting caught using AI to just copy an essay and homework assignment and turning it in.
• Misinformation: AI can give misleading answers some times.
I personally think overall that AI is a good thing for students. AI has helped me brainstorm idea and helped me study for tests. From a non-student perspective you can use AI to help keep track of calories if you have a set goal and also use AI to help plan out meals to reach those goals. I also have personally used AI to help with college applications and helping me pick what I want to major in.
Whether for better or worse, AI isn’t going away anytime soon. The real question is how people choose to use it. What do you think? Vote in the poll below:
