by: Amanda Lee
As an executive at a company that powers AI at scale, I spend my days thinking about what it takes to build and run artificial intelligence in the real world—not just in labs, but in production, at massive scale, where performance, reliability, and data matter.
And as a parent, I spend my evenings thinking about something even more important:
Are we preparing our kids for the world they’re about to inherit?
Because right now, many schools are not.
AI is moving faster than most education systems can adapt. And while there’s a growing conversation about limiting AI use in classrooms, the bigger issue is this:
Other countries aren’t just debating about AI in the classroom—they’re integrating it.
They’re teaching students how to use it responsibly, how to think critically with it, and how to build skills around it. Meanwhile, too many U.S. schools are still treating AI as a threat instead of a tool, which creates a dangerous gap between what students are learning and what the future will demand.
The New Literacy Isn’t Just Reading and Writing—It’s Prompting, Evaluating, and Building
We’re entering a world where AI will sit beside every profession:
- Doctors will use AI to accelerate diagnosis
- Lawyers will use AI to analyze case law
- Engineers will use AI to generate code and test designs
- Marketers will use AI to model audiences and write campaigns
- Creators will use AI to produce, edit, and publish at scale
And most importantly: Every student will use AI.
The question is whether they’ll use it passively or whether they’ll know how to use it as a force multiplier.
In the same way, students once had to learn how to search the internet, they now need to learn how to:
- Ask better questions
- Validate information
- Spot hallucinations and bias
- Break down problems into steps
- Use AI to learn faster — not avoid learning
The Biggest Risk: Raising Kids Who Can Use AI, But Can’t Think Without It
This is the part many parents miss.
The goal isn’t to turn every 7th grader into a machine learning engineer. The goal is to raise students who can:
- Use AI tools confidently
- Understand what AI is and isn’t
- Maintain strong independent reasoning
- Build a personal advantage in a world where AI is everywhere
Because the winners in the AI era won’t just be the people who “use AI.”
They’ll be the people who can think clearly, ask sharply, verify relentlessly, and create boldly — with AI as an accelerator.
So, How Do We Stay Ahead? Start at Home—Like It’s 1998 Again
Many parents remember the early internet era.
Back then, schools didn’t teach kids how to navigate the web. Families did. Some households had rules, guidance, and experimentation. Others didn’t.
And that gap showed up later.
We’re at that same moment again—except the stakes are much higher, because AI isn’t just information access. It’s capability access.
So for families with a 5th grader and a 7th grader (like me), here’s the real playbook:
1) Make AI a Learning Tool, Not a Shortcut
Instead of banning it, encourage use cases like:
- Explain this like I’m 11.
- Quiz me on this chapter.
- Help me outline my essay, but I’ll write it.
- Show me a different way to solve this math problem.
AI becomes a tutor, not a ghostwriter.
2) Teach Them the Most Valuable Skill: Verification
At scale, the #1 issue with AI isn’t power.
It’s trust.
So train kids early to ask:
- How do you know that?
- What’s the source?
- Is that fact or opinion?
- Show me two perspectives.
That single habit will separate future leaders from future followers.
3) Make Prompting a Real Skill
Prompting is not magic — it’s structured thinking.
Kids should learn to give AI:
- Context
- A clear goal
- Constraints
- Examples
- A way to check the answer
That is executive-level thinking — and they can start in 5th grade.
4) Encourage Building, Not Just Consuming
The most important shift is moving from:
“AI gives me answers” to “AI helps me create.”
Kids can use AI to:
- Write short stories
- Build a science fair presentation
- Generate quiz games
- Create study guides
- Prototype a simple app concept
This is how they learn agency.
5) Teach Ethics and Responsibility Early
AI is powerful, but power without ethics and values can be dangerous.
Kids should understand:
- Don’t use AI to cheat
- Don’t use AI to bully
- Don’t share private information
- Don’t assume AI is always right
- Don’t use AI to replace real effort
These are the new digital citizenship rules.
The Real Advantage: Confidence + Competence
The biggest competitive advantage we can give our kids isn’t early coding.
It’s comfort and fluency in a world where AI is normal.
When students learn AI early, they don’t fear it. They don’t avoid it. They don’t feel behind.
They treat it like electricity: powerful, useful, everywhere—and something you learn to use wisely.
A Final Thought from Someone Helping Build the AI Era from the Inside
In my world, AI isn’t theoretical. It’s deployed. It’s operational. It’s changing the economics of industries in real time.
And that’s why I believe this:
If we wait for the education system to fully catch up, we’ll lose a generation of advantage.
But if we teach AI fluency at home—thoughtfully, ethically, and confidently—our kids won’t just keep up.
They’ll lead.
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Amanda R. Lee is Vice President, Marketing – Analyst and Public Relations, DDN. She is a member of VFI’s Advisory Task Force.
Voices for Innovation (VFI) regularly shares a range of commentaries on tech policy topics that reflect the views of individual authors and do not necessarily represent specific policies endorsed by VFI.