Principal's Message Week 1 Term 3

I watched a young boy being pushed in a cool little vintage car by his mother. The toddler was clearly enjoying the ride! After a while, he wanted to get out and push the car himself. He was totally engrossed with the task, delighted by his efforts. What I saw was a real boy engaging in real time with his real mother!

A couple of years ago, I read a book titled The Lonely Century: A Call to Reconnect (2020) by Noreena Hertz. This well-researched book explores how our reliance on technology, which ironically allows us to be more “connected” than ever, has in fact left us being lonelier than ever: in our workplaces, in our neighbourhoods, and even in our schools and homes. The antidote to all of this is connection with real people, in real time. Put down the screen, the tablet, the iPad, the phone and the laptop, and be truly present to each other, and forge communities of hope, love, and engagement. In addition, seek to do all of this for the common good.

The exponential growth of AI in our lives presents us with new, and immediate challenges. I have been doing a fair amount of reading about AI in the education world lately, so that we might come to a collective position on teaching about AI, and teaching using AI. No doubt you are all acutely aware that this is a contentious space, and universities and schools are grappling with these very issues right now. I assume that in your workplaces, you are doing something very similar.

I am a fan of two contemporary authors: Jonathan Haidt, who is also a social psychologist, and Jared Cooney-Horvath, who is also a neuroscientist. One of our pastoral leaders recently sent me a short YouTube Ted Talk featuring Jonathan Haidt (How Screens Stole Childhood — and How to Get It Back | Jonathan Haidt | TED). In this talk, Haidt proposes that we reclaim childhood for our young people by letting them - encouraging them and perhaps engineering for them - real world experiences with real people. He suggests that we humans are “ultra-social” and thus need to engage with others frequently and for prolonged periods.

The adolescent brain is constantly being remodeled /rewired and is therefore shaped by what we are doing every day. If this is being shaped by our experiences in relationships with other people, this is great! If it is with screens, then this is how it will continue to be wired.

As the title of the TED Talk suggests, he posits three rules for parents on how to be a Techno skeptic:

Firstly, to protect brain development through puberty (at least). Do not let us make the same mistake with AI as we have done with screens and social media. He says that AI is coming at us to take over our relationships – to be our friend, our therapist, and even our sexual partners. Protect our children’s brains by giving them a social life. Allow them to ride their bike, play a sport, learn a musical instrument, take the dog for a walk, and, as I like to say, to waste time with other people.

Secondly, Haidt says we should prioritise people and books in education, not screens. Watch this space at Ambrose Treacy College, for the gradual reduction and removal (over time) of screens from classrooms as the default mechanism for notetaking, teaching and learning. We all know the extant research supports reading from three-dimensional books and using a pen. This allows real thinking to happen.

Thirdly, Haidt’s last rule is about having no artificial relationships for minors. We should not outsource our lives to a chat bot. There are chat bots in dolls, and teddy bears now that are super responsive, he says. The warning here is not to let AI imprint on a child. Give them nothing that conveys that AI understands the child, or that it cares. Because it doesn’t.

Haidt spurns the argument that we all need to learn AI because we are going to need it in the workplace. He suggests that AI is so simple to use that it can be engaged with in minutes, not years! It doesn’t take a genius to work this out. We will pick it up when it is required.

While this can all come across as doom and gloom, what in fact is the good news in all of this is our growing awareness of what social media, screens, and technology are doing, and have done to a generation of young people – and older people too. We are all becoming more discerning about the role and place of technology, and the pace with which it is moving. We are starting to push back and become more discerning about how and when we engage with technology. We have all been sold a myth on many scores when it comes to technology, and it has not made our lives easier, nor has it made us happier. It certainly hasn’t made us smarter. We are in the process now of reclaiming our sense of self, and our innocence, and our own lives.

AI is affecting early career opportunities says Professor Danny Liu from Sydney University. However, the professions that will be least affected are those which are care-focussed. The skills that employers are now seeking are those human skills of resilience, curiosity, life-long learning, and analytical thinking. To this list, I would certainly add personal voice, authority, integrity, and creativity. As a Catholic, I also think we must prize and prioritise care for others, especially those who are the most vulnerable, the poorest, and most at-risk. Our commitment to what is good for the many, also known as the common good, should be our go-to. Thankfully, in our Edmund Rice school, these virtues have never gone out of fashion.

I once worked with a lady whose husband had died. We talked often about the things she missed most about him not being around. The most telling for her was simple, daily, human touch, and how she took this for granted, until it wasn’t there anymore. AI will never provide this. Our humanity must be preserved, and in a dignified manner.

Pope Leo XIV has recently released his excellent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. The following is an excerpt (from chapter 3, paragraph 99):

So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship, or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate language, behaviour, and analytical skills, or even simulate empathy and understanding, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. Let us all work to ensure our children have a play-based childhood, where human relationships are at the centre. Let us be present, and visible to one another. And let us continue to inculcate in our young boys a desire to do good for the world by carving, creating, and fostering life-giving relationships.

Let us continue investing in our human family, locally, and globally. This will combat loneliness, and it will engender compassion, and empathy. It may also just separate our young men out from other candidates in a job interview where “soul” skills will become even more highly valued.

Dr Craig Wattam

College Principal