Why I’m Not Worried about AI Replacing My Students

As a middle school teacher, I am well aware that the world for which I am preparing my students is different from the one in which we live today. Accordingly, my interest was piqued when The World Economic Forum released its Future of Jobs Report 2025.

The most interesting element for me and my work with adolescents was buried on page 44 of the report. This interest was echoed by Conor Grennan , Chief AI Architect at NYU’s Stern School of Business, who called the page a “bombshell.”?

In short, the figure, titled “Current capacity for substitution by Generative AI, by skill group,” outlined three tiers of jobs

-those most vulnerable to AI replacement

-those AI can assist, but not yet replace

-those AI cannot currently replace

As I scanned the list of skills and occupations, two things struck me. First, 70% of the reading, writing and math-related jobs and skills are under threat of being replaced by Artificial Intelligence.

Wow.

You see, this hosts close to home because I expend lots of energy thinking about how to teach children how to write. I design assignments and activities that enable them to find their narrative voices; I provide feedback to support their drafting as they polish their prose. More than anything, I want them to realize it’s possible to write both well and authentically; I tell them how I want to read essays and insights that are filled with both honesty and scholarship. “I want it to sound like you,” I’ll say, “but not the playground or txt msg version of you…I want the most sophisticated version of you!”

While everyone’s panicking about AI taking their jobs, this data tells me a completely different story. My students will need to learn to use their voices not in a world where they are being replaced by AI, but where they are using AI as a tool. Perhaps, as this report suggests, 70% of the writing they do can be overtaken, but if that is the reality, let’s dig into that 30% that can’t be replaced and hone those skills. AND(!) let’s see what is happening in that 70% segment of the writing world, because the folks who can wield AI, harness its power, and use it as a collaborator rather than an opponent will be the ones with jobs in the field. Let’s search out the AI allies and ask ourselves, “What are they doing differently?”

So, that’s thing 1: this isn’t the end of reading, writing, or math. But it does represent a seismic shift in the ways we think about those areas. We can’t keep teaching (and learning) like the world isn’t changing…it is. We owe it to the future adults our students will become to take responsibility for the ways we’re teaching them today.

Thing 2 has to do with that bottom tier of the graphic: what AI cannot replace. When I look at that list, I see things that matter but that are qualitative in nature–the skills that are tougher to measure. These facets of performance will rarely feel urgent, but would be considered by most parents, philosophers, and psychologists as being far more important for a young person’s skill set and long-term development than anything else. They’re a collection of skills I’ve often heard referred to as “soft skills,” but they are just as valuable and vital to success in the future workplace as any other…probably more so.

We are talking about the skills that make us human, a fact which makes lots of sense when we’re distinguishing between artificial intelligence and, well, human intelligence. The report specifically lists Teaching, Mentorship, Creative Problem-Solving, Empathy, Active Listening, Manual & Physical Skills, Environmental Skills

Now, let’s just get one thing clear: I did not make this list up. In fact, The Future of Jobs Report 2025 brings together insights from 1,000 global employers 14 million workers 22 industry sectors 55 economies

And guess what? This actually makes me feel great. I feel great because I work in a school that welcomes just over 200 young people to our campus each day. In each classroom, we have three simple rules.

1. Be Kind.
2. Respect everyone’s right to learn.
3. Be responsible for yourself and your world.

Beyond those rules, our school has five Signature Programs:

Leadership, Public Speaking, Outdoor Education, Global Citizenship, STEAM

It’s not just here, though. Throughout my experience as an educator in both public and other independent schools, I have been surrounded by colleagues committed to strengthening skills in areas that can’t be artificially replaced.

In my classroom today, my students are creative and empathetic listeners; they are physical, environmentally-aware problem solvers. My students have experience both mentoring and being mentored. I listen as my students use their voices to compel others, and through their STEAM programming they also have a healthy respect for both the strengths and shortcomings of technology…including AI.

I love observing the young people with whom I spend my days. I see children who look optimistically at shifts on the horizon and — instead of growing cynical or anxious — stride forward with confidence. I love equipping them, not with the answers, but with a healthy understanding that the questions their generation answers are going to become more complicated, and the answers they develop will need to be more collaborative…not just more complicated and collaborative than any they, themselves, have seen, but more than humanity has ever experienced.

So when we think about the skills and professions that are “most vulnerable to AI replacement,” or that can “be assisted but not replaced,” or even the ones that AI “cannot currently replace,” I am confident in this: Nothing can replace the value of teaching the tools our students will need tomorrow. After all, workplace culture will forever be built on relationships, not algorithmic bits and chips.

Will McDonough is a teacher, learner, coach, advisor and Director of Community Engagement at The Country School, a private day school in Madison, Connecticut. The school is a dynamic community where learning comes alive each day through hands-on exploration and discovery…and an occasional lesson about how to add technological skills to one’s academic tool belt.?