Teacher v chatbot: my journey into the classroom in the age of AI
Peter C. Baker, a 39-year-old former freelance writer turned student teacher, chronicles his first year navigating the AI dilemma in high school English classrooms. He observes the stark contrast between AI-disrupted writing assignments and the energizing power of tech-free, read-aloud classroom sessions. Ultimately, he lands on a cautious rejectionist stance while acknowledging the unresolved tensions that will continue to shape his teaching.
Summary
Peter C. Baker began teacher training at age 39, bringing 15 years of experience as a freelance writer and novelist to the classroom. His goal was to help young people become stronger readers, writers, and thinkers with a deeper connection to literature. Almost immediately, the question of AI became an overwhelming preoccupation, layered on top of timeless pedagogical uncertainties about what school is actually for and how to measure success.
Baker maps out the landscape of the AI-in-education debate, identifying two broad camps. The 'rejectionists' view AI as an existential threat to the core activities of the English classroom — the productive struggle of reading complex texts and developing original arguments. They advocate for in-class essays, oral tests, and hand-written work. The 'cheerleaders,' by contrast, argue that AI tools, used thoughtfully, could serve as personalized assistant teachers, providing real-time feedback to every student and preparing them for a workforce that increasingly demands AI fluency. Baker candidly reflects on the fear that drives teachers: the dread of being ineffective, out-of-touch, or complicit in harming the very students they are trying to help.
During his observation period with a veteran teacher he calls Emily, Baker witnesses the disruptive reality of AI in practice — fully AI-generated papers, hallucinated citations, and the demoralizing experience of trying to grade writing while constantly questioning its origins. He also observes students being funneled toward AI tools reflexively, including through Google searches that now surface AI-generated answers by default. Emily's reading baseline is shocking to Baker: most assigned reading must happen in class, often read aloud, because students are unable or unwilling to do it independently.
Yet Baker also witnesses the transformative power of tech-free, read-aloud classroom time. Watching Emily guide students through 'All Quiet on the Western Front' — phones pouched, laptops closed — he feels the room 'quietly crackling' with genuine engagement. Students who initially resisted the book eventually became emotionally invested in the characters, demonstrating the kind of deep literary connection Baker had hoped to foster. This experience initially pushes him firmly toward the rejectionist camp.
Over the summer and into his student teaching semester, Baker's doubts return. He tests AI chatbots himself, confirming that AI-generated student writing is no longer reliably detectable, and that some tools provide genuinely useful feedback on drafts. He stages an extended internal debate with himself, acknowledging the legitimate arguments for using AI as a personalized feedback tool, particularly for students writing at home without access to a teacher. Ultimately, he chooses to keep his classroom as AI-free as possible, prioritizing the friction and uncertainty of unmediated reading and writing.
As a student teacher, Baker experiments with creative, unconventional assignments designed to be resistant to AI shortcuts. He holds frank classroom conversations about AI, giving students questionnaires about their usage habits. Students express awareness that AI threatens original thought, yet many describe 'responsible' AI use patterns — like having AI write a thesis or first draft — that Baker sees as undermining the very cognitive skills they claim to want to develop. A parent challenges Baker's AI restrictions, citing the professional value of AI fluency.
In a resonant final episode, Baker's younger students write creative short stories, and many independently draw parallels between Mark Twain's supernatural character Satan in 'The Mysterious Stranger' and modern AI chatbots — Satan offers to do characters' homework and polish their work, just as chatbots do. Baker finds this insight, which he had never considered himself, to be one of the most rewarding moments of his teaching year. He ends the semester grading stories by hand, declining AI grading tools, and reflecting that while his approach will surely evolve, he feels at peace with the choices he made.
About this episode
I was a newcomer, negotiating all of the usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack By Peter C Baker. Read by Adam Sims. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
Key Insights
- Baker argues that AI-generated student writing is no longer reliably distinguishable from genuine student work, debunking the 2023-era assumption that machine writing was instantly detectable by teachers.
- Baker observed that students were often funneled into AI use passively — a Google search about Romeo and Juliet would surface an AI answer, offer a 'dive deeper' option, and within seconds students were chatting with Gemini, which actively advertised its own capabilities.
- Baker claims that Emily, the veteran teacher he observed, had to conduct most assigned reading in class and aloud because students lacked the ability or habit to read independently at home — a baseline he found deeply dismaying.
- Baker found that even students who expressed genuine concern about AI eroding their original thinking would, just lines later, describe 'responsible' AI use patterns — such as having AI write a thesis or first draft — that he viewed as directly undermining those same cognitive capacities.
- Baker argues that the teacher's unique value lies in knowing students personally — watching drafts evolve, having face-to-face conversations about choices — and that delegating the reading and grading of student work to an AI algorithm would betray the fundamental human relationship at the core of teaching.
- Baker reports that students, even heavy AI users, could not explain in plain language how chatbots generate text, suggesting that widespread AI use exists entirely decoupled from any functional understanding of the technology.
- Baker's younger students independently drew parallels between Mark Twain's Satan in 'The Mysterious Stranger' — who offers to do characters' homework and free up their time — and modern AI chatbots, an interpretation Baker had never considered himself despite his deep engagement with AI concerns.
- Baker reflects that Freud's description of teaching as one of the 'impossible professions' — where total success can never be declared and unsatisfying results can be expected in advance — became a daily consolation during his semester of profound uncertainty about nearly every instructional decision he made.
Topics
Transcript
This is The Guardian. Welcome to The Guardian Long Read, showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture, politics and new thinking. For the text version of this and all our Long Reads, go to theguardian.com forward slash long read. Teacher v. Chatbot. My Journey into the Classroom in the Age of AI by Peter C. Baker. Read by Adam Sims. Two years ago, at the age of 39, I began training to be a school teacher. I wanted to teach English to help young people become stronger readers, writers and thinkers, with a deeper connection to literature. After 15 years of working as a freelance writer and as a novelist, I felt confident that I had something to offer. But…
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