Final week, I discovered myself hunched over my laptop computer at 10 p.m. (hey, that’s late for me!), wrestling with a coding drawback. After hours of frustration, I stepped away and made a cup of tea. Once I returned, I did what any self-respecting technologist in 2025 would do: I backtracked, reformulated my query, and requested ChatGPT for assist.
I’m always requested questions like “Ought to my children be taught to code?” and “What abilities do they really want on this AI world?” I ponder about this too. I imply, if AI can now write code higher than most people, ought to we nonetheless be instructing children to do it? How can we put together them for the longer term, particularly as issues are transferring so shortly?
Maybe counterintuitively, this AI revolution may make a liberal arts training extra priceless. A poetry main learns find out how to categorical humanity. A historian learns classes from the previous. A philosophy scholar learns to query assumptions and moral frameworks. These timeless human abilities grow to be much more essential as AI handles the technical heavy lifting. With these foundational talents to grasp and categorical the human situation, what’s attainable with creativity turns into boundless.
The Finish of Coding Is the Starting of Drawback-Fixing
As AI begins writing code, we’re coming into what my pal Tim O’Reilly calls “the top of programming as we all know it.” We’ve gone from punch playing cards to meeting language to C, Python, and JavaScript—and now we’re simply telling computer systems what to do in plain language. That shift opens the door for extra folks to form know-how. The long run isn’t about figuring out code; it’s about figuring out what to construct and why.
Stanford researchers, together with Noah Goodman (who’s each a pc scientist and a psychologist learning human cognition), not too long ago printed a fascinating paper inspecting how totally different AI techniques method problem-solving.
What makes Goodman’s perspective so priceless is his twin experience in how minds, each human and synthetic, work. His paper reveals that the pondering patterns that make sure AI techniques extra profitable mirror these of efficient human problem-solvers: Essentially the most profitable techniques confirm their work, backtrack when caught, break huge issues into manageable subgoals, and work backward from desired outcomes.
It’s a profound discovery: The talents that make people efficient problem-solvers will stay priceless no matter how AI evolves. It made me notice that these cognitive behaviors—not coding syntax—are what we needs to be nurturing in our kids.
5 Important Abilities Children Want (Greater than Coding)
I’m not saying we shouldn’t train children to code. It’s a helpful talent. However these are the 5 true foundations that may serve them no matter how know-how evolves.
1. Loving the journey, not simply the vacation spot
When homework appears unattainable or a LEGO construction collapses for the fifth time, it’s simple for teenagers to get discouraged. However instructing them that setbacks are studying alternatives builds the bounce-back capacity they’ll want in a quickly altering world. The capability to soak up real setbacks and proceed ahead—discovering one thing new even after they don’t attain their preliminary objective—is perhaps the one most necessary talent we are able to nurture in our youngsters.
Growing a love of studying helps them to see robust issues as fascinating puzzles relatively than scary roadblocks. This doesn’t simply apply to tutorial topics. Real curiosity concerning the world prepares kids to adapt repeatedly. Essentially the most profitable folks I do know aren’t those that memorized probably the most information or mastered one particular talent; they’re those who stayed curious and saved going by way of fixed change.
We regularly speak about intrinsic motivation as a prerequisite for studying, nevertheless it’s additionally a muscle you construct by way of the training course of. As kids deal with challenges and expertise the satisfaction of overcoming them, they’re not simply fixing issues; they’re growing the motivation to deal with the following one.
2. Being a question-asker, not simply an answer-getter
Whenever you’re a scholar, you’re judged by how properly you reply questions.…However in life, you’re judged by how good your questions are.—Robert Langer, MIT Professor and Cofounder of Moderna
Anybody can ask AI for solutions. Those that ask considerate questions will get probably the most from it. Good questions stem from understanding what you don’t know, being clear about what you’re actually on the lookout for, and framing them in a means that results in significant solutions.
One of the vital highly effective metaskills we might help kids develop is self-awareness about their very own studying model. Some are project-based learners who must construct one thing with the intention to perceive it. Others be taught by way of dialog, writing, visualization, or instructing others. When a toddler discovers how their mind works finest, they’ll method any new topic by way of the lens that works for them, turning what might need been a battle right into a pure course of.
When a toddler asks, “Why is the sky blue?,” they’re doing one thing highly effective: noticing patterns, questioning what others take with no consideration, and in search of deeper understanding. Kids who be taught to ask good questions will direct the world relatively than be directed by it. They’ll know find out how to break huge issues into solvable items—an method that works in any discipline.
3. Making an attempt, failing, and making an attempt otherwise
When fixing issues, scientists don’t transfer ahead in a straight line. They make guesses, check them, and sometimes uncover they have been improper. Then they use that info to make higher guesses. This try-learn-adjust loop is one thing all profitable problem-solvers use, whether or not they’re fixing code or determining life.
When one thing doesn’t work as anticipated—together with an AI-generated reply—children want to determine what went improper after which attempt totally different approaches. This implies getting snug with saying issues like “Let me attempt a unique means” or “That didn’t work as a result of…”
Whether or not they’re troubleshooting a tool or navigating on a regular basis challenges, this mindset helps them method issues with confidence relatively than giving up.
4. Seeing the entire image
The largest challenges we presently face, from local weather change to healthcare, require understanding how totally different items join and affect one another. This “big-picture pondering” applies equally to on a regular basis conditions, reminiscent of understanding why a classroom will get noisy or why a household funds doesn’t stability.
This mindset is about recognizing patterns and understanding how altering one factor impacts all the things else. It helps us anticipate unintended penalties and create options that really work.
Once we train children to see connections relatively than remoted information, we put together them to deal with issues that AI alone can’t resolve. They grow to be administrators relatively than followers, in a position to mix human wants with technological potentialities.
5. Strolling in others’ footwear
In my current op-ed for the Chicago Tribune, I argued that effectivity and empathy aren’t opposing forces. They want one another. This precept is particularly necessary as we increase the following technology.
Know-how with out human understanding results in options that may look good on paper however overlook the actual folks they’re meant to assist. I’ve seen this firsthand in authorities techniques that course of folks effectively however fail to acknowledge their dignity and distinctive conditions.
Kids who develop deep empathy will create applied sciences that actually serve humanity relatively than simply serving statistics. They’ll ask not solely “Can we construct this?” however “Ought to we construct this, and who will it assist or hurt?” They’ll keep in mind that behind each information level is a human story, and that probably the most significant improvements are people who strengthen our connections to 1 one other.
The Actual Future: Amplifying Human Creativity
These 5 abilities converge in what I see as probably the most thrilling facet of our AI-augmented future: democratized creation. As extra folks acquire the flexibility to form know-how, even with out conventional coding abilities, we’ll see an explosion of native, purpose-driven options.
As I not too long ago wrote, I helped put collectively ai/teenagers, the primary international AI convention for and by teenagers. I needed to be taught from the primary AI-native technology, which intuitively understands know-how’s potential in methods many adults don’t.
Think about a world the place younger folks not solely use know-how however actively form it to unravel issues of their communities, designing accessibility instruments for mates with disabilities, creating platforms that join native assets with those that want them, or constructing instructional experiences tailor-made to totally different studying types.
This future isn’t about AI changing human creativity; it’s about amplifying it, making it attainable for extra folks to convey their distinctive views and options to life.
Let’s Construct This Future Collectively!
The fantastic thing about this method—specializing in resilience, questioning, adaptation, techniques pondering, and empathy—is that it really works no matter how know-how evolves. Essentially the most technologically superior future nonetheless wants individuals who can embrace challenges, ask significant questions, be taught repeatedly, see connections, and perceive one another.
In some ways, we’re returning to the best of a classical training for the AI age. These abilities type a contemporary trivium—not grammar, logic, and rhetoric however maybe curiosity, creativity, and compassion—foundational talents that unlock all different studying and doing.
Let’s work on this as a neighborhood! I’m crowdsourcing concepts, actions, and approaches that assist develop these important abilities. What different abilities do you suppose we should always concentrate on? I’m desirous to be taught with all of you.
