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We recently posed a question to our Year 6 children: ‘If AI can do everything, why do we bother to learn?’
It is the kind of question that feels increasingly important for schools. Artificial intelligence can write stories, solve problems, generate pictures, explain difficult concepts and produce answers in seconds. As these tools become more capable, it is reasonable for children to wonder what that means for their own learning.
One child gave an instant answer that stopped us in our tracks: ‘Because AI doesn’t make mistakes, and when we learn, it is our opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them.’
There is, of course, an irony in the first part. AI does make mistakes — sometimes very convincing ones. But the second part of the answer captures something profound about education; learning is not simply about arriving at the correct answer but it is about the journey towards it.
When a child attempts a maths problem and gets it wrong, something valuable can happen – they reconsider, they try another approach, they ask a question, they notice something they had missed. Then, eventually, the moment of understanding belongs to them.
When a child struggles to find the right words for a story, wrestles with a difficult concept, practises a piece of music or tries something that doesn’t quite work, they are developing far more than knowledge. They are learning persistence, curiosity, creativity, judgement and resilience.
At Littlegarth we recognise that mistakes are not interruptions to learning – they are part of learning and that matters enormously in the age of AI.
The challenge for schools, including Littlegarth is not to pretend that AI does not exist, nor simply to ask whether children should or shouldn’t use it. The more interesting question is ‘What do we want children to be able to do for themselves?’
At Littlegarth we know we want them to question an answer rather than simply accept it. We want them to know enough to recognise when something doesn’t seem right. We want them to have ideas of their own and we want them to experience the frustration of not knowing, the courage to have a go, and the satisfaction that comes when something finally makes sense.
AI may become an extraordinary tool for our children. Used thoughtfully, it has the potential to help them explore, create and learn in ways we are only beginning to understand. But education has never simply been about producing answers at Littlegarth, it is about developing the child who is asking the question.
Perhaps that is why the answer from our Year 6 child resonated so strongly with us at Littlegarth. In a world where technology can increasingly give us an immediate answer, there is still enormous value in giving children the time and space to know, to try, to get things wrong and to learn.
