We know what matters: how we help students in school in the new world of AI

“He’s not doing his homework… ever.”  a mom from Old Lyme called about her son Dylan.

Dylan, a junior at Lyme Old Lyme High School in Old Lyme, CT was resisting his parents’ advice about the need for college.  This has grown alarmingly more common.  But his resistance had taken a drastic form: he was refusing to do any work at school.

“It doesn’t matter….”

Dylan had been immersed in reading how AI was going to eliminate… “everything” as he said.

The Learning Consultants has been immersed in AI and how it will effect education, jobs, and lives – as has its subsidiary Career Counseling Connecticut

We have become deeply knowledgeable not in an abstract sense but in a distinct way:

How can your children prepare for this new world?

Dylan had nihilistic views: nothing matters.

When I met him, he was surprised that I listened.

He was more surprised when I took him seriously and, unlike other adults, he noted, actually “got how AI was going to revolutionize the world.”

My best work for the last 25 years has revolved around the psychological shifting of young adults to do what’s needed to practically succeed.  In simple terms, I know how to motivate young adults.

Dylan and I then shifted our discussion to how he could make his way in this world and, even better, how he could help others make their way.

He left excited.

“He’s doing his homework!”  his mom noted in her last e-mail.