AI Didn't Destroy Critical Thinking—We Did

The panic about AI destroying critical thinking misses a crucial point: students weren't demonstrating strong critical thinking skills before AI arrived.

Dan Sarofian-Butin's latest article in Education Next cuts through the hysteria with an uncomfortable truth. NAEP scores have shown for decades that only a small percentage of U.S. students reach proficiency in reading and writing. College students were already "academically adrift." The Collegiate Learning Assessment revealed minimal learning gains across college years.

The Real Question

The real question isn't whether to ban AI—it's whether we'll finally use this transformational moment to implement the personalized, Socratic learning approaches that education theorists have developed for decades but never successfully scaled.

At Core Learning Exchange, we're seeing this firsthand. When AI is designed to keep students in "question space" rather than rushing to answers—when it functions as a challenging thinking partner rather than an answer delivery system—students develop transferable critical thinking skills.

How Students Use AI Matters

One of the students in Sarofian-Butin's courses put it perfectly:

"We are being taught how to think rather than what to think and AI has been a great tool during this process."

That's the distinction that matters. Not whether students use AI, but how they use it.

Moving Beyond Panic to Evidence

We're recruiting institutions for our Spring 2026 research pilot to measure these outcomes rigorously. If you're interested in moving beyond the panic to evidence-based implementation, let's connect.

This is our chance to finally implement the pedagogical approaches we've known work for decades—but could never scale with human tutors alone. AI makes personalized Socratic dialogue possible for every student, not just the privileged few.

Read the Full Article

Dan Sarofian-Butin's article provides important context on the state of critical thinking in education before AI's arrival. It's essential reading for anyone concerned about AI's role in education.

Read "AI Didn't Destroy Critical Thinking—We Did" on Education Next

About Core Learning Exchange: We provide turnkey Career and Technical Education (CTE) solutions for grades 6-14, offering 1,200+ courses from 20+ providers aligned to state standards and industry certifications. Our SOCRAT AI tutoring system uses proven Socratic methodology to develop critical thinking skills through personalized, question-driven dialogue.

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