May 13, 2025
The Ezra Klein Show. A conversation with Rebecca Winthrop, Education Policy expert and Director of the Center for Universal Education at Brookings Institution; co-author of The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better.
This topic could not be more timely. In this thought provoking conversation with education policy expert and Director of the Center for Universal Education at Brookings Institution, Rebecca Winthrop and host Ezra Klein delve into the topic of Artificial Intelligence as a teaching tool, and how its growing use in the mainstream educational system is reshaping how children learn, how they define meaning, and how its adoption is challenging the accepted norms of educational methodology.
"I absolutely 100 percent think you should send your kids to a Waldorf School with the woodblocks when they're young." -- Rebecca Winthrop, Director of the Center for Universal Education at Brookings Institution
In today's heavily tech-influenced world, many parents are discussing generative A.I., both its benefits and shortcomings in the classroom, and why it's become such an integral learning tool for many of our children. Winthrop shares her research on why kids today have disengaged from traditional learning models and what affect it will have on them as adults, as well as our society as a whole.
You can read /listen to the entire conversation below. Note: content may be paywalled.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-rebecca-winthrop.html
