In a stark warning issued in early 2026, educator and commentator Calvin White is urging parents and teachers across Canada to take immediate action to protect the intellectual lives of the next generation. He argues that the pervasive use of artificial intelligence and instant-response technology is actively stifling the development of critical thinking and reasoning skills in young people.
The Complacent Acceptance of a Cognitive Crisis
White contends that despite more than a decade of alarms regarding the addictive and harmful effects of social media and related technologies on youth, a dangerous level of denial persists in homes and schools. The convenience and sporadic usefulness of these tools, he says, have blinded society to their grave consequences.
Now, with children deeply embedded in relationships with digital screens, a sense of helpless resignation has taken root. The attitude that "this is just how life is now" has become a normalized identity. White asserts that this widespread complacency has created the perfect foundation for AI to intensify its threat to the developing minds of children.
A Personal Classroom Revelation
The author's concern was crystallized through direct experience with students. He draws a powerful parallel between physical and mental fitness. While supervising a Grade 10 fitness class, he observed students vigorously using various stations to build strength, agility, and cardiovascular health—a clear investment in their physical robustness.
The contrast became painfully clear during a separate interaction. White worked with a student who struggled with reading. After reading aloud and discussing a novel with her, he asked her to write a few lines about herself on paper. The student, with considerable effort, produced a single sentence about enjoying mountain biking.
When encouraged to elaborate, she painstakingly crafted another half-page. She described biking into the forest, the smell of the trees, and the feeling of her life's stress falling away. She even expressed a wish for her parents to experience the same relief. White watched her mind engage deeply: scratching out words, choosing better ones, and connecting sensory experience to emotional well-being and family.
A Call for Radical Action Beyond Bans
For Calvin White, this exercise was not just about writing; it was a visible demonstration of the complex cognitive processes—reflection, connection, elaboration, and empathy—that are essential to human intelligence. He fears these very processes are being systematically engineered out of children's futures by technology that does the thinking for them.
His proposed solution is stringent. He advocates moving beyond measures like Australia's social media ban for children under 16. White's plea is for an outright ban on the use of artificial intelligence in schools. He believes that when technology is allowed to immediately generate any written content or answer, the human capacity for deep thought, conclusion-drawing, and intellectual struggle atrophies from lack of use.
The core message is an urgent one: the immediacy offered by AI and response technology comes at a catastrophic cost to the fullness of a child's born cognitive potential. The time for complacent watching, he warns, has long passed.
