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In an October 19, 2026 essay, programmer Steve Krouse asks what he should teach his son as artificial intelligence reshapes the value of programming and other work. Drawing on Neil Postman, he argues that schooling has survived earlier technologies and proposes that education’s purposes go beyond earning a living—including citizenship, care for others and understanding the tools that shape society.
Programmer Steve Krouse is questioning what to teach his expected son as advances in artificial intelligence make him less confident that programming will remain an economically valuable skill. In an essay published October 19, 2026, Krouse draws on Neil Postman’s book The End of Education to argue that education need not be defined by job preparation alone—and that parents and children can shape its purposes together.
Krouse writes that becoming a father has made the question of education personal: he and his wife are expecting their first child, while his own professional identity is tied to programming. He describes that skill as feeling less valuable amid recent AI advances. The essay raises a question rather than offering a settled prediction about how AI will change employment or schools.
As evidence against declaring schools obsolete, Krouse recalls past predictions that new media would displace teachers. He cites a passage reproduced in Postman’s book about Thomas Edison’s expectations for radio and moving pictures, as well as Edison’s 1913 prediction that books would soon be obsolete in public schools. Krouse also revisits his own 2013 forecast that massive open online courses would upend education, acknowledging that it did not come to pass as he expected.
In Krouse’s reading of Postman, schools have endured partly because their purposes and supporting institutions have adapted over time. Education can aim to help people become good citizens, earn a living, learn facts, contribute to society or become good people. Krouse says he previously favored “resourcefulness”—using available tools to solve problems—but wonders whether AI agents could make that definition less durable. He suggests that education’s means of teaching may matter as much as its stated content, and calls for treating children as people who can help decide what their education is for.
Education Beyond Job Preparation
The essay captures a question facing parents and educators as generative AI and automated tools change how some work is done: what should children learn if particular technical skills may lose economic value? Krouse does not establish that AI will eliminate programming jobs or make schooling unnecessary. Instead, he describes uncertainty about the link between education and future employment, and argues that the link is only one part of education’s purpose.
That distinction matters because decisions about curricula and parenting can be shaped by assumptions about which skills will pay off. Krouse points to other possible aims, including citizenship, curiosity, responsibility and care. These are his proposed values, not outcomes demonstrated by the essay. His invitation to develop educational goals with children also shifts the question from selecting a fixed list of skills to deciding what kind of person and society education should support.
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Past Predictions About Schooling
Krouse’s argument draws on Neil Postman’s The End of Education, published in 1995. Postman considered how schools’ purposes changed over centuries, including an earlier role in religious instruction. Krouse uses that history to distinguish an institution’s stated mission from the factors that may help it persist, such as prestige, funding and families’ need for childcare.
The essay also places current AI concerns alongside earlier hopes that technology would replace conventional teaching. Krouse says he predicted in 2013 that online courses would upend education, but now sees that forecast as mistaken. These comparisons support his caution about confident claims that a new technology will quickly displace schools; they do not prove that AI will have no substantial effect.
“Books will soon be obsolete in the public schools… Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.”
— Thomas Edison, quoted in The New York Dramatic Mirror in 1913, as cited by Krouse
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AI’s Effect on Work and School
Krouse’s essay is a personal reflection, not a forecast backed by employment data or research on student outcomes. It does not establish how quickly AI will change programming work, which jobs may be affected, or what skills employers will value in the future. The essay also offers no evidence that schools will remain unchanged: its historical examples show that earlier predictions of rapid replacement can be wrong, not that today’s technologies cannot produce major shifts.
Krouse does not set out a curriculum, age-by-age teaching plan or specific policy proposal. His suggested purposes—including caring for the planet and understanding how tools shape people—are ideas he finds useful in Postman’s work, rather than a tested program for families or schools.
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A Family’s Educational Questions
Krouse closes without claiming to have resolved what his son should learn. He says he wants to invite his children into shaping education’s purpose as the family works it out together. The essay does not specify a next publication, school decision or timeline for that process.
For readers, the development is a prompt to distinguish preparation for paid work from other educational aims while AI’s effects remain uncertain. Any concrete decisions about schooling will depend on a child’s needs and circumstances; Krouse’s account supplies questions and values, not a single prescription.
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Key Questions
What prompted Steve Krouse to ask what he should teach his son?
Krouse writes that he and his wife are expecting their first child and that advances in AI have made him less confident about the future economic value of his programming skills.
Does the essay say AI will replace schools?
No. Krouse questions whether AI will change education and recalls earlier predictions that new technologies would displace schools. He does not claim that AI will replace them or that they will remain unchanged.
What purposes for education does Krouse discuss?
He lists purposes such as helping students become good people and citizens, earn a living, learn facts and contribute to the world. He also highlights care for the planet, curiosity and understanding how tools shape society.
Does Krouse recommend a particular curriculum?
No. The essay does not offer a curriculum or a specific teaching plan. Krouse says he wants to work with his children to decide what their education should be for.
Source: hn
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