What Shall I Teach My Son?

A programmer expecting his first child reflects on education's purpose in an age of AI, questioning what skills to teach when his own programming expertise feels increasingly devalued. Drawing on Neil Postman's "The End of Education," he argues that despite repeated predictions of technology displacing schools—from Edison's radio to MOOCs—educational institutions have proven remarkably resilient due to deeper social functions beyond their stated missions. He suggests that rather than being upended by AI, schools will likely continue to adapt and persist, just as they survived previous technological disruptions.