Professor tells college class that critical thinking is not important: 'They grade assignments with AI, they respond to emails with AI, the teacher's assistant is AI.'

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Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Feb 21, 2026 8:00 PM EST

Anyone who thinks that critical thinking is not important should not be a college professor.

What is the point of attending college? A great deal of the population thinks that college should be akin to trade school, where you train for a specific job and only that job. You get a Nursing degree to become a nurse, you get an Engineering degree to become an engineer, you get an Accounting degree to become an accountant, and so on. Those are all incredibly valid and practical educational avenues, especially in this increasingly uncertain job market. However, universities were not invented solely to train you for a specific job. 

That is a much more modern conception of the university. For most of its history, higher education was designed to give students a broad liberal arts education that taught them to think critically. Modern universities try to replicate this model by requiring students across all majors to take core classes. You'd be remiss not to attend university without taking at least one writing course, yet many students claim they wish they didn't have to take non-major courses. They think that any class that is not directly related to their future career is a waste of time and money, which goes against the founding principles of higher education. Learning for the sake of learning is valuable, and college is the best time to learn how to think critically. If you can think critically, it will benefit you in any career path that you choose.

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  • Professor teaching a computer science class
    via Wonderlane

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • The professor in this story does not believe in the most fundamental tenet of higher education: Critical thinking is important. All he cares about is using as much AI as possible to help him teach his class, and it's turning his students off to majoring in the subject he teaches. 

  • My professor told the class that critical thinking is NOT important.

    My current Information Systems class has a professor that I really do not like. They're overly big on the use of Al.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • We use it to take attendance, the "TA" is Al, they grade assignments with Al, they respond to emails with Al.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • I recently swapped majors into the college of business at my school, and I've noticed that in general, my business related classes all incorporate some use of Al which I'm on the fence about.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • Students watching a lecture in a large college lecture hall
    via Dom Fou

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • But this professor is just a whole different beast. On one of the first days of class, they rambled on about how it's silly to them that most professors value critical thinking so highly as a skill for students.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • Something along the lines of "I don't really believe that critical thinking is that important." I just don't see how that is not a dumb statement from any possible angle.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • Additionally, everything they do during class time just seems inefficient. I hardly feel like I'm learning anything strictly related to the course.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • Alas, we get assignments explained to us on Fridays just for them to be due on Monday
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • And somehow, someway, they manage to take a huge amount of points off for the dumbest sh.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • A man sitting at a desk working on a laptop
    via Yunus Tuğ (Unsplash+)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • (e.g. ONLY using the built in Microsoft Reference Manager). I got points off on my recent assignment for not adding more sources or statistics for something that was based purely off of personal experience.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • It just feels so annoying to deal with. Information Systems is something I feel I could actually enjoy majoring in.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • But I feel like this professor is significantly impacting my interest in the subject. Has anyone else had experience with a professor that used Al way too much in their class?
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • I know that I will pass, but getting a good grade will be a lot harder than it needs to be.
    via u/JakeyGobbs
  • MISProf As an IS professor: I'm sorry! Critical thinking is huge. Al is just a tool-like a hammer or whatever. It -can-be helpful, but only when tempered by human knowledge. Ever listen to Al generated music? No soul or creativity as my music friends say. I'm biased but please don't let one class make you eliminate a major. Do what makes you happy.
    via u/MISProf
  • Less Temperature_771 This reminds me of CS Lewis's fun distinction between the liberal arts and the servile arts. Liberal arts aim to create good human beings by cultivating exactly that skill of critical thinking... servile arts aim to create obedient workers by discouraging that same skill.
    via u/Less_Temperature_771
  • Odd-West-7936 My first thought is that the prof is telling you this because they refuse to do any real work themselves. If they aren't willing to think critically they can't expect you to. It's sad, but there have always been profs/teachers who do the minimum to get by. It's just a lot easier now.
    via u/Odd-West-7936
  • Desiato2112 It's the Dunning-Kruger effect. They simply do not know enough about academic work to understand how important critical thinking is. It makes them overconfident about their own opinions.
    via u/Desiato2112
  • WileyBoxx Average business class
    via u/WileyBoxx
  • Lorelei321 There are three schools of thought about this: 1. That you should never use Al. you are paying money to learn, and if you were going to make a difference in life, you need to be able to think and function for yourself. 2. Al is a useful tool. It exists and students are going to use it. People will continue using it long after they graduate. You may as well teach them to use it properly. 3. Just give up and have them use Al. If they don't care, why should you? I personally fall into ca
    via u/Lorelei321
  • ForeignAdvantage5198 your prof is a fool
    via u/ForeignAdvantage5198
  • twomayaderens Lmao "the TA is Al" Colleges really did this to themselves
    via u/twomayaderens
  • Iwanttobeforeverold I'm now glad I was layed off from my university instructor position last year ("budget" cuts). My old university was, and still is pushing hard for more and more Al in the classrooms. In fact, the university is currently constructing a massive building partially paid for by and named after Jensen Huang (founder and CEO of Nvidia) that will be devoted to integrating Al teaching/research campus wide. Who needs thinking at a university, right?
    via u/Iwanttobeforeverold

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