History teacher calls out student for asking ChatGPT to read the words right in front of her: 'Students [are] deferring 100% of their thinking to it'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Apr 9, 2026 2:30 PM EDT

Are students losing the ability to think for themselves?

We all have memories of what it felt like to be called on in the classroom to answer a question that we were not exactly sure about. We recall the anxiety of being incorrect and potentially being thought of as ignorant. We might even remember being afraid that the teacher would think we hadn't done the reading based on what we say. 

Nine times out of ten, these moments tend to be filled with unnecessary pressure that we put on ourselves. Most teachers don't care if you make an educated guess that turns out to be wrong. In fact, they might even praise you for giving it a try. Still, the tension that we often feel in these moments is self-inflicted. Classmates will likely forget by the end of the period about your incorrect answer. You might even forget about it as well. 

Part of going to high school is about getting over this fear by facing it, but it turns out that far too many students today are hiding behind AI programs like ChatGPT instead of making educated guesses in the classroom. This history teacher found herself having to confront a student over an answer she gave that was even more silly than it probably would have been if she had just tried to think for herself.

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  • A history teacher poses questions to a classroom, where one student raises his hand.
    via Unsplash+ (Giulia Squillace)

    A history teacher poses questions to a classroom, where one student raises his hand.

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

  • Student's AI use was more baffling than I could've ever imagined

    I'm used to students relying on Al to answer questions and write essays at this point. It's not preferable, of course, especially since I teach entirely online, but I
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  • can still usually lead discussions in a productive way. Plus, it's usually quite easy to tell when the student is leaning on it too heavily.
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  • A few weeks ago I had an experience that really shocked me, though. I had a student for often would not respond to questions for a minute or so; I
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  • usually assumed that she was distracted on another tab, or that she just liked to think about her answers for awhile.
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  • Then, in one of our classes together, I asked her to analyze this political cartoon. We went over the really basic questions in the link, so just simple stuff like
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  • "what does the word literacy mean" and "who is the man on top of the wall." I noticed that she was answering more slowly than normal, but didn't think about it much.
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  • THE LAND THE FREE LITERACY TEST
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  • Then I asked her what the words on the wall were; they're right in the center of the image in giant letters, so it should take all of three seconds. Instead, she sat
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  • there for about two minutes without responding, even with additional prompting. Okay, I figured she was definitely distracted, but I don't have any way to enforce participation, so I just accepted it. Then she finally responded.
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  • "It says 'add to the peel"" I had no idea what she was even saying. I asked her to type it out in the online meeting chat, and she did so. I asked her what that means; "I don't know." I asked her if it was slang I hadn't heard
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  • of; she said no. I drew over the words on the wall and she confirmed that it was where she was looking. I asked her to read it again and she repeated herself.
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  • A classroom full of students takes notes without the assistance of electronic devices.
    via Unsplash+ (Giulia Squillace)

    A classroom full of students takes notes without the assistance of electronic devices.

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

  • It's inevitable that using tools like ChatGPT will increasingly become a part of the learning process for students. Still, that should not mean that students should then forgo the practice of applying their own knowledge to a question, especially in the safe space of a classroom exercise where no one is being actively graded. 

    Unfortunately, we should be just as worried about students' levels of self-confidence in the classroom now that they are able to hide behind what they think is a program with all the correct answers. Instead of facing fears head-on in these environments, students are instead learning to trust these programs over their own instincts. As someone in the comments section put it, we're all cooked.

  • Finally, after asking her another time to explain what she thought it meant, she said "I don't know, that's just what ChatGPT said."
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  • I was completely flabbergasted. I asked her and confirmed that she had, in fact, asked ChatGPT to tell her what the words in a political cartoon said. Not to analyze the image, or even to identify harder elements like the pens or books on top of the wall, but just to read off the words.
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  • Suddenly, a lot more made sense. I thought back to all the times that she'd been slow to answer, compared to other very similar questions where she answered
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  • instantly. I'd never be able to prove it, but I'm certain that those were all instances of her asking the Al to answer questions regardless of how much it would even make sense to do so.
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  • This also explained the sometimes strange responses, like when I asked her to read off her own words and found her unable to do so. Indeed, I asked her if she had used Al in a few specific moments before, and she said she had.
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  • I know I'm rambling at this point, but I'm just baffled. It's not surprising to me at all that students would use Al to write essays, but I don't see how even the highest degree of usage
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  • could result in students deferring 100% of their thinking to it, to the point where they're asking it questions that are completely circumstantial.
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  • [EDIT] Just to clarify, since I've gotten some comments about this: She is absolutely capable of reading. I've worked with her a lot, and she can easily read through a passage aloud and tell me about what she just read. It's
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  • just that, every so often, she would essentially freeze up and seemingly defer all of her thinking to the Al. After I realized what was happening, I talked with her about how her Al use was hurting her more than helping her, and since then she has been a lot more responsive.
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  • Riddias I'm not an educator, but hearing stories like this makes me really worried about the future generation.
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  • r... It's complete cognitive surrender, and it's everywhere. More of your kids are doing this. You just haven't caught them. (Some of your coworkers are doing it too.)
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  • TheStrayArrow . As the kids say, we're cooked.
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class school students kids chatGPT teacher immature high schoolers entitled people
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