By: Richard L. Smith
As students across New Jersey return to classrooms this week, I came across a report that really caught my attention—not only as someone who follows education, but as someone who spent more than two decades teaching in New Jersey classrooms.
While up in the RLS Media information center this morning, ABC7 New York reported that New York City Public Schools is placing a moratorium on generative artificial intelligence for students from pre-K through eighth grade for the 2026-27 school year.
The decision affects more than half a million students and teachers, and city officials say they will spend the year studying the impact of the technology.
It immediately made me wonder: Should New Jersey consider something similar?
I can remember when none of this existed. When I first started teaching, if students needed information, we sent them to the library. They opened books and encyclopedias, researched a subject and then had to figure out how to put what they learned into their own words (so to speak).
Technology eventually changed that. Computers and the internet arrived, and now we have reached another level entirely. 
A student can ask an AI program a question and, within seconds, receive an explanation, an outline, a math solution or even an entire essay.
That is an incredible educational tool, and I’m certainly not against technology; at all.
But after reading about New York City’s decision and doing some research into what New Jersey is doing, I think there is a legitimate conversation to be had about how early we introduce generative AI and how much of the learning process we allow it to perform for children.
New Jersey is currently taking a different approach. The state Department of Education is encouraging responsible AI literacy and classroom integration.
Its guidance makes an important point: AI should enhance learning, not replace student thinking or an educator’s judgment. The state also warns that AI can produce inaccurate, incomplete or biased information.
New Jersey has even funded initiatives in 10 school districts to explore responsible AI use and develop age-appropriate lessons according to information obtained from the NJDOE.
And that’s where I believe we need to be careful.
As an educator, I watched students learn through interaction. I’m even a tactile learner. Human connection through learning for me is important.
Sometimes the most important moment wasn’t getting the answer right; it was watching a student struggle with something, ask a question and finally understand it after a teacher explained it another way.
Are we risking some of that when children can simply ask a machine?
I’m not convinced banning AI altogether is the answer. These students are growing up in a world where AI will likely be part of their colleges, careers and everyday lives. Pretending it doesn’t exist won’t prepare them for that future.
But maybe New York City’s decision isn’t really about running away from AI. Maybe it’s a reset.
Perhaps we need some time to determine what children should know before AI starts helping them.
They should know how to write, research, calculate, question information and think critically. Just as importantly, they need to understand that because AI gives them an answer confidently doesn’t necessarily mean that answer is correct.
Interestingly, New Jersey’s own guidance says early AI education can begin with classroom discussions before progressing toward guided use of the technology in later grades.
That may be where the common ground is.
AI has arrived, and it isn’t going anywhere. But as New Jersey students return to school, perhaps New York City has given us something worth thinking about.
The question isn’t whether our children should learn about artificial intelligence.
The question is whether we are making sure they develop their own intelligence first.