‍THOUGHT: The Thing AI Can't Do
TREND: Kids Are Hacking AI Tutors
TOOL: Custom Coloring Pages

The Thing AI Can't Do

Claire Honeycutt spent two decades as a neuroscientist, receiving millions in federal funding for her research. Her husband builds AI. So when she writes about AI in education, we listen.

Tl;dr: AI can make learning faster—personalized pacing, adaptive quizzing, instant practice generation. Programs like Khan Academy and Synthesis Tutor excel at this. But learning is more than speed. It's reasoning, thinking, creating. And AI can't do those things, she says, because it doesn't actually think.

"AI was fed billions of human-created words and learned to predict what usually comes next," Claire explains. "It gives the illusion of thought."

Basically, it's auto-predict on steroids. Which is useful (when it’s not correcting omw to ‘On My Way!’). But it's not the same as teaching a child to have an original idea.

That still requires humans.

Read the whole article on the ClarifiEd Substack 

Kids Are Hacking AI Tutors

"Programs that use AI tutors can be easily gamed," Claire warns. "Kids learn the 'cheat codes,' racing to the right answer without real understanding." Her youngest daughter was particularly adept at this—gaming AI tutors without learning anything.

The pattern is predictable. AI adjusts difficulty based on performance. Get answers right, move ahead faster. So clever kids click through quickly, use trial and error, or look up answers. The AI thinks they've mastered the concept (they've mastered something, but it’s not the concept).

For families using AI tools like Khan Academy or Math Academy, Claire's advice is simple: be present. Not to teach the content—AI handles that. But to verify understanding. Ask them to explain what they just "mastered." Have them teach it back to you. Use AI for drill work, but check the learning yourself.

Custom Coloring Pages

One thing AI can do? Generate custom coloring pages from any book your kids are reading.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to ChatGPT or Gemini, with image generation turned on. In Gemini, it’s called “Nano Banana” (don’t ask).
2. Modify this prompt "Create a simple black and white coloring page suitable for children, showing [describe scene*]. Clear outlines, minimal detail, easy to color."
3. Save and print.

*Examples: "Bilbo Baggins meeting Smaug the Dragon," "Charlotte weaving “Some Pig” above Wilbur’s pen", "Matilda reading a tall stack of library books."

Kids love it because they get to color their favorite scenes, and it makes the stories more tangible. 

Color(Ed)

Download the PDF