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The federal government recently launched an AI literacy program delivered entirely by text message. Jake has completed the first five days, and also looked into a network of teachers, HR professionals, and writers and to ask what they thought. The results were predictable in one direction and surprising in another. This episode is less about the program and more about what it exposes: who gets to define AI literacy, what it's for, and what the cost of doing nothing actually looks like.

What You'll Hear

• Why Jake's reaction to a federally branded program shifted once he actually went through it — and what changed his mind
• The DOL's AI Literacy Framework broken down: five foundations, seven principles, and why the pedagogical thinking behind it is more serious than the branding suggests
• Nathan's argument that 28% of students being able to describe how an LLM works is a real problem — and why understanding the engine matters even if you never plan to drive
• The "professional chef critiquing a how-to-boil-an-egg pamphlet" problem, and who the pamphlet is actually for
• Jake's prediction that the 2026-27 school year is when schools start approaching AI literacy systemically — and what that should and shouldn't mean
• Why excluding AI from your classroom is becoming harder to defend as a pedagogical choice rather than a protective one
• The adult literacy statistic that reframes what's actually at stake when we talk about the AI access gap

Resources Mentioned

• Make America AI Ready — Federal SMS-based AI literacy program from the U.S. Department of Labor. Text READY to 20202 to enroll. [beta.dol.gov/ai-ready]
• U.S. Department of Labor AI Literacy Framework — Five foundational content areas and seven implementation principles for workforce AI readiness. [https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/ten-07-25]
• Slow AI (Sam Ellingsworth) — Substack publication examining AI adoption at a more measured pace. Recommended reading for the "email problem" analogy. [https://theslowai.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips]
• Quick, Draw! — Google experiment using a neural network to guess your drawings. Referenced as a Day 1 challenge in the Make America AI Ready program. [quickdraw.withgoogle.com/]
• What Uses More? — Tool for comparing energy and carbon footprint of AI tasks vs. everyday activities. [what-uses-more.com]
• Stanford HAI — Stanford's Human-Centered AI institute. Referenced for statistics on AI usage by age and the research on AI in classroom settings. [hai.stanford.edu]
• NCES Adult Literacy Data — National Center for Education Statistics. Nathan cites current figures: 28% low literacy, 29% basic proficiency, 43% proficient — among adults ages 16-65. [nces.ed.gov]

Connect & Continue

Jake writes about AI in education weekly on Substack. Subscribe at whatteachershavetosay.substack.com

Stay curious, stay hopeful, keep learning.

Got a question? We'd love to answer it! Leave us a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/whatteachershavetosay

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Jake and Nathan just got back from their third Stanford AI + Education Summit — The AI Inflection Point: What, How, and Why We Learn — and a week later, they still can't stop talking about it. In this episode they dig into the tension at the heart of AI in schools right now: how do you protect the human skill development that education exists to build, while letting AI do the things it's actually good at? They get into the AI Assessment Scale, why cheating is the wrong frame, what it means when kids turn to AI for emotional connection, and whether the "perfect tutor" is the answer anyone thinks it is. Honest, critical, and grounded in classroom reality.

Referenced in this episode

Stanford AI + Education Summit 2026 The fourth annual summit, held February 11, 2026. Full conference on the Stanford HAI YouTube channel.

AI Assessment Scale (AIAS) Developed by Mike Perkins, Leon Furze, Jasper Roe, and Jason MacVaugh. Five levels of acceptable AI use — from no AI to full AI with the student as director and evaluator. First published 2023, updated Version 2 in 2024. Adopted by hundreds of institutions worldwide, translated into 30+ languages.

• aiassessmentscale.com

Matt Miller — AI for Educators Source of the 12 cheating scenarios Jake has been using to poll educators across the country. Miller also runs Ditch That Textbook.

• ditchthattextbook.com

Google AI Quests Free, code-free, game-based AI literacy tool for students ages 11–14. Students step into the role of Google researchers solving real-world problems in climate, health, and science. Co-developed by Google Research and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. Complete lesson plans and teacher guides included.

• research.google/ai-quests

Ethan Mollick — Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI (Penguin, 2024) Source of the centaur/cyborg framing. The centaur divides labor strategically between human and AI; the cyborg integrates the two fluidly within the same task. Mollick's Substack One Useful Thing is one of the more practically useful ongoing resources for educators thinking about AI.

• Co-Intelligence on Amazon

Cheating research Jake references "Cheating in the Age of Generative AI: A High School Survey Study of Cheating Behaviors Before and After the Release of ChatGPT" — Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence (2024). Note: Jake mis-attributes this to Stanford — the actual source is below. Key findings: overall cheating volume stayed stable after ChatGPT launched; students who self-reported higher AI competence cheated less; clear boundaries and consequences remained the strongest deterrent.

• Full study

A note on homo technologicus was attributed to Yuval Noah Harari. It circulates in academic commentary on Harari's work but doesn't appear to be a direct Harari coinage. The concept maps to themes in Homo Deus, but we can't confirm the specific term originated there. We're leaving it as spoken and flagging it here.

Got a question? We'd love to answer it! Leave us a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/whatteachershavetosay

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When something lands the right way in a classroom, it doesn’t just teach—it transforms. But in today’s climate, that transformation can come at a cost.

In this episode, Jake shares a personal story he's never fully told publicly—about the time a group of parents tried to get him fired for teaching a novel. Not because it was inappropriate. But because it made students think, ask questions, and feel something real.

Read the full story on Substack:

📰 Hall Pass Headlines tackles a hard truth: Two in five teachers in the UK report being physically assaulted by students. It’s not just about behavior—it’s about a system that’s stopped protecting the people inside it.

Read the article: The Times – “Two in five teachers assaulted as classroom violence surges”

Mic Check features a voice message from educator Dr. Scott Petrie on the literacy wars—and what’s actually working in classrooms.

Want more on behavior? Check out this episode: All About That Baseline with Josh Kuersten: 3 Behavior Strategies Every Teacher Should Know

Links & Resources

• Subscribe & review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
• Join the conversation on Substack

Got a question? We'd love to answer it! Leave us a voicemail on SpeakPipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/whatteachershavetosay

Want more EduProtocols from Jake? Check out his book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and more.