Daniel Susskind's new book makes the calculator-era case for embracing AI in classrooms
nordicinst · x · 2026-09-09
A Guardian review of economist Daniel Susskind's book What Should My Children Do? opens with the 1979 Cockcroft report, which urged embracing calculators rather than fearing they'd ruin arithmetic — teaching and testing both with and without them.
Susskind casts himself as the Cockcroft of the 2020s: amid AI panic, schools should seize the educational opportunity, training kids to think with AI rather than just click. The reviewer calls it a refreshingly optimistic technologist's case, echoing Sweden's and Europe's measured approach to classroom AI.
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