Education and America’s Forgotten Instrument

When was the last time you thought of that seldom used instrument, the pencil? We seldom use, let alone think about, pencils or pens anymore.

Tom Goss was one of my undergraduate professors. Tom used a red pen when grading papers. One day he called me into his office. “I spill a lot of ink on your work,” he groused. The paper was covered with his red ink scribbles, which addressed what he was unaware of: my dyslexia. I couldn’t help but notice the two red pens (not all were used on my paper) in the garbage as I was leaving.  I almost turned to tell him that grading with pencils is less expensive. I thought better of it. Tom had given me an A+. Why jeopardize a good grade?

Derived from the stylus, a thin metal stick used by the Romans, the pencil is really a remarkable tool.  The word for pencil has its origins in the Latin word “penicillus,” which translates as “little tail.” The Latin root comes from the Old French word pincel, meaning “small paintbrush.” 

John Thoreau, Sr., Henry David Thoreau’s father, was a pencil maker. His company, John Thoreau & Co., manufactured pencils that used a standardized hardness grade of graphite and clay in red cedar wood. John Thoreau & Co. was the first American pencil manufacturer to market pencils using a standard hardness, graded 1-4 and in terms of the letters S for soft and H for hard. Their lead pencils were, according to The Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal (1825), “superior to any specimens exhibited in past years.” Edward Waldo Emerson writes of the Thoreau company manufacturing process:

“. . . it appears they invented a process, very simple, but which at once put their black lead for fineness at the head of all manufactured in America. This was simply to have the narrow churn-like chamber around the mill-stones prolonged some seven feet high, opening into a broad, close, flat box, a sort of shelf. Only lead-dust that was fine enough to rise to that height, carried by an upward draught of air, and lodge in the box was used, and the rest ground over. . .” Thoreau as Remembered by a Young Friend (1917)

Despite my preference for writing with pencils and pens, I give them little thought. Recently I found myself thinking about pencils during a conversation with an educator.  A talented woman, she expressed doubts that we are educating students to be critical and independent thinkers.

There are numerous gadgets in education today. The wired classroom is the priority of every school district. We have the Clinton Administration to thank for that. Bill Gates advocated for the necessity of a computer in every classroom. This soon evolved into the idea of every student having a computer. It was a good idea at the time (am I saying this to avoid being called a Luddite?). Today, in the classrooms, we use Interactive and AI-enhanced tools—Nearpod, Sli.do, Mentimeter, Pear Deck, Quizlet, Socrative, among others. Yet the educators and parents are increasingly disenchanted with the use of technology and test-focused curricula. https://www.edweek.org/technology/what-educators-really-think-about-the-overuse-of-tech-in-schools/2026/04

Statistics and reports can easily leave one cross-eyed and numb the mind. Their importance lies in the picture they create of an educational system in flux. What they do not tell us is the type of education we are giving our young people, and how they are developing as individuals intellectually and emotionally. Are we preparing them for life’s difficulties, which require cognitive thinking and skills development, or simply giving them a crutch and an easy way out? And are we giving sufficient thought to the promises and perils of AI in our educational system? A Brookings Institution report found that:

“Ultimately, we find that at this point in its trajectory, the risks of utilizing AI in education overshadow its benefits. This is largely because the risks of AI differ in nature from its benefits—that is, these risks undermine children’s foundational development. For example, when trust between students and teachers is diminished—a current risk of AI implementation—the benefits of AI-enriched teaching and learning materials cannot be fully realized. Understanding the distinction between enriched and diminished learning experiences is an important first step toward mitigating AI’s risks and harnessing its benefits in education.”  (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/a-new-direction-for-students-in-an-ai-world-prosper-prepare-protect/

Do children in grades K-6 need computers in the classroom to learn reading, language, history, mathematics, fundamental science, and art skills, as well as mind and body coordination? During the summer months, I used to take my children for walks to collect leaves, flowers, and insects.  Afterward, we would look them up in books so they could learn about the natural world.  They learned multiplication and division by rote, and practiced their writing in a composition book.  We were always reading. My goal was to keep building on what they had learned during the school year. The poet Robert Frost would wake his children in the night to take them outdoors to gaze into the night sky. When we lived in Tennessee, my son and I joined university astronomy students on the roof of one of the campus buildings to stargaze and discuss space science.

We talk about the necessity of technology to prepare students for their lives. What is needed today are educators who know the subject they are teaching, have a passion for it, and know how to effectively engage their students. Many of our younger teachers are simply instructing with no knowledge of the subjects they are called on to teach. In a classroom of 25 to 30 students, how much engagement do students really have with their teacher? How much contact does a student really have with her or his peers when everyone is glued to a screen? Is there a link between bullying and the lack of engagement between peers and adults in both the school and home environments?

Ask yourself how engaged your children are with their friends the next time they are over to your home. How long does it take before a cell phone or computer is turned on? What do they do once a computer game or a video begins?

I am not saying there isn’t a place for technology in the classroom. These can be healthily integrated into every young person’s education and lives. When combined with conventional methods of teaching, technology in the classroom can be effective. However, what is essential is developing a student’s critical mind for a lifetime of learning. When the average American has a fifth-grade reading level and poor math and science skills, and suffers the emotional and mental effects of isolation, then we must recognize the roots of the problem.

The Jewish philosopher and professor of theology Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel believed that education shouldn’t be about “how much a person knows, but how much he learns” (Jewish Education, Vol.XXIV, No. 2, Fall, 1953). In a television interview, when asked what he would say to young people, Heschel replied, “… (the) meaning of life is to live life as if it were a work of art. You’re not a machine. When you are young, start working on this great work of art called your own existence” (“The Eternal Life Interview” found on YouTube).

We need to be aware that the human mind, not Artificial Intelligence, is the most powerful instrument in the classroom. While a young person’s mind holds the most promise, it faces the most peril in today’s educational environment.

For further reading:

The People Who Will Thrive in the AI Age, by David Brooks, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ai-open-ai-anthropic/687689/

According to one recent survey, 36% of educators believe technology is decreasing learning while 29% say it increases learning. A report on National Public Radio found that “3-in-4 believe AI has bigger implications for education in 1-12 education than past innovations like the internet or computers” https://www.npr.org/2026/06/05/nx-s1-5779757/school-ai-education-students-teachers-poll-critical-thinking. This begs the question, “What are those implications?”

In an article for HigherEdDrive, Laura Spitalniak reports that 90% of students occasionally use AI in their courses. Sixty-one percent of faculty and instructors use AI, with 11% proficient in its use and 41% lacking formal training. (https://www.highereddive.com/news/90-of-students-use-ai-in-the-classroom-instructure-poll-finds/825714/)

“A Mediocre Public-School Education for Just $40,000 a Pupil: How New York City’s education budget became an untouchable money pit,” By Marc Novicoff https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/new-york-city-schools-budget/686971/

“Thoreau’s Pencils” by Augustine Sedgewick, https://theamericanscholar.org/thoreaus-pencils/

Image: Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Promises and Perils ©2026 Charles van Heck