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Growing up in Chicago, I was always impressed by my dad’s internal map of the city. He knew every shortcut and every side street.
By the time I got my driver’s license, I was printing MapQuest directions: step-by-step instructions to help me figure out how to drive to my friend’s house in Elk Grove Village. Thankfully, soon Google Maps replaced those caveman days.
Today, AI is doing something similar for thinking itself. It can summarize information, draft responses, and generate hyper-realistic images. On one hand, with AI, information has never been more accessible. But just as GPS reduced the need to develop an internal map to get from Point A to Point B, AI also risks reducing the need to develop internal frameworks for reasoning, critical thinking skills, and media and information literacy — unless we are intentional.
That is where social studies curriculum in today’s education truly matters.
In today’s world, good citizenship means being able to take in information, process it quickly, and react thoughtfully. This task requires learning how to listen actively while deploying frameworks for critical thinking.
For example, Year 9 Civics students recently debated the most significant figure of the Civil Rights Movement — from John Lewis to Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Thurgood Marshall.
There is one important rule: no internet during the debate.
Students had to listen carefully, synthesize arguments, and respond to counterpoints in real time. They needed to defend their positions using evidence they have already analyzed. While AI can generate summaries of these leaders’ accomplishments, it cannot replicate the intellectual discipline of listening to others and adapting arguments in the moment. This is civic intelligence, and its principles reach far beyond the classroom and are relevant in every field.
Social Studies also helps our students understand what it means to be human and to understand that there is no one universal human experience. In IB Psychology, students explore human behavior through biological, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives. They examine memory, bias, identity, and group dynamics — concepts that are deeply relevant in a world shaped by technology, globalization, and algorithms for everything. Students learn more about the breadth of humanity, encouraging students not only to engage in the complexities of the world, but also to show up leading with compassion.
AI gives us unprecedented access to information, but AI’s output is far from perfect. With devices at our fingertips, memorizing dates and isolated facts is no longer the central focus of learning. It is now more important than ever to learn how to evaluate evidence.
In Year 7 History, students learn about the Salem Witch Trials, at topic that is both dramatic and engaging for students, and a historical moment famous for its legitimation of hearsay and gossip as court evidence. Using the Trials as an entry point, students learn to distinguish between different kinds of sources (primary, secondary), assess bias and perspective, identify the values and limitations of historical evidence, and construct written arguments supported by proof.
These are the kinds of analytical and critical skills necessary to be a decerning citizen in the Age of AI.
Media and information literacy isn’t just about analyzing information out in the world. It also requires that students can interact with information and participate in its creation. In Year 10, Film Studies students create fictional yet plausible local news reports, like “Luxury L Trains” transforming transit in Chicago and neighborhood concerns related to pizza drone delivery in Lincoln Park.
In this age of AI-generated content and deepfakes, the ability to critically evaluate visual storytelling will be essential. Students learn to analyze cinematography, consider editing choices, and craft their own interview questions. To evaluate visual storytelling, students must understand how it is created.
AI will continue to evolve. Jobs will change. New industries will emerge. But the need for citizens who can communicate clearly, listen thoughtfully, weigh multiple perspectives, and evaluate evidence will remain constant. Social studies does not compete with artificial intelligence. It prepares students to guide and shape it.
Just as my dad’s internal map of Chicago required understanding the whole city, social studies helps students build internal maps of the world: how power works, how people behave, how evidence should be examined, and how decisions affect others.
