Is Traditional School Preparing Your Kids for the Future? A Working Mom's Honest Take
Frequently Asked Questions About Working From Home With Kids
Is traditional school enough to prepare kids for the future?
Traditional school still teaches important skills, but many parents are wondering if it is enough on its own. As AI, automation, and technology continue changing the workforce, kids may also need practical skills, critical thinking, adaptability, and hands-on problem-solving outside the classroom.
Should kids learn how to use AI in school?
Yes, kids should learn how to use AI responsibly, not just be blocked from it completely. AI education should teach students how to ask better questions, check answers, think for themselves, understand limitations, and use technology as a tool instead of a replacement for learning.
Are trade skills still valuable in an AI-driven future?
Trade skills may become even more valuable as AI becomes more common. Jobs that require hands-on work, real-world problem-solving, physical repair, building, installation, and human judgment are harder to replace with software. Skills like plumbing, electrical work, mechanics, construction, and making things can give kids a strong future path.
How can parents prepare their kids for AI and the future of work?
Parents can prepare their kids by introducing AI in simple, practical ways at home, encouraging curiosity, teaching them to verify information, and helping them build both digital and hands-on skills. The goal is not to choose between AI and traditional skills, but to raise kids who are resilient, open minded, and comfortable adapting to change.
Is Traditional School Preparing Your Kids for the Future? A Working Mom's Honest Take
Written By Jessica Ryan, Chief People Officer
My husband thinks AI could take down the world. I'm trying to make sure my daughter is ready for it. We're both probably right.
Danny is a Marine mechanic by trade, and his philosophy is simple: invest in what can't be hacked, what can't be taken down with the push of a button or the launch of a virus. When the grid goes down, the people who know how to work with their hands and the tools in front of them are the ones who keep things moving. That's not paranoia. That's experience.
I work in remote tech, spending my days with founders and CEOs trying to figure out how to harness what everyone is calling the next great advancement after the internet. I don't want to be behind, and more than that, I don't want my daughter to be behind. We have very different views on what that means.
Riley is in seventh grade, brilliant and creative and wired like her father, good with her hands, imaginative, a maker. She's told me what she wants to be when she grows up. I'm just not sure those jobs will exist by the time she gets there, and that's a terrifying sentence to type as a mom.
What we're actually doing
We're not throwing our hands up. We're integrating AI into our daily life in small, intentional ways, the shopping list, reminders, chores, and general automation, talking about what it's for and what it's not for. We don't use it to write our essays or do our thinking for us, we use it to make life more efficient, and then we put it down.
Riley has been asking Alexa questions since she could talk, so in a lot of ways she's grown up with a version of AI already woven into her life, and the conversation isn't starting from zero, it's building on something familiar. What are good questions to ask? How do you know when the answer is right? When do you think for yourself?
Her school has blocked most AI sites but opened one curated platform for students, so I follow what they're doing there, fill in the gaps at home, and advocate for more within the system when I can. It's not enough, but it's what we have right now.
The case for the trades
My generation was told one thing: go to college, get a desk job, because that was the goal and everything else was settling.
Danny never fit that mold and he never apologized for it. He can build things, fix things, make things work that shouldn't, and that skill has served him and the Marines extraordinarily well. Riley is wired the same way, creating with her hands, solving problems spatially, her brain naturally working in three dimensions.
I think that might be her greatest advantage.
We will always need humans who can do things with their hands, plumbers, electricians, builders, makers, because AI cannot snake a drain or rewire a panel or look a client in the eye and diagnose what's wrong. The trades have been undervalued in this country for decades, and that's starting to change. The kids who grew up hearing "learn a trade" as a consolation prize might end up being the most stable, in-demand workers of the next generation.
The path that isn't one or the other
AI-forward private schools exist, but they're out of reach for most families, including many of the military spouses I work with every day who are already navigating career gaps and financial instability.
So the middle path falls on us as parents, which means advocating for better AI education in her current school, using summers intentionally, keeping the conversation going at home, and making sure she's comfortable with change, curious about the world, and not afraid of things she doesn't understand yet.
Traditional high school may not be the right path for her, and we'll figure that out when we get there, but what I do know is that I'm not going to wait for the school system to catch up before I start preparing her.
What I actually believe
The world is changing faster than any of us predicted, and Danny's instinct to invest in what can't be hacked and my instinct to lean into what's coming are not actually opposites, they're two sides of the same preparation.
The best thing I can do for Riley isn't to pick a lane, AI or trades, traditional or alternative. It's to raise a kid who is resilient, open minded, and comfortable adapting to a world that keeps shifting under her feet.
Open mindedness and resiliency to change. That's what will get her through, and honestly, it's the best any of us can do raising kids for a world we can't fully see yet.
