ChatGPT and Teen Writing

A new topic in my new book!

In this day and age where kids are less and less confident about their writing abilities, ChatGPT can accelerate that loss of confidence and replace their innate curiosity and original writing voice. I devoted an entire chapter to discussing both the opportunities and pitfalls of ChatGPT in this era of artificial intelligence.

Using ChatGPT—or any AI tool—to generate entire papers (or paragraphs or poems) is what concerns educators everywhere. If a student can be taught to use AI for research or editing, you may find that it has value. That said: for today’s kids who have not learned how to write or think for themselves, the temptation to let ChatGPT do their thinking and writing for them is pretty seductive.

While these tools can offer assistance with brainstorming or suggesting ideas, relying on them to produce complete essays/paragraphs/poems/papers can lead to:

1. Academic Dishonesty

   • Submitting AI-written work as one’s own is generally considered plagiarism or cheating. Schools often have strict academic integrity rules, and using ChatGPT (or similar AI) to produce full essays can violate these policies. If caught, students could face serious consequences such as failing a class or facing disciplinary action. In fact, some colleges, students have been ejected or suspended from school for suspicion of relying on AI to write a paper. For younger kids, they are missing the critical window when their voices are liveliest and their insights and thoughts are natural. Learning to write them down is key to their academic development.

2. Lack of Skill Development

   • Writing is a critical skill that grows through practice and supportive, instructive feedback. If students bypass the writing process by using AI, they miss out on improving their ability to craft arguments, conduct research, and develop a personal style. In Brave Writer, we put a lot of emphasis on growing those skills through a practice called “freewriting.” This is the kind of writing that teaches kids to write the way they learned to speak—with lots of freedom for risk, mess, and growth. They learn to transcribe their own thoughts—which in turn helps them to see how they think and why.

3. Potentially Inaccurate Information

   • While large language models are trained on vast amounts of data, they are not infallible—in fact, they hallucinate with shocking regularity! They can generate text that appears coherent and authoritative yet may include inaccurate, incomplete, or out-of-date information. Students relying on AI content without verifying it risk building their papers around errors. Students are responsible to know whether or not a source or statistic is accurate—and must be taught how to do that verification. That means young writers have to be invested in the topic for writing enough to understand it. Writing helps students do just that.

4. Loss of Authentic Voice and Original Thinking

   • Effective writing often reflects personal insight, creativity, and critical thinking. AI output, while polished, may lack the unique perspective a student can bring. In fact, AI can sound disembodied and generic. The more you read AI produced writing, the more obvious it is. Over time, heavy dependence on AI can diminish a student’s ability to generate and articulate their own ideas—and isn’t that the goal of education? To generate and articulate ones own ideas?

5. Ethical and Transparency Concerns

   • Even when using ChatGPT as a starting point, students must be transparent if the project guidelines require them to share the research or drafting process. The temptation to lie is great! Hiding the use of AI may lead to questions about honesty and authenticity, which can erode trust between students, teachers, and mentors. It also can give a student a false sense of competence.

6. Risk of Detection and Damage to a Student’s Reputation

   • Schools and universities increasingly rely on detection tools (e.g., plagiarism-checking software, AI-generated text detectors) to identify inauthentic writing. If a student is found using AI deceptively, the consequences could harm their academic record and reputation. That said, we can’t expect kids to care about this result if they are afraid to grow as writers. We must start by making writing more meaningful to them. Grades and performance reviews hinder the risk-taking necessary for kids to grow as writers.

7. Over-reliance and Dependency

   • Relying too heavily on AI-generated work can create dependency—this is what’s happening at all education levels right now. Students who lean on AI for every writing task may struggle when faced with exams, in-class essays, or future situations where original thought and on-the-spot writing skills are required—or even when facing oral exams, where knowledge is more important than writing skills.

While ChatGPT and similar tools can be useful for idea generation and refining drafts, using them to produce entire essays or paragraphs or papers undermines both academic integrity and skill development. It is generally safer—and more beneficial in the long term—for students to do the bulk of their writing themselves, using AI selectively (if permitted) for brainstorming or editing assistance rather than letting it do the work outright. I would caution against using ChatGPT until a student feels comfortable writing in their own voice.

I’ve written about AI and Large Language Models in my new book, HELP! MY KID HATES WRITING. My entire book is an argument for why young people deserve the training and nurturing necessary to grow as writers—not as AI editors.

I will be announcing preorder bonuses later this week, but for now, would love you to preorder my book. It will publish on April 15! Save your receipts and I’ll share more soon!

Right now, it’s #1 in New Releases for Homeschool on Amazon!