Nieman: Despite onslaught of technology, there are life lessons to be learned from kindergarten

One of my favourite authors is Robert Fulghum. I often think of him when I see my patients – especially the ones who explain to me what it is like to be in kindergarten. Even as I write this, I can visualize the smiling faces of many parents while we, the adults in the exam room, tune in to what kindergarten students tell us about kindergarten.

Fulghum in his book,?All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,?explains that it is really simply a matter of remembering. Remembering what?

We are to remember to: share everything; play fair; don’t hit people; put things back where you found them; clean up your own mess; don’t take things that are not yours; say you are sorry when you hurt somebody; wash your hands before you eat; flush; warm cookies and cold milk are good for you; live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some; take a nap every afternoon; when you go into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together; be aware of wonder.

Fulghum goes on to say that “Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday school.” Even though the notion of Sunday school may not resonate with an increasing number of families, I think it can stand for some symbolic moments where we pause and teach our children to respect themselves, respect others and enjoy the basic pleasures of life, sharing a common unity.

I keep Fulghum’s book close by to review his list of lessons once in a while and I share it with some of the families who come to see me for their medical care. But at the end of the day, I cannot help but wonder what the future of my innocent young patients may hold.

Our communities will be changing quite dramatically and rapidly in the future. I am reminded of a brilliantly written recent column by Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist, who says we are entering the age of acceleration. It is an age where there will be “stunning advances and horrific dislocations.”

Friedman writes about “a period of radical uncertainty, a period where predictions are likely to be wrong and midrange plans are likely to become obsolete.” He sees our future as “A remorseless technological competition that will turbocharge developments in biotech, energy and chip manufacturing, trade flows and political alliances.”

We are already seeing how Artificial Intelligence (AI) captures our attention – both in terms of threats and opportunities. Not so long ago while testifying at a Congressional hearing on AI, the CEO of Open AI, Sam Altman, said, “People are anxious about how it could change the way we live. We are too.”

Should we then be anxious about the impact of AI on our children’s future?

In a recent academic study of the impact of AI on young children, researchers concluded that younger children see robots as toys that are smarter than them, but their older counterparts saw robots more as people that are not as smart as them. These researchers called for early AI education in order to empower children and make them more AI literate. The researchers also worried about AI widening the gap between the haves and have-nots in our societies.

A scholarly article which I highly recommend to those who do not know much about AI and its impact on children can be found at?www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666920X22000169. This article focuses specifically on the impact of AI when it comes to early childhood education.

One thing is for sure: AI will not reduce the future screen times of current kindergarten students.

There is still so much to learn about how AI will affect children. As Yogi Berra said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” And “It is tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

But we already know that the recommendations by the Canadian Pediatric Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics about optimal amounts of screen time will not stay the same once AI becomes the new norm. How that will change neural pathways in the developing brain remains a huge question mark.

?Fulghum’s reminders will never be questioned. The basics will never change and will still be useful to remember in the years to come. Technology will change and impact all of us in some form, but that which is universally true will never change.

Around 2,600 years ago, the Buddha taught that the root of all suffering can always be traced back to hate, greed and delusion. Very simple, very timeless and very universal wisdom indeed. There is no need for AI to confirm the basics.

Dr. Nieman is a community-based pediatrician. He has authored three books and continues to run every day since 2009, pondering the future. For more information, visit www.drnieman.com