Moderated by Sam Collins (Lexington High School, MA), this panel brings together five classroom educators from across the K–college spectrum — Cassie Owens Moore (middle school librarian, SC), Mark (online college writing instructor, University of Mississippi), Matt Hicks (AP Literature, St. Teresa's Academy, Kansas City), Scott Tuffiash (AI ethics and human flourishing courses, public school), and Sean Kamperman (University of Kansas) — for a wide-ranging, personal conversation about what schools are for in an age increasingly shaped by AI.

Starting with a lightning-round on what schools need more of, the panel moves into deeper territory: the purpose of education beyond credentialing, the tension between analog and digital teaching methods, and the labor realities that quietly push teachers toward more tech-dependent classrooms. Cassie shares how a library reading initiative grew from 41% to 99% student engagement through human connection rather than tracking software. Matt reflects on rebuilding classroom culture around eye contact and conversation instead of screens. Scott discusses sequencing an AI ethics course before a human flourishing course, and why that order matters. Throughout, the panelists return to a common thread — that in a moment saturated with digital tools, students and teachers alike are hungry for genuine human interaction, and that the answer isn't choosing analog over digital, but being intentional about both.

Recorded live at the Humans First conference, Marist School, July 2026. Produced by Nic Hoffmann for Marist Podcasting. This podcast series is created with support from ⁠DELTA⁠ at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, focused on human formation in the age of AI.

The theme is "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.