What AI can't replace in the classroom

There is a particular kind of attention a teacher gives a student that no model has yet learned to imitate. It is not just listening — it is the noticing of hesitation, of confidence, of the tiny shift in a learner's posture when something finally clicks.

AI can draft a lesson plan in seconds and produce ten variations of a worksheet before you finish your coffee. What it cannot do is sit beside a fifteen-year-old who has just realised they are capable of something they thought they were not. That moment is the work. Everything else is scaffolding.