Educating children in AI from elementary school onwards

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Educating children about AI doesn't mean confronting them with complex tools at an early age, or teaching them to code as early as first grade. It's about giving them, in elementary school, the essential reference points for understanding the digital world in which they're growing up. Today, artificial intelligence is no longer confined to laboratories or experts: it influences our online searches, our images, our videos, our recommendations and our learning. 

But why wait until adolescence to awaken children's critical thinking skills, which we believe are essential when it comes to artificial intelligence? In the Esclaibes International Schools network, we believe that this education starts long before that. As early as primary school and the start of secondary school, it's possible - and necessary - to cover the basics: learning how to verify information, analyze an image, spot a cognitive bias, argue an idea, formulate a question, and also address the issues raised by artificial intelligence.

These are the fundamental skills that will prepare children to interact intelligently with the tools of tomorrow... and to remain free in a world where machines are taking up more and more space.

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Why educate children about AI from primary school onwards?

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Understand the digital world around them

Artificial intelligence is no longer the stuff of science fiction. It's already making its way into children's daily lives, without us necessarily realizing it... even if we keep them away from screens and smartphones. If only because of the voice assistants at home, in the latest cars or because they hear about it in the family or from their friends. 

And this can be a source of apprehension for parents and adults, who become the first generation to support children who will be learning about artificial intelligence from an early age.

Of course, when we think of artificial intelligence, especially generative intelligence, we immediately think of ChatGPT, Mistral AI or even Gemini, DALL-E or Copilot if we've studied the subject a little. But AI is also present when we use photo filters, when YouTube recommends videos, when our browser instantly translates a web page. It can even be found in messaging tools like WhatsApp...

Soon enough, children will be using these technologies without knowing that they are AI. And without understanding the mechanisms behind them.

The government has also announced thatfrom the start of the 2025 school year, a training course in artificial intelligence will be offered to 4th and 2nd year students on the Pix platform. Compulsory for these levels, it will assess AI skills and then offer a personalized program, with modules on prompting, how generative AIs work, data management and their environmental impacts. 

This is why educating children about AI from elementary school onwards seems to us to be a major educational issue, so as not to let uses take hold before we have provided the keys to understanding them.
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The omnipresence of AI: preventing rather than prohibiting

Even if social networks are still officially forbidden to under-13s in 2025, and even if their use is theoretically regulated, the reality is that children are coming into contact with AI long before middle school.

At Esclaibes International Schoolswe believe that the best prevention is education, not censorship. It's not a question of demonizing artificial intelligence, but of learning to live with it... with lucidity.

As linguist Claire Doquet puts it in La Matrescence (episode 248):

"AI is an assistant. You have to know how to use it, but above all you have to know what to do with it."

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A gradual introduction starting in elementary school

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Starting in 2025, our schools will introduce adapted activities as early as elementary school:

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• image analysis games ;
• verification of information and identification of reliable sources,
• collective reflections on trust, truth, appearance, etc.

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Our teaching teams at the Marseille, Paris 15th and Clichy schools are looking into the matter.

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"We are currently working on a new approach to our working practices and tools, such as work plans in our schools. In the age of generative AI, in education, our practices must evolve. And our schools need to prepare children to make use of this whole revolution through critical thinking training, data sourcing, etc.", explains Amanda Ceselia, pedagogical director of the Esclaibes International School group, a 6-12 teacher at theMarseille International School.

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The aim is not to turn children into AI experts, but to give them the right tools to remain critical, creative and autonomous in the face of this ubiquitous technology.

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How AI is changing schools: critical thinking, sources, creativity

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Think before you use

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Educating children about AI doesn't mean teaching them to become experts on the subject. Above all, it's about teaching them intellectual reflexes: observing, questioning, verifying, nuancing. When faced with an AI that generates texts, images or answers in a chain, it's essential to know how to interpret what you receive - and to understand its limits.

In the international schools of the Esclaibes network, this work begins at an early age, through philosophy workshops, group discussions, image analysis and critical reading.

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Checking, comparing, healthy doubts

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AI can produce errors, reproduce biases or invent facts with aplomb. Faced with this, children must learn to

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• identify AI "hallucinations";
• trace information back to its source ;
• compare several results produced by different AI versions;
• develop their vigilance.

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Even before directly tackling AI tools, fundamental skills can be developed beforehand, such as:

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• spot a rumor or a lie;
• validate information using several documents ;
• analyze an image, its framing, lighting and intention.

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These notions can, moreover, be made through historical documents and moments, as the manipulation of information and images long predates the advent of AI. Dictators of the XXᵉ century thus resorted to photo retouching (without computer software of course), to make their enemies and opponents disappear from famous clichés.

In our bilingual schools, it's also possible to compare how the same historical event is recounted in a French or American textbook, for example. This type of analysis can introduce the notion of cognitive bias and point of view.

These are all essential steps in media and image education, paving the way for critical use of AI.

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Create, structure, guide

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Moreover, using AI is more than just clicking a button. It means formulating a request, organizing an idea, adjusting a response. This is called prompting. And to prompt well, you need to know how to write, think and structure.

This practice can become a full-fledged writing exercise : writing a precise instruction, rephrasing a question, improving an inadequate answer.

Rather than hindering creativity, AI can reveal and structure it: it encourages students to choose their words better, to clarify their thinking, to interact with a tool... without ever giving up their critical spirit.

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AI as a curiosity trigger, not an imposed tool

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Educating children about AI doesn't mean exposing them to screens from an early age, or imposing new tools on them. Rather, it's about making it an opportunity for reflection, expression and wonder. When used properly, artificial intelligence becomes a lever for intellectual curiosity, not just another technology to be consumed.

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Observe, compare, question

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A first step might be to ask children to compare two images: a real photo and an AI-generated image. It's up to them to identify the difference, explain why one looks more "real", and what clues they're relying on. 

Why not also contact a newsroom to ask them how they verify information. Media such as France Infos, with its Vrai ou Faux section, or France Télévision, with its video analysis service, can explain the investigations they carry out and how they discredit information. 

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On the Internet Without Fear Instagram account, as part of Safe Internet Day, teacher Déborah Cohen-Tenoudji suggests a 3-step activity to raise children's awareness of artificial intelligence: 

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1. show them AI-generated content (photo, video...), without informing them because "there's nothing like confronting 'reality' to better understand";
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2. after reading, viewing, ask them what they think, what they feel, then tell them it's made with artificial intelligence and gather their impressions; also ask them if they know how it was made, if they think it looks like reality;
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3. think together about the dangers and benefits of using AI.

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These seemingly simple activities sharpen the sense of observation, analysis of details and vigilance in the face of visual information. They can be extended to include "true or false" games based on sentences, images and short texts, to introduce the notion of reliability and proof.

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Creating with AI to think better without it

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Another approach is to use AI to stimulate students' creativity, without ever substituting it for their thinking. For example, write an instruction to the AI to invent a story. Then improve, divert or correct the result, or make a parody of it.

What's at stake? Showing children that AI doesn't really understand: it imitates. It doesn't think, it reproduces. This awareness enhances their own imagination, logic and ability to structure language.

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Nurturing collective reflection

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Finally, artificial intelligence raises fascinating philosophical questions that are bound to emerge over the course of activities, over the years, as students mature.

Can AI make mistakes? Can it be trusted? Does it have intentions? These questions are the subject of discussion workshops starting in Cycle 3, as well as informal exchanges at home. Philosophy workshops can be held on questions of trust, fear and power.

These are valuable opportunities to work on nuance, argumentation and ethical posture.

AI is not intended to replace the child, nor to guide learning. But it can become a trigger for astonishment and questioning, an object of intellectual play and experimentation, accessible from elementary school onwards.

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A civic, ethical and humanist education

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‍Educatingchildren in AI is much more than familiarizing them with a tool. It's about teaching them to understand the invisible systems that influence their daily lives: algorithms, automatic suggestions, personal data processing...

By giving them the keys to reading the digital world, we enable them to exercise their freedom of thought.

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Understanding mechanisms for better choices

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Behind a video, an ad or an automatic response, there's often an algorithm. Knowing that it doesn't show "the truth", but what has been programmed to attract attention, is already an act of lucidity.

This is the vigilance we want to pass on: don't consume without understanding.
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Cross-cutting issues for greater commitment

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AI education cannot be considered in isolation. It links up with media education, digital citizenship and ethics, as well as with the major challenges of our time, such as ecology (impacted by artificial intelligence, among other things: a fine connection between subjects) and human rights.

Through philosophy workshops, group projects and class discussions, children learn to formulate their ideas, debate and take a stand. They develop civic skills as valuable as their academic knowledge.

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Awakening to AI means awakening to freedom of thought

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In our international schools, we believe that training in AI helps develop critical thinking, analytical skills and nuance. It's not about learning to distrust everything, but to understand so as to be able to make informed choices.

A child who learns to think for himself today will be able to dialogue with the world of tomorrow.

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