Why a humanoid teacher is still less scary than an activist teacher

Imagine a classroom full of students sitting at their desks. The door slides open, and in rolls a sleek, polished robot programmed with an eerily pleasant voice: “Good morning, children. Today we are learning fractions.” On the negative side, we’re losing human interaction, and the scene is like something out of a dystopian, barely watchable Disney-produced Star Wars reboot. But on the plus side, the robot does not have any strange piercings, and it’s not wearing a “Women’s March” T-shirt. It is not here to process its “robot privilege” or lament about systemic oppression in mathematics. So I’d say all things considered, we’re already off to a better start than a disturbing number of classrooms in California.

First Lady Melania Trump recently stepped out alongside a Figure 03 Humanoid robot at an AI Education Summit. The American-made robot, produced by Figure AI, greeted attendees with full autonomy. This wasn’t some tech geek behind a curtain with a remote control, according to the developer; real-time AI powered this robot. The First Lady described a future where “very soon artificial intelligence will move from our mobile phones to humanoids that deliver utility,” connecting it to the classroom, where robots could potentially deliver personalized education based on a child’s learning speed and “emotional state.” In the teaching world, we call this differentiation, which is often impossible in a packed classroom of varied skill levels. In other words: practical support that actually frees teachers up to focus on teaching instead of endless administrative bloat.

And right on cue, here comes Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, to complain about the entire concept. During a discussion on AI, she claimed, “What she did yesterday was every parent’s nightmare,” adding, “This is exactly what Big Tech wants to create: a sense of a society that is being led by and taught by robots, displacing every bit of all of who we are, starting with education.”

For many parents, the real nightmare is not a robot helping with math homework. The real nightmare is discovering that their child has been secretly transitioned at school without their knowledge or consent. And let’s not pretend that Weingarten’s objections were solely about principle. If this exact same concept were rolled out with Michelle Obama at the helm, my guess is that the union would be posting on X, celebrating the “potential of equitable AI learning robots.”

A basic AI-powered instructor, even in its early stages, already has a few clear advantages over the modern, activist-leaning classroom: A robot is not going to tell your child that they are inherently an “oppressor” or a “victim” because of their skin color. A robot is not going to encourage your daughter to question her gender identity after a bad day at school. A robot is not going to turn a history lesson into a therapy session about America’s alleged irredeemable sins.

Now, to be clear, the idea of robots in classrooms is creepy. Imagine every teacher having a robotic assistant monitoring “off-task behavior” or fracturing a human skull, literally. In November, Figure AI was sued by its former head of product safety, who alleged he was fired after warning that these robots were powerful enough to break a bone. Okay, so that is scary. But here is the problem for the unions: it is still just as unsettling as what parents have already discovered is happening behind closed doors in our schools.

We are not talking about what-ifs and robot science fiction; we are talking about real-life documented cases of social engineering. Take the case out of Spreckels, California. A mother, Jessica Konen, had to file a lawsuit against the school district after staff began using a different name and male pronouns for her 11-year-old daughter without her consent. They treated her child as a boy on campus and intentionally kept the mother in the dark.

Or the time a special-needs, middle school student was left to wander lost on a busy intersection after a student-led ICE protest during school hours. His mother was furious that he was allowed to wander the streets without any adult supervision. Or the hundreds of cases of sexual misconduct by teachers every year in our public schools.

That is the real “nightmare,” Randi.

So, when Weingarten clutches her pearls over a robot hypothetically helping deliver instruction, forgive me for not being particularly moved. If the choice is between a politically neutral machine that teaches reading, writing, and math, or a system increasingly dominated by activists who see your child as a project for social revolution, do not be surprised if some parents start saying: “Bring on the robot.”

And with a price tag of around $25,000, that is much cheaper than paying a left-leaning activist teacher.