There’s a rebellion forming in classrooms and dining rooms. Parents are opting their children out of school-issued laptops and are asking teachers to return to pen and paper. In a recent report, families described a growing discomfort with this digital imperative in education. Importantly, this is less about the logistical aspects of technology and more about something universal: Control. These instincts seem reasonable. Screens distract, and artificial intelligence hovers over homework like an invisible, or worse, a co-conspirator in cheating. If the tool seems to distort the learning process, remove the AI. It would be easy to dismiss this reaction as technophobia, but that would be lazy. While the anxiety underneath it is real, the object of resistance may not be at the heart of this disruption. The Echo of the First Luddites The original Luddites weren’t irrational men smashing machinery as a reaction to innovation. They were skilled workers responding to a system that threatened both craft and identity. Automation altered the economic logic of their world, and with it, their sense of agency. …