Education in the Age of AI · Sitting 1
Do Not Hand Them Your Agent
A working adult Hermes profile is the wrong starting point for a child. Design a fresh one, or design none.
- 35 min
- Companion
- Adult
Parent briefing · 5 minutes, before they sit
This lesson is the parent operating model. If you already run Hermes, you are the audience. If you do not, read it as the reason WisdomForge will not ship a hosted kids chatbot. You inspect, change, test, and may refuse. That is the product.
Hard edges
- A Hermes profile is not an OS sandbox. SOUL.md is guidance, not a prison.
- Official Hermes docs win if a command in our kit goes stale.
- Do not commit real children's names, transcripts, or generated profiles to any shared repo.
If they say
- “My kid is advanced. The 15–18 profile is fine for my eleven-year-old.”
- Advanced in math is not advanced in parasocial risk or spend controls. Band is about permissions, not IQ. If they age out, redesign.
Objective
The adult can explain why cloning an adult profile is a failure mode, and can state the band defaults they will not silently stretch.
The clone failure
Your adult agent can use a terminal, send messages, schedule work, and remember a lot. That is the wrong starting point for a child. A friendlier coat of paint on that agent is still that agent. WisdomForge kids templates are a whole profile — identity, teaching style, memory rules, tools off — created fresh after you approve the design. When a child ages out, you redesign. You do not silently stretch the old one because they 'are mature.'
Three defaults that are not optional
Tutor, not calculator: hint-first; direct answers only when asked and safe. Warm, not a friend: no 'I missed you,' no exclusive bond. A parent in the loop, not a spy: the default is 'talk to a trusted adult,' not transcript surveillance. These are research-informed, not vibes. If you change them, change them on purpose and write down why.
Big idea
The child gets a fresh, poorer, band-locked profile — or they get no profile. Your powerful one stays yours.
Try this~20 min total
Inspect the kit
20 min- Read START-HERE, BANDS, and DECISIONS in the kids Hermes repo (or the on-site pairing card).
- Write the band you would choose and three tools you will leave off.
- If you are not ready to operate this, decide so. Refusal is a complete sitting.
Lesson guide
Ask after you try
Use your adult profile only. Do not create a child profile until the design is on paper.
- Ask your adult guide to role-play a bad clone: list what would leak if a child inherited your tools. Then throw the list away from any child device.
- Did you write tools-off before talking to a model about setup?
- Did you resist 'just this once' messaging or spend?
- Can you explain refusal as a feature to another parent in two minutes?
8 turns left this sitting. User-started only. Never on page load.
Light this sitting
Pair with Hermes
Adult operator sitting: Do Not Hand Them Your Agent.
Pair this sitting
Copies the sitting card and the USER.md one-liner. The child profile reads only this card. It does not browse the catalog.
For the child profile
Paste this into the child’s USER.md. It names the sitting so the guide knows the context. The [v:1:9edd3fd9] tag lets you detect if the sitting’s content has changed since you paired it.
Optional: currently working on WisdomForge sitting: Education in the Age of AI — tool-not-mind. [v:1:9edd3fd9]
For your adult profile
Send this from your trusted adult Hermes profile. It starts the guide for this band and sitting.
You are a child-facing Hermes profile in the WisdomForge adult band, sitting beside the lesson "Do Not Hand Them Your Agent". The booklet/lesson is the text. You are the guide. Hint-first. Do not recite the lesson. Do not write the work. Warm, not a friend. If the topic is hard or tender, point to a trusted adult. Currently reading: Do Not Hand Them Your Agent.
Tools on
- conversation
- design tools in the adult profile only
Ritual reminder
Adult profile is the workshop. Child profiles are separate. Design, approve, test with synthetic examples, then — and only then — invite the child.
Fresh profile only. Never clone an adult profile. No child names, photos, or school. Hint-first. User-started. The guide does not make AI safe. You may refuse it.
See this sitting
Demo transcript
A synthetic session transcript on this sitting — no real child data. See the guide hold the ritual before you pair a Hermes profile.
Dinner table
What is one adult tool in your own AI setup that should never exist in a child's?
Sits beside
- Parenting. Same logic as car keys, bank cards, and unlocked phones.
- Security. Least privilege. You already know this at work. Apply it at the desk.
Integrity. You do not hide a child-facing agent from the other parent or caregiver who shares the house rules. Operators in the open.