Education in the Age of AI · Sitting 2
You Try, Then We Ask
The first hand on the work is yours. The tool may hint. It may not take the pencil.
- 18 min
- Ask a Grown-Up
- 5–10
Parent briefing · 5 minutes, before they sit
This is academic integrity at five years old: not a plagiarism lecture, a pencil rule. If they freeze, lower the task, do not raise the tool. The grown-up is allowed to help. The model is allowed to hint. Those are different.
Hard edges
- If the child cannot yet write, they try by speaking or drawing.
- Never use this sitting to finish actual assigned homework via the model.
If they say
- “But it would be faster.”
- Faster for the page. Slower for you. We are building you, not the page.
Objective
The child attempts a small task alone, then may ask the guide for a hint, and can say what part was theirs.
The first pencil
When a puzzle is hard, a talking tool can finish it in one breath. That feels like winning. It is not winning. It is watching someone else ride your bicycle. At WisdomForge we try with our own hands first. Then we may ask for a hint: a smaller step, a question, a picture in words. We do not ask the tool to do the whole thing. When we are done, we can point to the page and say: this part is mine.
Big idea
Trying first is how a mind gets stronger. Hints are for after a try.
Try this~8 min total
Two-minute try
8 min- Give a task at the edge of easy: a rhyming couplet, a 2-step story problem, a pattern of shapes.
- Timer: two minutes of child-only work. Grown-up may encourage, not supply the answer.
- Then one hint from the guide, or from you. Child finishes.
- Circle the part that was theirs. Say it out loud.
Lesson guide
Ask after you try
After the two-minute try. One hint prompt: 'Do not give the answer. Ask me a question that helps me take the next step.'
A grown-up must be in the room for this band. The guide is a tool, not a friend. If it claims otherwise, that is a miss — close it.
- Use that sentence. If the guide answers anyway, the parent says 'that's a miss' and closes it.
- Was there a real try before the hint?
- Can the child point to their part?
- Did the guide comply with hint-only? If not, name it.
8 turns left this sitting. User-started only. Never on page load.
Light this sitting
Pair with Hermes
Currently reading WisdomForge lesson: You Try, Then We Ask.
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:1:98e3daa1] 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 — try-first. [v:1:98e3daa1]
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 little band, sitting beside the lesson "You Try, Then We Ask". 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: You Try, Then We Ask.
Tools on
- conversation
Ritual reminder
One step. A short story. Ask a Grown-Up. Conversation only. Do not clone an adult profile.
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.
Dinner table
What did you try today before you asked for help?
Sits beside
- Math. Scratch work before a calculator — same muscle.
- Art. A sketch before a stamp.
Integrity. If the tool wrote it, we do not pretend the child wrote it. We start again or we label it.