China Is Teaching Six-Year-Olds AI, and America Is Still Debating Screen Time

Beginning this fall in Beijing, and likely soon across more of China, children as young as six years old will be required to receive at least eight hours a year of AI education. That means toddlers, fresh out of kindergarten, are being ushered straight into the digital world, learning coding logic, machine learning basics, hands-on projects, responsible use, and algorithmic thinking.

The Chinese Ministry of Education ain’t playing. This push comes from a clear national ambition to build an army of AI-aware, AI-literate citizens from the ground up, creating a steady pipeline of talent that can compete with, and eventually lead, the next wave of global technology.

In cities like Hangzhou, they not waiting for permission or public debate. AI education there is already mandatory for both primary and secondary students, with local schools choosing whether to make it a stand-alone course or blend it into science and technology classes. The message is simple, AI ain’t an elective anymore, it’s a foundation.

Meanwhile, Here in America…

We still arguing about whether kids should even use AI.

We still worried ChatGPT is “cheating.”

We still fighting over whether technology gonna replace teachers instead of asking how it can empower them.

While we dragging our feet, China sprinting, not just building AI tools but teaching the mindset behind them before kids even lose their baby teeth. And let’s be real, this ain’t just about education, it’s about power. The nation that understands, builds, and controls AI early will shape the global economy, security, and innovation for the next 50 years.

A Call to Action for America and for Us

If six-year-olds in China learning AI, and our ten-year-olds still trying to find the Wi-Fi password, we setting ourselves up to play ocatch-up in a world that ain’t slowing down for nobody.

Let’s flip the question. Not “Should we teach kids AI?” but “How fast can we start?”

Here’s where we begin:

Start AI literacy early. Make it a normal part of elementary education. Kids already curious, we just need to guide that curiosity with purpose.
Train teachers, not just coders. The classroom should be where kids learn to ask why AI works, not just how to use it.
Bridge the tech gap in Black and brown communities. Every child deserves equal access to this future, not just the ones in Silicon Valley or private schools.
Build community-led AI programs. We can’t wait for the government to move. Local organizations, churches, and after-school programs can step up now.
Teach ethics alongside algorithms. Power without principles leads to exploitation. AI without empathy leads to control.

If we sit back and treat AI like a phase, like it’s just another app or passing trend, we gonna wake up one day and realize we don’t own the technology, the data, or even the narrative.

Our kids gonna be users, not creators.

Our communities gonna be consumers, not contributors.

And our voices gonna be inputs, not influencers.

That’s why I’m saying this now, it’s time for America, and especially our communities, to stop watching and start building.

We need to teach our kids the language of the machines, not because robots replacing us, but because the future belongs to the ones who can tell the robots what to do.

If China teaching six-year-olds how to shape the digital world, the least we can do is teach ours how to own a piece of it.

China just made AI education mandatory for first graders. The future ain’t waiting, and neither should we.

If we don’t build the next generation of AI thinkers, we’ll end up raising the next generation of AI consumers.

The question isn’t whether our kids will live in an AI world, it’s whether they’ll be building it or just scrolling through it.

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