Essays Without Souls
Educators once saw personal essays as sacred spaces for memory, voice, and emotional truth. Now nearly a third of applicants use AI to draft them, and 97% of Gen Z students lean on tools like ChatGPT for schoolwork. Critics warn that while AI can polish and organize, it shortcuts the reflection that builds clarity and self-understanding. At UVA, Piers Gelly tested this head-on: 72 students decided whether AI could replace him. Most recoiled after reading its “authentic” work, with bland words and cliché characters, and returned to his feedback. As AI becomes routine, educators are finding ways to keep the human spark alive. In the Chronicle of Higher Education, Ellen O’Connell Whittet argues that personal essays may be imitated by machines, but only humans can “feel the heat of being seen.”