New Yorker Essay Asks: Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?

In a weekend essay for The New Yorker, the question is raised whether the classroom should resemble the gym as artificial intelligence increasingly challenges academia. The piece argues that the gym offers a model where process is its own reward, contrasting with the academic enterprise's focus on outcomes. As A.I. presses harder on traditional education, the essay suggests looking to physical training spaces for alternative values. The essay appears in the culture section of The New Yorker, published online. No specific individuals, institutions, or locations are named in the available content. The core idea is that the gym's emphasis on ongoing practice, rather than final products, might provide a useful perspective for education under pressure from A.I. technologies. The essay's title directly poses the provocative question, and the subtitle frames the argument: as A.I. intensifies its impact on academia, we might consider a setting where the process itself is the reward. The publication date is not specified in the provided material. The essay is an opinion piece, not a news report, and does not include concrete examples or data. It remains a conceptual reflection on education and artificial intelligence.