The Effort Crisis — Free Parent Edition | Kevin J. Roberts
Free Book · From the Researcher Behind America's AI Report Card

14 states gave schools zero guidance on AI.
Your child is using it anyway.
This book is the plan.

A parent's field guide to what AI is really doing to how young people think, learn, and develop. And what to say at your kitchen table before it gets any harder.

Featured on ABC's 20/20
Author of Cyber Junkie
Grand Rounds, Children's Hospital of Michigan

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The research you haven't seen, from the person who did it.

Before writing this book, I scored every state's public AI education guidance against a 7-criterion rubric. The results are the reason this book exists.

14
states have published zero AI guidance for schools
<1%
of U.S. districts are documented AI early adopters
2 of 37
scored states rate above 8.0 out of 10
See the full Report Card findings →
FREE
DOWNLOAD
Parent Edition
The Effort Crisis
What AI Is Doing to Your Child's Ability to Think
(And How to Stop It)

Kevin J. Roberts, M.A.

The question every parent needs to be asking right now.

Your child used AI on their homework last night. Their school almost certainly has no framework for it. And almost nobody is asking the question that matters most. What should students still do themselves before they turn to AI?

This book is the answer. Direct, research-backed, and written by someone who has spent two decades sitting across from the students whose lives are being shaped by these choices.

Calculator mode or ghostwriter mode. Every AI interaction your child has is one or the other. The difference decides who they become.

If your family hasn't had this conversation yet, now is the moment. The book gives you the language, the research, and the scripts.

A field guide, not a lecture.

Short chapters, a Family AI Agreement template, and word-for-word scripts for the conversations that matter.

1

The tricks your child already knows

The two-phone workaround. The resource-room exploit. The virtual-school automation. And why homework grades now mean less than you think.

2

What ChatGPT actually is

What MIT researchers found it does to the developing brain. Why this is not like a calculator, a Google search, or Wikipedia. Plain-English neuroscience for parents.

3

Real stories from real families

The perfect essay. The college application shortcut. The parent who checked the browser history. What actually happened next, and the pattern behind every one.

4

The conversation to have this week

Calculator mode vs. ghostwriter mode. The Family AI Agreement template you can print tonight. Scripts for the talk that changes the trajectory.

5

Your first seven days

Five concrete things you can do right now. Red flags to watch for. What to say to teachers. How to hold the line without destroying trust.

6

Raising thinkers

What AI cannot replace. How to build a home that protects your child's capacity to struggle, recover, and become someone real.

The real crisis is not that AI is doing the work. The real crisis is that our children are forgetting how to.

From The Effort Crisis

Kevin J. Roberts, M.A.

Kevin did his graduate work in neuroscience and has spent two decades inside the homes and schools where this crisis is happening. He collaborated with psychiatrist Dr. David Rosenberg of Children's Hospital of Michigan on a program featured on ABC's 20/20, examining the mental health and brain differences in screen-addicted youth.

His 2010 book Cyber Junkie addressed screen addiction before it became a mainstream public health conversation. The Effort Crisis is his seventh book. He is the co-founder of The AI Edge and the researcher behind America's AI Report Card, the first comprehensive scoring of state AI education policies.

ABC's 20/20
BBC Radio
NPR Affiliate
Grand Rounds, Children's Hospital of Michigan (2x)
CHADD · ADDA · ADDISS · ADHD Europe

Get the full book on Amazon.

The Effort Crisis is available now in paperback. The free download above is the parent field guide. The full book includes the complete research, all case studies, and the AI Report Card data.

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The AI conversation at your kitchen table cannot wait. This book gives you the language, the research, and the next step. Free. Right now.

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