The first sport she didn’t like was “Kick the Can.” The way it worked was a big teacher kicked the can into a crowd of children and then everybody scrambled to kick the can, where? She didn’t know, but there were no fouls. Just a bunch of competitive maniacs butting in on each other trying to kick this can, somewhere. The one rule she knew, she had learned at home, was not to ask questions and reveal her vulnerability. And the teacher who liked this game so much, wasn’t explaining it.
Then there was another game in first grade. It was called “Capture the Flag”. In this case someone had bothered to explain it. There was a designated space, and a line. The line divided one team’s territory from the other team’s. Then there were two goals, one at the far end of each team’s territory. The idea was to steal the flag from the opposite team’s goal and get it safely to one’s own goal. But only very tricky fast runners could do this, she concluded, so this game wasn’t really participatory for her. She, like several other girls would stay near the boundary between ‘their team’ and ‘our team’ and stick her toe over the line and pull it back before she got tagged. If a player got tagged by the other team that player would be put in the other team’s jail, and could only be freed by being tagged by a member of his or her own team. She didn’t want to get put in jail, but at least one time she was.
The teacher who organized this game once told her he’s like to, “sock you in the kisser.” She didn’t know for sure what this meant. Did it mean he wanted to kiss her? Or hit her in the mouth?
Hello,
My name is Jessica T. Eustice, and I’m a longtime educator in North Carolina with roughly 40 years of experience in special education, caregiving, literacy support, and community-based work.
Like many Americans, I’ve been watching the rapid development of AI with both fascination and concern. Much of the public conversation focuses on jobs disappearing, automation, and economic disruption. But I think there may be another side to the story that deserves attention.
My idea is this:
AI may push society back toward more individualized, relationship-based work — a kind of modern cottage industry built around uniquely human gifts.
Instead of everyone competing for fewer standardized corporate jobs, more people may begin creating small, human-scale forms of work based on personality, trust, mentorship, creativity, and care:
- tutoring
- coaching
- caregiving
- teaching
- art
- storytelling
- local services
- companionship
- skill-sharing
AI lowers barriers to entry in ways that make this newly possible. Someone without technical expertise can now build a website, teach online, create educational materials, organize clients, or reach a niche audience.
In my own case, I’m exploring a small ESL tutoring practice called “Gentle English With Jessie,” built around patience, emotional safety, and one-on-one encouragement for adult learners.
It strikes me that many of the abilities AI cannot easily replace — warmth, presence, trust, reassurance, lived experience, emotional intelligence — are precisely the abilities many ordinary people already possess.
I wonder whether the future of work may become less industrial and more personal again.
I thought this perspective might be of interest to NPR or WUNC because most AI discussions focus on economics and technology, while fewer focus on the possibility of a human-scale social reorganization around individual gifts and local relationships.
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Jessica T. Eustice
Chapel Hill / Carrboro, NC
I identify as a teacher of English for English language learners, EC, and Social Studies; I have expertise in the humanities, am experienced in studying Language Arts, Reading, Arithmetic-for-practical-purposes, and Algebra-I.
I have striven to broaden and deepen my capabilities to maintain my integrity as a worker in the American economy since 1977 when I started working, as a cashier in fast food. Since then, I have served as a camp counselor, a work-study student in college, a puppet-wagon lady in the summer. I tutored privately, and in an academic institution and with a Learning Center. I taught as an intern teacher, a licensed teacher, and a Community College Instructor. I have also been a retail administrative assistant, and a caregiver.
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