If Answers Are Instant, Do We Still Know How to Seek?
There was a time when learning was inseparable from the journey. If you wanted to know, you had to go, to the library, to the workshop, to the elder who held the knowledge. You walked there, you waited, you listened, you wrote. The very act of moving toward the answer formed part of the learning itself.
Now?
We type, and the answer appears before we have even finished the thought. Artificial intelligence has collapsed the journey into milliseconds. It is astonishing, but it is also dangerous. When the journey disappears, something precious vanishes with it, the shaping of the seeker.
Across the world’s great faiths, in the voices of prophets, poets, and teachers, a single truth has been repeated for thousands of years .... wisdom belongs to the seeker. These teachings did not survive by accident. They endured because every generation needs to be reminded that the act of searching is not wasted time, it is where the deepest transformation happens.
The Call to Seek
In the Christian scriptures, the words are clear: “Seek, and ye shall find.” It is not an invitation to idle waiting, it is an instruction to move. The value is not just in what is found, but in the act of seeking itself, the questions asked, the obstacles overcome, the growth that happens along the way.
In Islam, the Qur’an deepens the call: “Those who strive for Us. We will surely guide them to Our ways.” Here the promise is linked directly to effort. Striving, sustained, purposeful work, is not merely a means to an end; it is the condition for guidance to come.
The Jewish scriptures offer an image to hold in our minds: “Search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will find understanding.” This is not surface-level curiosity. It is the work of the miner, the diver, the archaeologist, those who are willing to dig, and dig again, because they believe what they seek is worth the effort.
Buddhism gives us the patience for this work: “With persistence, the impossible becomes possible.” The transformation comes not in a single leap but in steady, mindful effort, especially when the problem feels too big or the answer too far away.
In Hinduism, the Bhagavad Gita shows us the balance: “Those who seek the truth will find it through knowledge, meditation, and devotion.” Truth, in this view, comes not through information alone but through integration, the head, the heart, and the hands working together in pursuit of something greater.
Five traditions, one truth. Understanding is not handed to you. You must move toward it, wrestle with it, and allow the process to change you.
The AI Era’s Dilemma
If these voices are right, what happens when the movement toward the answer is no longer required? When a question is typed, an answer appears, and the learner never has to wrestle with uncertainty?
AI has given us breath-taking speed. It can summarise decades of research in seconds. It can analyse data sets so vast they would overwhelm any human researcher. It can model, simulate, predict, but it cannot teach the discipline of seeking.
If we are not careful, we will raise a generation who can retrieve any fact instantly, yet have no experience of the slow, difficult, humbling work of turning facts into wisdom.
That is why Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) is so urgent now. CBL restores the journey. It gives students complex, authentic problems that cannot be solved by a single AI-generated answer. It requires them to start with a question, navigate uncertainty, test their thinking, refine their approach, and consider the real-world consequences of their solutions.
When we pair CBL with AI, we can transform speed into depth. The technology becomes a companion, not a shortcut.
Ancient Principles in Modern Classrooms
The call to seek comes alive when a group of students is tasked with improving access to clean water in their community. AI can map the water sources, model contamination, and pull examples from across the globe. However, students still go into the field, collecting samples, speaking to residents, understanding the history behind the issue. They learn that finding is more than locating, it is understanding.
The principle of striving appears in a project to reduce food waste in the school cafeteria. AI analyses menus, waste logs, and purchasing patterns. The initial report takes minutes. However, the students’ work lasts for weeks, experimenting with menu designs, running awareness campaigns, adjusting portion sizes, tracking results. It is in the repetition, the testing, the adapting, that they discover what truly works.
The treasure-hunt mindset emerges in a city planning challenge. AI offers a list of traffic optimisation strategies, ranked by efficiency. However, when the students dig deeper, interviewing locals, reviewing accident reports, weighing environmental impact, they find that the best solution is one AI had ranked low. It was hidden under layers of context that only human seekers could uncover.
Persistence shows up when design students try to create biodegradable packaging. Their first prototypes fail. AI suggests alternatives, simulates product lifespans, predicts costs. However, it still takes round after round of testing before they arrive at a design that works in practice. Persistence, not speed, is what makes the impossible possible.
Finally, the balance of knowledge, reflection, and devotion comes through in a healthcare challenge. AI scans thousands of studies on chronic illness, producing a neat summary of treatment options. The students step back to reflect, interviewing patients and caregivers, considering cultural values, weighing emotional impacts. Their devotion to improving lives shapes the final solution into something AI alone could never have produced.
What the Teacher Becomes
In this partnership between AI and CBL, the teacher is no longer the keeper of the answers. They become the mentor of the journey. They design challenges that resist easy solutions. They prompt students to validate and question AI outputs. They create space for reflection so that meaning is not lost in speed. They guide learners toward considering the ethical and human impact of their work.
In short, they help the student remain the seeker, not merely the receiver.
Why This Still Matters
The 'call to seek', the 'emphasis on striving', the 'image of hidden treasure', the 'lesson of persistence', and the 'integration of mind, heart, and action', all are alive in a well-run CBL project.
AI can offer the knowledge, the analysis, the simulation, but it cannot walk the road. CBL ensures the road is still there, that learners are shaped by the steps they take, the questions they ask, the challenges they wrestle with, and the reflection they bring to the work.
This matters because education has never been about producing people who can repeat what they have been told. It has always been about producing people who can think, judge, create, and care. Those are the qualities that make leaders, innovators, and citizens who contribute meaningfully to their world.
A Call to Educators
If we believe the voices of the past, then we must design for the seeker. We must choose challenges that require the learner to go beyond the first answer. We must pair AI’s speed with human depth. We must keep persistence, reflection, and ethical responsibility at the heart of our classrooms.
Because from parchment scroll to AI algorithm, the truth has not changed:
Seek. Question. Create.
The answers are not the end. They are the milestones along a path that changes who we become.