I’ve been reflecting on my own education in English lit, and thinking that some of my best thinking happened when I was forced to sit, focus, and write in a Blue Book until the timer went off. And we didn’t have AI when that was happening — it was just something my professor knew would unlock our brains, better than our laptops and tablets and internet connections ever would.

If I was still teaching college writing (which I used to do, and then I went corporate, and now I miss it but also don’t envy the folks navigating AI disruptions right now…), I feel like I’d go straight to making all writing assignments happen live, on paper, in the classroom. If you’re doing that, are you writing about it here and telling us how it’s going? I’d love to hear from teachers who are getting their students back on paper these days.