old school

I bought 36 notebooks and 36 pens for the 36 students in my class. They picked them up as they entered yesterday, a little puzzled to start the term with a gift. I’d like to think they’ve been given the present of presence.

We're going old school this year, with some in class writing assignments and a lot of journaling at home. I told the students that the best gift they can give to their future self — say, the version of themselves that will be alive in 2035 — is a journal full of observations that in retrospect will likely mean far more than on the day they are recorded. Time passes swiftly enough that the details of the everyday blur: recording even a few of those thoughts, sentiments, hopes for a future you helps anchor you in the present while providing material for reflection in the future.

My hope is also to slow down the writing process, slow down the thinking process, and nurture sustained attentiveness as a way of engaging with the class and with the world. The humanities excel at swift as well as slow thinking; cultivation of attention as an asset for a rich life; careful archival work, even as directed towards a future self; full and embodied study of what makes a good life. Though the assignments and readings are on Canvas and therefore require a computer or phone, no electronics are needed during the class itself. I encourage students to keep their laptops closed, their phones in their bags, and their attention on each other.

I’m teaching ENG 300: Your Degree in the World, a career course required for all English majors. They represent all of our concentrations within that department: Creative Writing; Literature; Writing, Rhetorics and Literacies; English Education; Linguistics; Narrative Studies; Film and Media Studies; Culture, Technology and Environment. They are a diverse, energetic group, some of whom write by longhand in a journal regularly, others of whom have never tried; some who use AI regularly, others who have never done so; many with a strong idea of what they would like to undertake after they finish with their degree, others for whom the future is satisfyingly unknown.

I’m looking forward to this class and hope to post soon on how it’s structured.

(footnote: yes I am aware that some students will require an accommodation, that is fine, that is what at we do)