Reading The Atlantic: September 2026 "Bring Back the Blue-Book Exam"

The title of the article for this week is "Bring Back the Blue-Book Exam" by Walt Hunter

The old-fashioned handwritten “blue book” exam deserves a revival in the age of AI—not simply because it makes cheating harder, but because the struggle to think and write under pressure develops the intellectual independence, creativity, and flexibility that education is meant to cultivate

Here is the free link to the article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/09/higher-education-in-person-written-exams/687954/?gift=vIg6YgHx4KloTIXcuBO5E4e7xyfEHxhtD0ZGvWtm_RU&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Please reach out to me if you need assistance getting a copy of "Bring Back the Blue-Book Exam".

Note: the webpage for the digital edition also has an audio version available.

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The Atlantic is perhaps America's most important journal. For nearly 170 years it has traced the cultural and political trajectory of the United States printing articles from W.E.B Dubois and Mark Twain through Virginia Woolf and Kurt Vonnegut to Ta-Nehisi Coates and David Brooks.

The Atlantic is opinionated, but unlike other long-running publications such as The Nation or National Review, it is not partisan. The heart of the publication has always honest, informed conversation. Its pages wrestle with who are as a nation and a people and where we are going.