Quote, unquote: Reading and thinking and wondering about the world

One thing I’ve learned here is that, despite the various narcotics of the web and text messaging and BlackBerries and iPhones, you can still get students to read long pieces—especially if some of those pieces are undeniably compelling. You can get them to think. You can get them to understand that it’s important to step back and wonder at the world, to question what’s happening in the world, to slow down briefly and pause to consider what this mutant rat race is all about. 

-- Bill Reynolds, the head of the magazine stream at Ryerson University, in his excellent article about the unconventional course Journalism and Ideas, which requires second year students to read and discuss two pieces of long-form journalism, mostly long magazine pieces, a week. Originally published in the newsletter of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies 3:2 (Spring 2009): 18 and reprinted by J-Source.ca.