My reading adventures in the strange world of instructional development continue apace.

This week I read a chapter from a book called Creating Significant Learning Experiences by L. Dee Fink. There were some things I liked about it and others I didn’t. But far and away the section that made the strongest impression was the bonkers part where he lists examples of questions he thinks literature professors should ask their students in order to promote, respectively, critical, creative, and practical thinking.

My main take away is that I have been doing professoring all wrong.

I mean, SO WRONG.

I’ve gotten distracted by teaching my students about, oh, you know, genre and linguistic effects and narrative structure and all that rubbish … when all this time I could have been putting those young minds to work solving real-world problems!

The good thing is, it’s not too late.

So let’s do this right here right now. Why are lovers sometimes cruel to each other and what can we do about it? We can small-group the shit out of this. We’ll reconvene in 15 minutes to hear each group’s Action Items for Cruel Lovers. And … go!

P.S. Actually send me your best actionable, outside-the-box solutions. I’ll also accept lists of ways in which Daisy Miller and Catherine Earnshaw were similar. This one’s tricker than it sounds. You’ve got to read the question carefully. I’m looking for ways in which they were similar. Before. I.e. not ways in which they are similar now. Ways in which they were similar. Got it?

I’ll also accept alternate endings to Wuthering Heights, or, as the younger insists on calling it–based on her intimate acquaintance with the novel in its mug form–Withering Heights. Will also accept full manuscript drafts and screenplay treatments for Withering Heights.