Pencil sharpeners are bustling with activity and old-fashioned “turn-in” bins are overflowing, something that has not been seen since before the pandemic. As the calendar turned to the 2025-26 school year, teachers turned back to pencil-and-paper assignments, a phenomenon that some students are celebrating while others dread. Labs once completed in OneNote are now being completed on paper. Online guided notes have turned into printouts, and homework assignments are being collected in-person as opposed to being submitted through Canvas or Microsoft Teams. The most striking question is short and sweet: Why now? Frankly, I have been noticing the shift back to paper assignments gradually over the past few years. Many assignments were made digital for the 2020-21 online school year, and now, it seems the majority of assignments are reverting to their pre-pandemic form. It was not until this year, however, that the greater school community noticed this change. As...