“Never look back. It distracts from the now.”

Each year that one teaches the same subject, the temptation to recycle and repurpose an old exam grows. And recycling is, of course, the mantra of our time. E.g., yesterday, this horror called “Ghetto Supastar” began playing on the gym’s sound system and only two of us there recognized it as a retread of a painful ditty called “Islands in the Stream” written by the Bee Gees for Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. (Horrible as IITS was and is, it sounds way better than the new version, I kid you not, plus it at least kind of makes sense. More news to the young: modern-day anthem “Land of Confusion” was written not by the group Disturbed but by Genesis in the mid-80s, lyrics by guitarist Mike Rutherford. Gym Class Heroes’ song “Cupid’s Chokehold” is a just a remix of Supertramp’s 1979 classic, “Breakfast in America”—which remains of course superior in every way.)

Hollywood is addicted to recycling as well. It was bad enough when they got poor old Leonard Nimoy to appear in a tedious caricature where you not only have to suspend disbelief but also thought itself. And I admit that I will go see the reimagined Sherlock Holmes. But now they are retreading anything—even things that were terrible in their original iteration. Hence, we will shortly be treated to an A-Team movie (Exasperated Eye-Roll®).

Granted, I haven’t been doing this all that long, but I’m pretty convinced that recycling is not a good idea. A current essay exam—like the eight-question one I just finished grading—keeps everyone sharp, creative, and up-to-date. As everyone in America knows, Trudy Monk left her husband, Detective Adrian Monk, a videotape saying that, if she died, the guy from Coach killed her. In June 2008, a fractured Supreme Court suggested that, under the right circumstances, the tape would be admissible against Coach over a Confrontation Clause objection. Before mid-2008, there would have been little need to test or even seriously ponder the issue. But this year’s entire exam became centered on the Monk finale, despite the fact that part two aired the day after the exam. Given the chance to tackle something insanely hard, a few students pretty much nailed it.