We persist in seeing writing as a method of moral development, not as an essential mode of communication; the eradication of error is more important than the encouragement of expression. We need to balance receiving and sending and to restore writing as an educational basic. (Author)

This report is one of a series of papers presented to a continuing in-house seminar on learning sponsored by the Ford Foundation. The paper reports on several schools where writing and individual expression are valued, identifies one approach to the teaching of writing, and addresses two central questions underlying the crisis of writing in the…