Current calls for a return to basic education may seem like a rerun from the 1950s and early 1960s, but there are important differences. (Author)

Explores how insights of the 1970s are being lost, namely, those about why and how the academy thinks about basic writing and students deemed "illiterate" or "remedial." Examines a discourse that the author calls Basic Writing and how it has marginalized basic writing courses, teachers, and students. (TB)

Prior to the colonial period, the rudiments of education consisting of religion, basic literacy, and arithmetic had been provided to male children in Burma and Siam through Buddhist monks that lived in local monasteries. Education commenced when the child reached five or six years of age and usually ended at puberty. Formal learning continued for…

While concerns over literacy are common in contemporary times, similar concerns have been raised in other historical periods. Despite earlier predictions of American mastery of English, the Harvard Reports of the 1890s reflected anxiety over literacy among freshman college students from even "the best families in point of culture and…

Discusses the historical fallacies and cultural assumptions surrounding the "literacy myth" in Western society. Includes an extensive list of references. (PD)

Discusses the historical pedagogical controversy between advocates of the personal, expressive functions of school-based creative writing and defenders of its utilitarian functions. Concludes that the merits of creative written expression must be defended during the current "back to basics" movement because of its therapeutic, functional, and…

The literacy rate in early America may have been fairly high. Three factors seem to have influenced the development of a literate population: (1) skill requirements of expanding business ventures; (2) masters' responsibility for apprentices' education; and (3) the proliferation of private venture teachers. (SK)

Presents arguments by Robert Lowe and Matthew Arnold on the 19th century British "Payment by Results" Plan, whereby schools received funds for students who passed minimal competency tests. Emphasizes that the Victorian experience produced acrimonious teachers with low morale and encourages contemporary minimal testing advocates not to…

Examines 150 years of reading textbooks and suggests that instead of basics educators need a new philosophy to guide schools into the future. (MKM)

Traces the roots of composition instruction to the nineteenth century and shows the origins of many current traditions in writing, as well as describing the first "crisis" in basic skills, which took place in about 1870. (DD)

Describes the origins of alternative schools within U. S. public school systems and the reasons for their rapid proliferation. (Author/WD)

Describes importance of listening and interest in developing listening skills in today's educational curriculum, and discusses past attempts to develop listening skills through legislation mandating listening education, development of listening courses, formation of International Listening Association, and Sperry Corporation's listening…

The provision of developmental education to the academically underprepared student in colleges and universities in the United States is traced historically. U.S. colleges admitted underprepared students before the advent of open admissions and equal opportunity policies. In fact, the presence of underprepared students in American colleges has been…

This report traces the roots of Federal involvement in adult basic education in order to place the Adult Education Act in historical perspective. A brief chronological narrative focuses attention on the Federal role in adult education in three broad program categories: education for Federal employees, labor force development programs, and programs…

Discusses seven stereotypical views concerning the history of federal involvement in elementary and secondary education. Examines federal intervention after World War II; origination of federal programs; the National Defense Education Act; basic skills education; federal aid to precollegiate education; federal pressure for desegregation; and…