Applies Bailey's paradox--the absolute belief that only tentative beliefs may safely be permitted--to the teaching of English. (RB)

Outlines current critiques of U.S. higher education. Describes the activities and findings of the Illinois state task force on assessment of language arts in the 1980s. Describes how Illinois State University's English department defined the goals of English majors and dramatically altered the curriculum. (HB)

Suggests that English graduate departments ought to begin discussing what will make graduate education more organic to the teaching experience of the graduate student. (RB)

Discusses the role of the English department in providing students with a liberal arts education. (RB)

Steps to make the teaching assistant system work better for all concerned. (AA)

Explores some aspects of a "literary education," and concludes that a literary education helps one to live alertly in a culture which is "idiotically" stratified. (JM)

A former English department chairman looks back with optimism at the state of English education since 1930 and discusses how it might be of use in developing future curricula. (HTH)

Shares some things about the author's career in the English profession, in a confessional mode. Notes that as a profession in a highly competitive and commodified society, educators encourage "hypocriticism"--intellectual bluff and bluster, self-promotion and one-upmanship. Recounts some episodes from an academic life of "lazy idle little…

Presents the results of a survey on the salaries paid by English departments with established Ph.D. programs of nationally recognized quality. (RB)

Presents a personalized account of the difficulties administrators of English departments face in maintaining an effective department and still balancing the budget. (RB)

Examines the administrative and organizational implications that Cleanth Brooks methods of criticism hold for modern English departments. (RB)

Uses results from a survey of students and faculty at the University of Texas at Austin to criticize emphases within the English department and the university as a whole, particularly the heavy use of teaching assistants in undergraduate instruction. (AA)

Discusses the role of literature in the English curriculum and the problems facing the English department at the University of Tennessee. (FL)

Argues that scholarship, broadly defined, is essential to effective teaching and to a satisfying professional life in the humanities. Defines good teaching, and discusses ways to evaluate and encourage good teaching as well as ways to integrate teaching and scholarship. (SG)

Defends literary education by describing what is distinctive and central and valuable about the collective enterprise. Offers some negative prescriptions--some important ways not to respond to the challenges facing the profession--and some positive suggestions as well. (SC)