To combat the inevitable intellectual fatigue that autobiographical essay assignments often engender and, more importantly, to provide students with an authentic audience and purpose for their writing, the author designed an autobiographical assignment that liberates students from the traditional essay format while empowering them to envision…

English teachers are by nature rather imaginative, a trait that is not taught in a methods class or listed as a disposition in standards for teacher preparation. Whether as part of a learning activity or a "what if" question posed in a literature discussion, imagination and creativity are integral parts of classrooms and their inclusion is as…

A paper presented at Opening General Session of annual convention of National Council of Teachers of English (60th, Atlanta, November 26, 1970); appears also in College English," vol. 32, no. 5 (February 1971), pp. 563-72, and in Elementary English," vol. 48, no. 4 (April 1971), pp. 170-78. (Editor/SW)

The most important thing in education is not the data we present, but whether we present them vitally. (JH)

The anti-curriculum in English must be anti-formal, anti-traditional, anti-rigid. It must, on the other hand, be pro-human, pro-imagination, pro-creation. (Author)