In John Dixon's account of Dartmouth, experience is seen as central to the business of English as a school subject. Experience, for Dixon, is the raw material that is worked on in the classroom. What kinds of theory inform this emphasis on experience, and what are the curricular and pedagogic implications of this version of English? How does Dixon's argument about experience sit with the work of other Dartmouth participants, such as D.W. Harding and James Britton? Does it have anything to offer us now, fifty years on?