DOCUMENT RESUME ED 034 760 TE 001 596 TITLE Speaking About Teaching: Papers from the 1965Summer Session of the Commission on English. INSTITUTION College Entrance Examination Board, New York, N.Y. Commission on English. PUB DATE 67 NOTE 200p. AVAILABLE FROM College Entrance Examination Board, Publications Order Office, Box 592, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 (HC $4.00) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$1.00 HC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Composition (Literary), Culturally Disadvantaged, Dropouts, Educational Research, *English Instruction, *English Programs, Federal Aid, *Government Role, Grammar, Inservice Teacher Education, *Institutes (Training Programs), Linguistics, Literature, Remedial Programs, Rhetoric, Teacher Improvement, Teacher Responsibility, Teacher Workshops ABSTRACT Thirteen papers have been collected in this book to indicate professional concern about English instructionat all levels and to articulate the role of the teacher, teacher educator, academician, and federal government in changing current English teaching practices. Topics of articlesare (1) the intellectual, civic, and ethical responsibilities of the teacher,by Howard Mumford Jones,(2) "What English Institutes Could Be," by Harold Martin, (3) "Encouraging Good Teaching through Institutes," by Donald Bigelow, (4) workshops designed to bring educators and academicians into closer association with public school teachers, byWarner Rice, (5) "Research Programs of the U. S. Office of Education," by Francis Lanni,(6) suggestions for the English professor who requests federal aid for his project, by Kenneth Mildenberger, (7) "The Potential in Potential Dropouts," by Miriam Goldstein,(8) "Teaching the Culturally Disadvantaged," by Daniel Thompson, (9) a remedial summer English program for black college students in Birmingham, by John Monro,(10) "Linguistics in the English Institutes," by H.A. Gleason, Jr.,(11) "Grammar and Rhetoric," by Francis Christensen, (12) "All Students Hunger for Great Literature," byJoan Wofford, and (13) "Developing Writing Power in the Elementary School," byDorothy Saunders. (JB) U.S. DEP1RTMENT Of HEALTH, EDUCATIONaWt Mitt OFFICE Of EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE POINTS Of VIEW OR OPINIONS CO PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. qr STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE Of EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. 4- 0re\ CI U.8 . Speakmg about Teaching Papers from the 1965 Summer Session of the Commission onEnglish College Entrance Examination Board, NewYork, 1967 i "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MA112 HE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED By 0 Cfm.VuilittSiaAn. _Amoidt- TO ERIC AN ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE U. S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ER IC SYSTEM REQUIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.". Additional copies of this bookmay be ordered from College Entrance Examination Board, Publications Order Office, Box592, Princeton, New Jersey 08540. The price is $4 per copy. Letters should be addressed to the Executive Director,Commission on English, 687 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts02I x6. Copyright@ 1967, by College Entrance ExaminationBoard, New York. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:67-17674 Printed in the United States of America Preface With generous help from The DanforthFoundation, the Commission on English of the College Entrance ExaminationBoard sponsored in 1965, August 15-28, a conference concerned with institutes tobe supported un- der the National Defense Education Act, Title XL Ittook place at Rad- cliffe College and Harvard University and wasattended by professors of English representing 1 oo colleges and universities. Following the conference, the College Boardpublished for the Com- mission the Handbook on Summer Institutesin English; its foreword stated: "The Handbook represents a consensus growing outof the partici- pants' experience in Summer Institutes forEnglish teachers and their dis- cussions during the two weeks in Cambridge." Speaking about Teaching contains a selection of the papersprepared for and delivered during the 1965 conference. Manyspeakers, as planned by the Commission, went beyond operationalproblems of institutes to discuss ways of improvinginstruction. This volume now makes their papers avail- able to all persons interested in teachingand teacher preparation. Floyd Rinker Executive Director, Commission on English iii Contents . vi . .. Authors. .... > Teaching Alone Is Not Enough Howard Mumford Jones What English Institutes CouldBe Harold C. Martin 4 The English Professor and theU.S. Office of Education 22 Kenneth W Mildenberger Encouraging Good Teachingthrough Institutes Donald N. Bigelow 34 Research Programs of the U.S.Office of Education Francis Ianni Teaching the Culturally Disadvantaged Daniel C. Thompson 51 A Summer English Programin Birmingham 78 John U. Monro Workshops and Follow-ups 89 Warner G. Rice Linguistics in the English Institutes 105 H. A. Gleason Jr. Grammar and Rhetoric 119 Francis Christensen The Potential in PotentialDropouts Miriam B. Goldstein 148 All Students Hunger for GreatLiterature i66 Joan W. Wofford Developing Writing Power in theElementary School Dorothy 0. Saunders 177 Authors Donald N. Bigelow, Director, Division of Educational Personnel Training, United States Office of Education Francis Christensen, Professor of English, University of Southern California H. A. Gleason Jr., Professor of Linguistics, Hartford Seminary Foundation Miriam B. Goldstein, Teacher of English, Newton High School, Newton, Massachusetts Francis Ianni, Director, Educational Institute Programs, Columbia Univer- sity, formerly Director of Division of Educational Research, United States Office of Education Howard Mumford Jones, Professor of the Humanities Emeritus, Harvard University Harold C. Martin, President, Union College Kenneth W. Mildenberger, Director of Programs and Associate Secretary of The Modern Language Association of America, formerly Acting Direc- tor, Division of Foreign Studies, United States Office of Education John U. Monro, Dean, Harvard College Warner G. Rice, Chairman of English, University of Michigan Dorothy 0. Saunders, Teacher, Brookmont School, Bethesda, Maryland Daniel C. Thompson, Professor of Sociology, Dillard University Joan W. Wofford, Curriculum Specialist, Cardozo Project in Urban Teach- ing, Cardozo High School, Washington, D. C. vi 1. Teaching Alone Is Not Enough Howard Mumford Jones I do not wish to make an oration, but merely to observe that from where I sit as president of the Modern Language Association, and as a person long interested in the fortune and fame of the humanities in this country, it seems to me that the responsibilities now laid upon the Englishteacher, at any level of instruction, are ethically greater than they ever have been before. In fact, of the various branches which we call the humanities, Eng- lish is the only one that is constantly and widely taught. Up to 1886, when James McCosh retired as president of Princeton, there was a standard philosophy taught in American colleges, the Scottish Common Sense school. Whatever the intellectual virtues and defects of that philosophy may be, it at least laid down clear lines of ethical guidance,and also a somewhat naïve theory of esthetics. With all due respect to excellent colleagues of mine, it seems to me, at least, to be true that the departments of philosophy have virtually surren- dered the burden of instruction which they formerly assumed under the Scottish school of philosophy. They have become technologically expert in things like logical positivism and the analysis of meanings, but on the whole when youth looks for some sort of guidance, some sort of light, they do not now characteristically receive it from the philosophers. There was a time when history was supposed to be moral lesson teaching by example, but the historians likewise have become extraordinarily involved in their own processes; and, to add to the general confusion, they are now exploring the possibility of a Freudian interpretation of the past. A distinguished president of the American Historical Association recently announced in a presidential address that what the historian now needed was a sound knowl- edge of psychology. Doubtless the historian needs a sound knowledge of a great many things, but I am not altogether certain that irrational psychol- ogy is going to help him very much. Now I submit that it is in the field of English teaching principally ( in- deed, I am almost tempted to say only) that we have in our present system 1 of education any room for the study of individual responsibility and also ethical responsibility at the secondary school level, in the college, and in the university. I am frank to say that I am not altogether certain that the English profession is discharging its duty in this respect. I think, however, that as the principal humanity, English teaching, and I now refer to litera- ture rather than the language, will require from English teachers in high school, in college, and in the university, a graver sense of both intellectual and civic responsibility than has been characteristic of the last io years in our profession. When I say that, I speak advisedly, for the reason that it seems to me we have fallen into two or three major fallacies. One is the notion that the past, and in turn the present, is indefinitely extensible, that there is no such thing as the past, because the past is merely that which isa kind of a crooked image of the present. The second