In this frankly utopian essay, Robert Yagelski's theme is the transformative power of writing as an act in and of itself. He makes us reevaluate our motivation and point for teaching writing in schools and asks us to consider an agenda that will quite frankly scare teachers as he explains why we need an ontology of writing. (Contains 6 notes.)

Contrasts Western traditional objectivism with the interpretist paradigm explaining cognitive processes. Describes the transformation theory of adult learning based on the emancipatory paradigm. (SK)

The author discusses the historical development of Mezirow's theory of perspective transformation (seen as adult learning that leads to social action). Problems with this concept are discussed and the author concludes that perspective transformation, while an important concept, is not a complete theory of adult learning and education. (CH)