After students recommended books by M. E. Kerr, such as "Is That You, Miss Blue?" and "Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack," a college teacher realized that Kerr's books contained memorable characters and were suitable for classroom use. Particularly useful was Kerr's 1983 nonfiction book, "Me, Me, Me, Me, Me," which recounts…

In this study, an analysis of the various theories of creativity was made to formulate guiding principles for teaching "creative rhetoric" in the secondary schools. The following basic assumptions were made: (1) Rhetoric is concerned with man's problems. (2) Rhetoric is a synthesis of the imaginative and rational processes. (3) Acts of rhetoric…

The loss of richness and multiplicity of word meaning can result in a decline in the metaphoric activity of the mind. A technologically-oriented civilization pressures students to devalue word connotation in favor of denotative exactitude. To counteract this tendency, teachers should adopt for themselves and instill in their students a regard for…

The English courses at Phillips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire) are designed to challenge students in several areas: philosophy, linguistics, psychology, history, aesthetics, mythology, logic, and grammar. Although emphasis may vary from course to course, the goals in each remain the same: to teach reading and writing and the mental processes that…

Focusing on both the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching children and adolescents to write effectively, the papers in this report originated as speeches delivered at a conference on English and language arts instruction. The 12 papers deal with the following topics: the composing process as communication, the cognitive and biological…