Writing at Exeter?

I often joke that although writing may have been invented some five thousand years ago it was discovered only about twenty years ago, at least in American public schools. But this was not true of Exeter, where writing to know was thriving long before I arrived there in 1955. Oh, they assigned more lit crit papers than they should have, and kept students writing in a narrower range than they read, but some English teachers there understood that self-development is central and that the best way to achiever good exposition and essay is to cultivate personal writing first. So some of them pioneered in teaching autobiographical and investigative writing along with creative writing, not as specialties or electives but as staples. When I left Exeter after ten years to work with public schools, it was very much because I couldn't bear that such a small portion of American youth should get educational opportunities that all ought to have. (20)

From James Moffett's "Coming Out Right" In Taking Stock: The Writing Process Movement in the 90s (Tobin/Newkirk)