Questions on my way in...

Two questions I was thinking about on my way in this morning:

1. The question of how an academic field's ethos or epistemology is shaped and the role Don played in shaping it.

Texts should display a vision of reality shared by members of the particular discourse community to which the text is addressed (or the particular faculty member who made the assignment). (emphasis added)

Comment. This may be the most difficult of the general academic requirements, for views of reality are often implicit, unacknowledged by the faculty themselves and are not revealed to students. (Ann Johns, qtd. in Downs/Wardle, p. 508)

The argument: Murray gave us more than instruction, he gave us an ethos.

2. The question of how academic fields are formed. Here, as I think i've written elsewhere, I'm interested in how someone with Don's standing (or lack of it) could come to occupy such a critical place in an academic field. Are there precedents for this? Surely, we've evolved and someone like Don would no longer be welcomed in composition or writing studies. The Ph.D. is the price of entry. But perhaps rules are different in the early days of an academic discipline?

Chapter 1: Early Life/School Influences

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And one more question...what has been the legacy of "write to learn" for me...what does it mean to be a product of Murray's pedagogy...a beneficiary? The legacy? What did those teachers who worked in his shadow do for me or give to me that I still want to hold onto or say was valuable or speak on behalf of or offer to my own students?