Notes on the 1960s

Important Dates/Events

• 1955: Willard Thorpe delivers "The Well of English, Now Defiled; or Why Johnny Can't Write" (lecture given at banquet at FSU)
• 1958: NDEA Act (w/out English)
• 1958: Ford Foundation "Basic Issues" Conferences (see Berlin)
• 1959/60: CCC Committee on Future Directions report (i.e. Gerber report) (355666.pdf)
• 1959: Commission on English founded by College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB)
• 1961: Congress authorizes first flow of federal funds to be used for English and Project English is born (see Applebee, p. 201), focus of which is composition, reading, and language skills
• 1961: The National Interest and the Teaching of English (NCTE publication)
• 1961: Planning Institute for CEEB 1962 held in summer at Michigan; Kitzhaber heads up planning for composition course for CEEB (CE0248Summer.pdf); contexts for CEEB's establishment (355433.pdf)
• 1962: CEEB summer institutes reach 868 English teachers at 20 cites, including UNH (CE0248Summer.pdf)
• 1964: The National Interest and the Continuing Education of Teachers of English
• 1964: NDEA extended to English

Berlin: see p. 120-21. "The most crucial events for the fate of writing instruction during the sixties and seventies were the intensification of the Cold War and changes in economic, social, and political arrangements that resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of students attending college. (120)

THREAD: Evolution of CCCC as an Organization

Report of The Committee on Future Direction (Feb 1960, Chairmen, Gerber)

• CCCC wishes to expand its prerogative beyond Freshman English to all writing courses in college (but Freshman English should retain a significant focus)
• This document seeks to expand CCCC's influence into new areas, under "Projects for the Future." These are Articulation of High School and College Programs" and "The College Freshman Course," "Advanced Courses in Language, Composition, and Creative Writing," "Writing Assignments Outside the Composition Class," "The Testing of Skill in Writing," "The Teaching of Composition," "The Training of Those Who Are To Teach Composition," and "The Professional Welfare of Those Who Teach Composition."
• It seems like this report seeks to expand the reach of CCCC beyond it's initial prerogatives

I am looking at issues of CCCC for 1960 and seeing that there is discussion of high school English teaching and the high school/college concern...

Much follow-up to the Gerber report, above, comes in the 12.1 (Feb 1961) issue of the journal.

THREAD: Reform In the Teaching of English

The National Interest and the Teaching of English (NCTE, 1961)

The exigence for this publication was the feeling, on the part of NCTE, that the 1958 NDEA act needed to be extended to English and that there were many problems in the teaching of English that could be addressed in doing so (see resolution p. 18 of PDF pagination)

Section I outlined a series of recommendations.
Section II explains why the need is national.
Section III presents a comprehensive picture of the status of English teaching today.

• improving the education of teachers
• articulating the study of English at all levels

Helpful Chart: Increase in School Enrollment (p. 25 of PDF pagination). Also see number projects under #5 p. 26.
Interesting section on "Written Composition--The English Teacher's Special Task" p. 91-100 (or so)
Research directions: p. 137 of PDF)

"A national reawakening of interest and activity in English is long overdue." (140)

"National interest demands vigorous leadership to improve all educational programs." (140)--the argument is framed as being in the NATIONAL interest...

THREAD: Basic Issues Conferences (1958)

• The first important manifestation of renewed scholarly interest in secondary school English was a series of "Basic Issues" conferences held during 1958 with funds from the Ford Foundation. (Applebee 193)
• Sponsored by MLA, NCTE, College English Association (CLE), American Studies Association (ASA)
• Two reports: "The Basic Issues in the Teaching of English" (1959) & "An Articulated English Program: An Hypothesis to Test" (1959) (Applebee p. 193)

THREAD: CEEB Institutes

• Kitzhaber heads up composition planning section for CEEB (CE0248Summer.pdf)
• kitzhaber.pdf is about the CEEB summer curriculum "...the surprising fervor which has distinguished our enterprise must be attributed to the skill and energy of the executive officers of the Commission and to the leaders of the three sections: Albert Kitzhaber, composition; W. Nelson Francis, language; and Helen C. White, literature. Their combined reports,"New Perspectives on English" (College English, March 1962) summarized the curricula in detail. But more was created than the three syllabi." (CE0248Summer.pdf)