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Sunday, March 27, 2011

The National Writing Project is a revolution « Cooperative Catalyst

The National Writing Project is a revolution « Cooperative Catalyst

The National Writing Project is a revolution

Guest blogger Art Peterson contributes this #blog4nwp post to the Coöp.

Recently, Paul E. Peterson, writing on the Hoover Institution’s EdNext blog, referred collectively to the educational programs axed from the 2011 federal budget as “busy little nothings.” One of these “nothings”—along with such established and useful programs as Teach for America and Reading Is Fundamental—is the National Writing Project (NWP).

If it were 1978, one part of Peterson’s pejorative designation would indeed be on target. In those days the Writing Project was nothing if not “little.” That year thirty college writing teachers, determined to do something about the dismal state of writing education, sat around on folding chairs in a Kansas City, Missouri, hotel ballroom and