The Life and Times of the Curriculum Study Commission, 1949-2000
Compiled by Ernie Karsten, September 2000
From its inception, the Curriculum Study Commission has always prized the sharing of practical knowledge, and the annual Asilomar conference was originally designed to provide a forum for the ideas and knowledge that arise from practical experience. Generally undervalued in an age dominated by faith in so-called "objective" or scientific knowledge, the kind of practical knowledge exchanged at Asilomar conferences is rich in content, tied to specific contexts, and tested under fire.
Over the last five decades, many changes have occurred in the language arts curriculum, in teacher accountability, in students' rights, in legislative controls, and in community politics. We have attempted to meet such challenges and improve language arts instruction by pooling our intelligence and capitalizing on our professional wisdom through a unique collaborative conference format which has become the "Asilomar model." For fifty years, teachers from all levels of English instruction have convened at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, meeting in small groups to identify problems, propose remedies, and share resources. In the democratic spirit of our groups, every learner is a teacher, and every teacher is also a learner. We have modeled the processes of mutual learning teachers teaching teachers - using group discussion as the matrix of our professional activities. The special value of the Asilomar approach has been identified by James Squire, formerly Executive Secretary of the National Council of Teachers of English and a founder of the Curriculum Study Commission: "The original Asilomar conference idea - using small groups, with adequate resources, to explore a single topic together in depth - was and still is a unique experience among professional conferences...."
The Original Vision
Through the inspired collaboration of a small group of socially-concerned, professionally committed English/language arts teachers, the annual Asilomar conference was conceived and brought to life. Myrtle Guslafson (Oakland Public Schools) recalled its birth:
“I remember the original planning meeting [for Asilomar 1] in Eason Monroe's office [at SF State] as if it were yesterday. I wonder if at 94 I am the only living member of the original planning committee. We met on a Saturday morning....A professor from Stanford, whose name I do not remember [Al Grommon], and Margaret Heaton [San Francisco Public Schools] were there. The Stanford professor advocated and insisted on a structured meeting whose purpose was publication. I remember that Walter [Loban, U.C., Berkeley] and I objected. We wanted the purpose to be sharing and inspiration — an informal type of meeting. Fortunately, we prevailed.
“In Oakland, I requested that teachers be excused an hour early to allow time to arrive at Asilomar for the dinner hour and evening planning session. Saturday was devoted to group meetings with free time Saturday evening. On Sunday morning there was a summary of group sessions and recommendations for future conferences.
I am happy to hear reports on the Asilomar conference, and that the original purpose of sharing and inspiration has prevailed.” (April 6, 1992)
This historic exploratory conference attracted 130 teachers to Asilomar, all paying their own way, in October 1949. The conference structure was determined on Friday night after dinner as groups of 15-20 people met to identify problems for consideration. On Saturday, participants again divided into groups, this time according to the particular problem that interested them. The groups met four times, and the conference ended on Sunday with a general assembly at which a representative from each group gave a report of its work. Margaret Heaton and Henry Meckel (San Jose State College) cochaired this first meeting and Asilomar 2 as well. The ideals of both meetings were set forth in the Conference Report for 1950:
“The Asilomar Language Arts Conferences of 1949 and 1950 were built around one central idea: that language arts teachers have within themselves as a group the capacity to solve their own classroom and curricular problems.
Consequently, neither conference was a meeting at which teachers sat and listened to speeches by "experts" on how to Teach English. The basic method employed at both conferences was workshop discussion. It was the conviction of the members of the
Curriculum Study Commission that by (1) exchanging ideas that had worked, (2) exchanging materials, (3) sharing approaches to common problems, and (4) thinking together in group discussions, teachers could formulate many practical ideas and techniques.”
The Origins of Asilomar Traditions
The conference planners believed that the development of good discussion skills was essential not only to the success of this weekend workshop approach but also to a student-centered classroom. This approach to conferences and classrooms was a particularly radical idea at mid-century when teachers usually sat at the feet of lecturers and there was no dialogue between them. It was an era when the classroom was teacher-centered and recitation a dominant practice. Thus, from Asilomar 2 to 7, the Commission engaged Hilda Taba (University of Chicago/SF State), a nationally prominent authority on human relations and group process, to observe meetings and assist in the refinement of conference procedures. After each Asilomar weekend, the Curriculum Study Commission examined and evaluated various aspects of the conference in order to understand better how the dynamics of meetings and conferences could affect the whole process of curriculum improvement. The most important organizational practices forged in the experience of the early conferences include the following:
I. Composition of Groups
Chairs
In the early days, when the conferences were smaller, the chairs met together early Friday afternoon for a briefing on recommended practices in group processes. Today the Commission seeks chairs who have already developed skills in group discussion and other leadership techniques. Nowadays, such skilled teacher-leaders are more readily available, having used key elements of the Asilomar model to conduct inservice programs under the auspices of the Bay Area Writing Project, the State Department of Education's English Teacher Specialist Program, and many local district offices where teacher leadership is fostered.
Resource Persons
Evaluations from early conferences reported occasions when resource people, despite good intentions, often "over-dominated" a group. Sometimes discussion was even halted because participants, deferring to these resource persons, were reluctant to express good ideas of their own. In subsequent conferences, resource people have been encouraged to be less obtrusive. Additionally, to focus attention on workshop topics and descriptions, the names of resource persons are never listed in announcements and programs.
Participant Responsibility: Staying with the Same Group
One essential stipulation has governed all conferences: No "shopping around — or movement from group to group — is permitted. Connection and flow are important to the dynamics of discussion from the point of view of human relations, the thinking processes, and the results achieved. Fruitful results from such discussion depend on continuity.
II. Conference Structure
The Five-Group Sequence
The fourth Asilomar Conference was given a more definite structure with the addition of a theme. Thinking and the Language Arts. By this time the Commission had concluded from the evaluations of previous conferences that a sequence of five discussion sessions - one on Friday evening, three on Saturday, one on Sunday morning — would allow enough time for the development of a community sense among group members, for a statement of a problem or a description of practices, for adequate analysis and raising of issues, and for reaching productive conclusions.
General Sessions
When Asilomar began, there were no main speakers, and only one general session, comprised of group reports on Sunday. Then, at Asiloinar 4, Lou LaBrant, President of NCTE, offered a Sunday morning address, and so the speaker tradition began. Current Asilomar conferences usually include three general sessions: Friday evening, Saturday morning or evening, and Sunday morning
Around the Hearth Sessions
Because Asilomar was originally a YWCA property and no liquor was allowed, Saturday evening was left open for participants to attend an off-grounds reception and then disperse for dinner. When Asilomar entered the State Park System, the rules changed, and the Commission was able to sponsor the Saturday reception on-grounds, followed by dinner, and an evening program consisting of two-one-hour sequences of four or five optional "Around the Hearth" sessions each.
Bookstore on Site
At Asilomar 7 in 1957, the Commission presented a "Display and Sale of Teaching Aids" which offered specially selected conference leaflets and books. Commission members continued to select, order, and manage the sale of teaching materials at the conference until the task became so overwhelming that in 1966 they requested help from Books Unlimited, an independent bookseller affiliated with the Berkeley Coop, to organize and conduct the on-site bookstore. Books Unlimited served the conference for more than a decade, but the Commission continued to monitor book selection to make sure the stock fulfilled the needs of the groups and of each year's conference theme. Books Unlimited was succeeded by Bookplace (SF), Books Plus (SF), Cover to Cover (SF) A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books (Larkspur), Artist's Proof Bookstore (Larkspur), and Bookworks (Pacific Grove). Commission policy has always prohibited the exhibition of commercial textbooks and selling by individuals.
Scholarships
The practice of offering conference scholarships (registration, lodging, and meals) began in 1960 with the Margaret Heaton Award. The scholarship program aims to honor the special contributions of deceased Commission members and to support the attendance by new teachers and student teachers.
III. Role of the Curriculum Study Commission
Asilomar Conference Planning
To allow enough time for exploration and discussion of ideas and themes, the Commission established the practice of engaging in a weekend organizing session early in January so that sustained attention could be given to problems, procedures, and plans for the next Asilomar conference. The method employed for selecting general session speakers and topics for groups has always depended on achieving consensus among the members of the Commission acting as a committee of the whole. Over the years the Commission has grown adept at identifying the current interests and most pressing problems of the teachers it serves.
Commission Membership
Another important principle established at its beginning was the idea of an extended term of membership on the Commission. In order for the lessons learned from any one conference to be applied in future years and assure the ongoing evolution of the Asilomar experience, continuity of Commission membership was deemed essential. Thus Commission members do not have fixed terms of office and may serve as long as they are able to devote the considerable amount of time and energy required. In this way, the Commission is able to take up and explore issues of the profession over time. Its challenge is to avoid the handicaps that can plague long term organizations and instead maintain a sharpness of focus and an energetic pursuit of key issues and fresh ideas - characteristics that have always been its hallmarks.
Commission Incorporation
In May 1991 the Commission completed the steps to be recognized as a "California public benefit corporation" and since then has operated under the more formal rules established for such entities. It developed a series of by-laws, and its members are now called "directors."
Commission Renewal
Usually every other year, the Commission sponsors an invitational spring conference, described below. In the alternate years, the Commission plans a spring conference for its own members in order to reflect on its practices and to strengthen the members' own knowledge about curriculum and professional issues. Over the years, the Commission has informed itself about current state reform directives, literature-based reading, the influence of standardized tests on curriculum, multicultural] classrooms, teacher training, and so forth. From 1986 to 1990, the Commission undertook a comprehensive self-study with the guidance of Jan Wagner, UC Davis. Professor Wagner, an educator with a sociological perspective, functioned as a participant-observer and commentator during these years. In a half-dozen formal reports, he examined group process in the Commission, its recruitment and orientation of members, and its approaches toward attainment of its goals of improving English instruction and strengthening the profession.
Commission Concerns
An examination of past programs and internal documents reveals ten major issues that have claimed the attention of the Commission over the years:
- the preparation of teachers for English language arts
2. the nature of our subject and its scope as a discipline
3. the particular character of literature and its teaching
4. the structure of language and reading and its teaching
5. the appropriate assessment of instruction
6. the organization of classrooms and the structure of English departments
7. the changing nature of school populations with emphasis on those most at risk"
8. the effective uses of media and technology in teaching
9. the strengthening of our professional “voice"
10. the effects of misguided legislative mandates and "reforms'
Commission Highlights
From the long list of Commission involvement in professional concerns, the following is a selection of the significant activities and projects undertaken:
1951: Role In Establishing CCCTE Regional Conferences
As each conference attracted an increasing number of participants, the Commission realized, after the third year, that attendance would have to be curtailed - for two reasons. One was that the number of spaces allocated at the conference grounds was limited; another was that the integrity of the small group discussions that were becoming so popular had be to protected. Seeking to make other provisions, the Commission and the CCCTE Board of Directors devised a plan to hold four one-day regional conferences in different parts of central California during the spring of each year. Although geographical distribution was a consideration in the selection of locations for such meetings, they were often held in those places where English teachers expressed interest in organizing one. Regional meetings also offered an opportunity to capitalize on the leadership emerging from Asilomar conferences, providing new venues for the talents of teachers who had developed skills in group discussion and other leadership techniques at Asilomar. In turn, regional conferences became places for the discovery of talented teachers with potential for the Asilomar conference and Commission membership.
1959-60: Role in the Founding of CATE
In 1959 there existed statewide only a loose confederation of affiliate organizations called the California Association of English Councils (CAEC). One of these was the Central California Council of Teachers of English, which had originated in the 1930s as the California Association of Teachers of English, Central Section. The so-called state level organization consisted only of a group of officers nominated and elected by the various affiliates. They had no unified membership behind them, no authority to act for the state as a whole, and no financial resources to tackle problems. Richard Worthen, a member of the Commission, was President of CAEC in 1959. and he spearheaded a move toward the consolidation of Councils. When the new California Association of Teachers of English (CATE) was created at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on Friday, February 12, 1960, by delegates from affiliates of the old CAEC, Dick Worthen was its founding president. The Commission even underwrote part of the cost of the constitutional convention. Henry Meckel and a representative from Southern California co-chaired the drafting of the original CATE constitution. One year after the adoption of the new constitution, each person joining or renewing membership in a regional affiliate automatically became a member of the new CATE. Thus, CATE became a truly statewide organization, giving a unified voice to the profession for the first time.
1958-2000: Spring Asilomar Conferences
The invitational Spring Asilomar for a limited number of participants was conceived by the Commission as a means of providing leaders in English in central California with up-to-date knowledge in a particular field. These conferences have focused on diverse areas of new scholarship or on professional issues. Complete coverage of a given field in a single weekend has never been the goal; rather, the Commission hopes that intensive exposure to the dimensions of problems and to important new scholarship might reduce the lag time between what is known and what could be used in classrooms. The general structure of these conferences consists of small discussion groups working from the same information provided through three or four general session presentations.
1960s: Special Sub-Conferences
As important issues arose on the professional horizon, the Commission provided opportunities for their consideration in special meetings separate but adjunct to the fall Asilomar conference. Participants followed their own sequence of group meetings and general sessions. In 1961, the Commission met with five members of the Commission on English of the College Entrance Examination Board and their Executive Secretary in consideration of its recently published Freedom and Discipline in English. In 1996, the Commission presented a sub-conference on Developing Better English Departments. A condition of attending required the participating English department chair to bring along an administrator from the same school. Then in 1967, the Commission sponsored a major invitational sub-conference on the preparation of teachers of English for California elementary and secondary schools, co-sponsored with the California Association of Teachers of English (CATE), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Association of Departments of English, the national organization that represents college departments of English. Albert H. Marquardt President of NCTE, Michael F. Shugrue, Assistant Secretary for English of the Modern Language Association, and Roben W. Daniel, Chainnaa of ADE, made presentations for an audience comprised of about 100 representatives from college and university departments of English and Education.
Responses to State Mandates
In the mid-1960s, in an "Open Letter" to the editor of the California English Journal, Dick Worthen described the tenor of the times as he saw it:
English teaching in California stands especially vulnerable to the creeping force of public figures outside the schools. Decisions inimical to our subject, to the students who study it, and to those who teach it are multiplying at an alarming rate As we look around us we witness decision making that by-passes the profession and profoundly affects local control over the building of curriculum, the professional training of teachers, and our autonomy as teachers. When one reviews the nature of the discourse leading to these changes, he cannot help being discouraged over the prospects of our achieving truly professional status in this culture. What truly bothers me, though, is that these matters have not been and are not being communicated to the English teachers of the state. We deserve to be made aware of our diminishing prospects in California.
From time to time Commission members have given testimony before legislative committees. State Curriculum Commission hearings, and State Board meetings, and they have written letters in opposition to or in favor of particular legislative measures. Many Commission members have served on State Department of Education task forces and curriculum committees. One member, Kate Blickhahn, was chief writer for the English Language Framework for California Public Schools (1968). Other members played prominent roles in the development of the widely acclaimed and forward looking English Language Arts Framework for Grades K12 (1987). Still other Commission members made significant contributions to the development of the California Assessment Program (CAP Tests) in the 1970s and 1980s, and later to the innovative California Learning Assessment System (CLAS Tests). Throughout most of its 70-year history, the Commission enjoyed a good working relationship with the California State Board of Education, but this relationship no longer exists. Today, federal and state mandates have increasingly replaced practitioner knowledge and educational research as the main forces guiding" school program development, and the current climate harkens back to the Worthen statement in the mid-sixties.
Commission Influences and Notable Connections of Members
A striking number of Commission members have moved on to assume national leadership roles in the profession of English language arts. In fact, for nearly half of its seventy year history, Commission members have held the position of Executive Director/Secretary of the National Council of Teachers of English. As members fanned out into the professional world beyond Central California, they often attempted to introduce elements of the Asilomar model at their new jurisdictions. When interviewed at Asilomar in 1987, James Squire described how he attempted to establish Asilomar-type conferences at the National Council through its preconvention institutes and spring conferences: "I kept wishing that there was something like this [Asilomar conference] everywhere. I still do for all English teachers." Jesse Perry, while President-Elect of NCTE in the early 1990s, succeeded in having an Asilomar-Iike strand at two national conferences.
Another long-time member of the Commission, James Gray, was instrumental in developing the two Training Sessions of the English Teacher Specialist Program in 1968 and 1969 along with George Nemetz, Consultant in English for the California State Department of Education. These were weekend Asilomar conferences built upon the familiar small-group discussion model. James Gray also convened the first Bay Area Writing Project teacher consultant training program in the summer of 1974. A program designed to enable teacher to teach teachers, BAWP was the beginning of what was to become the world-renowned National Writing Project. Many Commission members have distinguished themselves and strengthened the profession through their service as CATE presidents, CCCTE presidents, and in other leadership roles, often while continuing as active members of the Commission and as classroom teachers. Space limitations permit listing below only a sampling of those who served in NCTE offices.
Executive Secretary/Director of NCTE
James Squire
Robert Hogan
Miles Myers
Associate Executive Secretary
Edmund Farrell
Director of the Two-Year College English Program for NCTE
Richard Worthen
President of NCTE
Virginia Reid
Jesse Perry
Vice-President of NCTE
Robert Shafer
Editor of NCTE journals
Iris Tiedt, Elementary English (later titled Language Arts)
Mary K. Healy, English Education
Local Chairman, NCTE Convention
Leo Ruth, San Francisco. 1963
Commission Publications
With a few notable exceptions, the Commission seldom publishes documents, preferring the conference format for its professional agendas. However, the Commission did sponsor the first study of the English teacher's teaching load in California schools. In 1955, it published and distributed William J. Dusel's "Determining an Efficient Load in English." In 1960, Commission members James Squire, Edmund Farrell, and Henry Meckel prepared the report, "The Load of the English Teacher in California Schools." published by the California Association of English Councils. In 1971, Richard Worthen and Florence Cohen edited and the Commission published "Accountability, English Style," a position paper developed from the invitational spring conference of that year. In 1985, the Commission published a set of three Asilomar Papers with Ernie Karsten as editor: "How to Help Your Children Love Reading," "Language, Literacy and Freedom," and "Curriculum Governance in California." In 1987, the Commission produced a 20-minute videotape, "Teachers Teaching Teachers," which encapsulates the "Asilomar experience" at that year's conference.
Fall Asilomar Conferences 1949-2023
Asilomar 1 (October 14-16,1949)
An exploratory conference based on a problem census developed at Asilomar on Friday night by the participants. The problems were then discussed in small groups and reported at the end of the weekend to the full assembly.
[Conference co-chairs: Margaret Heaton, Henry Meckel
Asilomar 2 (October 20-22,1950)
Asilomar 3 (October 19-21, 1951)
These two conferences investigated conferencing techniques and structures with the assistance of Hilda Taba (University of Chicago) as a consultant on group process.
[Conference co-chairs: Margaret Heaton, Henry Meckel]
Asilomar 4 (October 17-19, 1952): Thinking and the English Language Arts
[Conference chair. Jim Squire]
[In 1953, because of conflicts of responsibilities involved with the Los Angeles convention of the National Council of Teachers of English in November and the proximity of dales, no fall Asilomar conference was held.]
Asilomar 5 (September 24-26,1954): Improving the Teaching of Language Arts at all Instructional Levels
[co-sponsored by the California State Department of Education and planned in cooperation with the California Association of School Administrators, California School Supervisors Association, California Association of Secondary School Administrators, California Elementary Administrators Association, and Bay Area Curriculum Council]
[In 1955, the State Assistant Superintendent of Instruction requested that the Curriculum Study Commission relinquish its scheduled October Asilomar conference because of its conflict with the Governor's statewide Conference on Education; the CSC agreed, deciding to schedule future conferences, so far as possible, on the final weekend in September (as in 1954).]
Asilomar 6 (September 28-30,1956)
[co-sponsored by the California State Department of Education and planned with the International Reading Association and the Bay Area Social Studies Council]
Luella B. Cook, NCTE President: "Golden Standards in English Language Arts”
[Conference co-chairs: Dick Worthen and Leo Ruth]
Asilomar 7 (September 27-29, 1957)
[co-sponsored by the California State Department of Education]
Dora V. Smith (University of Minnesota): "Looking Backward and Forward in
English Teaching
[Conference chair: Leo Ruth, San Leandro High School]
Asilomar 8 (September 26-28, 1958)
[co-sponsored by the California State Department of Education]
Wallace Stegner (Stanford University): "Teaching Students to Write"
[Conference co-chairs: B. Jo Kinnick and Robert Hogan]
Asilomar 9 (September 25-27,1959)
Walter Loban (UC Berkeley): The Language Patterns of Young People"
Ian Watt (UC Berkeley) “English and England and America: Reflections on Its Past
and Present Role in Secondary Education”
[Conference co-chairs: Tom Cottingim and Dorothy Pettit]
Asilomar 10 (September 30-0ctober 2,1960)
Travis Bogard (UC Berkeley): dramatic readings
Herbert Thelan (University of Chicago): “What Grouping of Students Shows about
Teaching”
C.P. Snow (author)
[Conference chair: Dorothy Pettit]
Asilomar 11 ( September 29-0ctober 1,1961)
David Russell (UC Berkeley and NCTE Presiden't")"
Edmund Carpenter "The Use and Impact of Media in Russia"
Jim Squire (NCTE Executive Secretary): "Asilomar Revisited"
The Commission on English (College Entrance Examination Board)
Louise Rosenblatt (NYU)
Lawrence Ryan (Stanford)
Harold Martin (Harvard University)
David DeCamp (University of Texas)
Hallett Smith (California Institute of Technology)
Scott Bledge (Carleton College)
[Conference co-chairs: Lester Golub and Jim Pierce]
Asilomar 12 (September 28-30, 1962)
Mark Harris (author): "Rush Times in California"
Donald MacKinnon (UC Berkeley): "Explorations in Creativity: Implications for
Teaching and Learning'
Ed Farrell (CATE president): "The State of the Profession'
[Conference chair: Jim Pierce]
Asilomar 13 (September 27-29, 1963)
Henry C. Meckel (San Jose State College): "The World of English"
Francis Christensen (USC): "A Generative Rhetoric of the Sentence"
Barry and Helen Olivier “A Program of Folk Songs”
[Conference co-chairs: Virginia Scardigli and Mary Frances Everhart]
Asilomar 14 (September 25-27, 1964)
Albert Kitzhaber (NCTE President): "The Emerging English Curriculum'
John Hope Franklin (University of Chicago): "History as Literature: A Humanistic
Approach to the Past"
[Conference chair: Mary Frances Everhart]
Asilomar 15 (September 24-26, 1965): English in Four Perspectives
James Squire (Executive Secretary. NCTE): "The Status of the Profession"
George Rusteika (Asst. Superintendent, Alameda County): "Forces Affecting
Curriculum in California"
Richard Corbin (President, NCTE): "Language. Literacy, and the Disadvantaged"
[Conference co-chairs: Beatrice Annstrong, Lillian Anderson and Robert Shutes]
Asilomar 16 (September 23-25, 1966): English for Growth, Change, and Renewal
Noam Chomsky (UC Berkeley 1966-76 & MIT)
Eldonna Evertts (Asst Exec. Secretary, NCTE): "Beyond the English Barriers"
Nevitt Sanford (Stanford University): "Are Today's Students Really Different?"
[Conference co-chairs: Robert Shutes, Lillian Auderson, and Bernard Janner]
Asilomar 17 (September 29-0ctober 1, 1967): Components and Currents in the Teaching of English
William E. Stafford (Lewis & Clark College): "The Art Inside the Lesson"
Film showing: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner
[Conference Chair: Lillian Anderson]
Asilomar 18 (September 27-29, 1968)
Wayne C. Booth (University of Chicago): "The Uncritical American"
Don Robens (Librarian, LA Public Library): "Must Reading Guarantee Inferiority?"
Short films from Yugoslavia, The Netherlands, Canada, and USA
[Conference Co-chairs: Ken Lane, John Cotter, and Bernard Tanner]
Asilomar 19 (September 26-28, 1969)
Tom Wolfe (author): "The Secrets of the New Non-Fiction'
Christopher Brooks (actor): dramatic poetry readings
Short films or Sarah Webster Fabio (poet and teacher): "Language Arts and Black
Bi-LinguaIism”
[Conference Co-chairs Ken Lane, Alice Scofield]
Asilomar 20 (September 25-27, 1970): Challenges and Realities
Alex Haley (author) ”Before the Anger"
Robert Hogan (Executive Secretary, NCTE): "The Role of the Subject Organization
in the 70s"
Miles Myers (CATE) "English as Woodshop"
Short films or Willis Hannan (Stanford Research Institute), Eva Baker (UCLA), and
Elliot Eisner (Stanford) "Objectives for Our Time”
Film showing: “Long Days Journey Into Night”
[Conference Chair: Alice Scofield]
Asilomar 21 (September 24-26, 1971): Problems and Hopes in Today's English Classes
Ken Macrorie (Western Michigan University): "Subob Writing"
Alan Dundes (UC Berkeley): "Folklore and Myth in Today's Classroom"
Kenneth Johnson (UC Berkeley): "Recent Research in Black Dialect and Its
Implications for Teaching Reading”
Short films or Geoffrey Summerfield (University of York, England): "On Poetry"
[Conference Co-chairs: Gerald Levin and Miles Myers]
Asilomar 22 (September 29-30,1972): How Can the Humanizing Goals of English Contribute to an Expanded Literacy for the Individual? (Five aspects of this question producing five groups)
Anaïs Nin (author): "Literature and Language as Lifelines"
Walter Ong (St. Louis University): "The State of English"
Douglas Heath (Haverford College): "The Function of English in Today's World"
[Conference Co-Chairs: Florence Cohen and James Knapton]
Asilomar 23 (September 28-30, 1973): Values - the Heart of English (Five focus questions producing five groups)
James Britton (University of London): "School and the Quality of Living"
Ed Farrell (Asst. Exec. Secretary, NOTE): "Choosing Values and Valuing Choices'
Barre Toelken (University of Oregon): "Seeing with the Native Eye'
[Conference Co-chairs; Barbara Mahoney and Ken Williams]
Asilomar 24 (September 27-29, 1974): Roots and Branches
Roger Steffens (poet)
B. Jo Kinnick (poet and teacher): "Students Playing the Blue Guitar: Poetry ~ Why?
How? What? And So What?"
The Illegitimate Theater (Palo Alto)
[Conference Co-chairs: Marilyn Buckley Hanf and June Byers]
Asilomar 25 (September 26-28, 1975): Silver Jubilee: A Celebration of English
TOAD the Mime "World of Illusion"
Robert Samples (Director, Essentia Project): The Reality of Metaphor"
[Conference Co-chairs: June Byers and John Cotter]
Asilomar 26 (September 24-26,1976): New Directions
Kay Boyle (author, SF State University): "An Honorable Army"
Jack Aranson (actor) perfonning selections horn Moby Dick
Gloria Oden, poet-in-residence
[Conference Co-chairs: John Cotter, Richard Latimer, and Arnold Solkov]
Asilomar 27 (September 23-25, 1977): Measure for Measure - Humanizing the Basics
Dorothy Heathcote (University of Newcastle on Tyne, England): "Measure for
Measure"
Jay Manley (teacher, co-author Califoraia State Drama Framework): "Drama and
English Teaching"
Hugh and Velma Richmond (UC Berkeley): Scenes from Shakespeare
[Conference Co-chairs: Richard Latimer, Arnold Solkov, and Ernie Karsten]
Asilomar 28 (September 22-24, 1978): How Infinite in Faculties!
Phillip Lopate (author and poet)
Albert Johnson (UC Berkeley): A Retrospective of Images of Teachers in Film
Rosalie Moore, poet-in-residence
[Conference Co-chairs: Ernie Karsten and Jo Fyfe]
Asilomar 29 (September 28-30,1979): Only Connect!
Kevin Starr (historian): "It's What You Learn in School That Really Counts'
Bay Theater Collective
Actors from Berkeley Shakespeare Festival
Gerald Rosen, writer-in-residence
[Conference Co-chairs: Jo Fyfe and Mary Ann Smith]
Asilomar 30 (September 26-28, 1980): The Shore of Experience
Joseph Campbell (author and teacher): "The Shore of Experience"
Robert Duncan (poet)
Actors from Berkeley Shakespeare Festival Actors
Dorothy Bryant, writer-in-residence
[Conference Co-chairs: Fran CIaggett and Kate BIickhahn]
Asilomar 31 (September 25-27,1981); Literature: News That Stays News
William Dickey, poet-in-residence
Eve Merriam (poet): "Casual Astonishments - The Underworld of Poetry"
Karl Menninger (psychiatrist): "Does Poetry Heal?"
Papillon String Trio
[Conference Co-chairs Don Cunningham, Ed Cunningham, and Judy Thompson]
Asilomar 32 (September 24.26, 1982); Holding the Mirror Up to Nature
Janice Hutchins (actress and director): "The Theater Experience"
Dale Harris (critic and teacher): "Other Stages"
The Festival Consort, Lyn Elder, director
Mary Hedin, writer-in-residence
[Conference Co-chairs: Elaine Johnson and Dan Walter]
Asilomar 33 (September 23-25. 1983): The Work Is Play for Mortal Stakes
Cyra McFadden, keynote speaker and writer-in-residence
Walter Loban "What Mortal Stakes? Form and Affinnation through Poetry"
James Squire "Ten Great Ideas in the Teaching of English During the Past Half
Century'
Film showing: Picnic At Hanging Rock
[Conference Co-chairs: Arnold Solkov and Gary Phillips]
Asilomar 34 (September 21-23, 1984): Discoverers and "The Mystery of Things'
William Arrowsmith (distinguished scholar): "Turbulence in the Humanities"
Alan Dundes (UC Berkeley): "Folklore in the Modem World"
Joe Gores, writer-in-residence
[Conference Co-chairs: John Cotter and Virginia Pierce]
Asilomar 35 (September 27-29. 1985): "0 Wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here!"
Richard Rodriguez, writer-in-residence: "English and the Common Culture"
Mary S. Metz (President, Mills College): “The New Academic Revolution:
Assessment of the Liberal Arts”
The One-Act Theater of San Francisco
[Conference Co-chairs: Madge Holland and Bill Thomas]
Asilomar 36 (September 26-28,1986); Glimpses of Truth
Rosemary Deen and Marie Ponsot (poets and teachers): "Beat Not the Poor Desk'
William S. Anderson (UC Berkeley): "The Masks of Truth in Comedy and Satire'
David Weir (investigative reporter), writer-in-residence
[Conference Co-chairs: Elaine Johnson and Ernie Karsten]
Asilomar 37 (September 25-27, 1987): Journey into Knowing
Rexford Brown (Educational Commission of the States): "Stories About
Connections"
Jean Shinoda Bolen (UCSF psychiatrist): "Hobbits, Heroes, and Heroines: Seeing
the Protagonist in the Personal Story and Finding the Meaning of the Journey"
Dorothy Bryant, Gary Soto, Robert Probst in Around the Hearth features
[Conference Co-chairs: Virginia Pierce and Leo Ruth]
Asilomar 38 (September 23-25,1988): Reform, Revolution, and the English Teacher
Claire Pelton (National Standards Commission): "Reform, Revolution, and the
English Teacher"
Adam Urbanski (President, Rochester, New York, Teachers Association):
"Teaching in the Twenty-First Century"
J. California Cooper, writer-in-residence
[Conference Co-chairs: Ruby Bernstein and Helen Salem]
Asilomar 39 (September 22-24,1989): Teachers Rebuilding Education: Beyond the Reform Movement
Elizabeth George (teacher and author). "From the English Classroom to the British
Mystery"
Robert Scholes (Brown University): "What is Becoming an English Teacher?"
Albert Shanker (President, AFT): "Rebuilding Public Education"
[Conference Co-chairs: Ken Lane and Sandra Muqahy]
Asilomar 40 (September 28.30,1990)-. The Emergence of New Imperatives
Miles Myers (Executive Director. NCTE); "New Imperatives for the Profession”
Sanford M. Dornbusch (Stanford University): "New Imperatives and the New
Family"
Anuro Islas (Stanford University), writer-in-residence: "A Writer's Imperative"
Joy Carlin (ACT) performing The Belle of Amherst
[Conference Co-chairs: John Cotter, Ernie Karsten, Bob Palazzi, and Judy Toll]
Asilomar 41 (September 27-29, I991): To Comprehend the Whole
Jesse Perry (President Elect, NCTE): 'The Power of Literature: Equipment for Life
in a MuIti-Ethnic, MuIti-CulturaI Society"
Marilyn Hanf Buckley (University of Alaska): "The Truths We Keep Coming Back
To"
Eve Merriam, James Moffett. Jeff Corey, Russell Hill,Around the Hearth
Student Musical Performance
[Conference Co-chairs: Alpha Quincy, Virginia Scardigli, and Thelma Worthen]
Asilomar 42 (September 25-27, 1992): Voices of California: Some Regions of the Mind
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston (authors): "Voices of Kinship"
Gerald Haslam, Dorothy Bryant, Gary Soto, and the Houstons: "Voices of
California"
Barbara Oliver and Ken Grantham (Aurora Theater performing Dear Master)
[Conference Co-chairs: Margaret Dewar and Pat Egenberger]
Asilomar 43 (September 24-26. 1993): Through Different Eyes
Tony Hillerman (author): "Through the Eyes of a Myth-Maker"
Diane Feriatte (storyteller): "Through the Eyes of a Storyteller"
Lia Matera. Gillian Roberts, and Shelley Singer (authors): "Sisters in Crime"
Film showing: Ishi, the Last Yahi
[Conference Co-chairs: Margaret Dewar, Pat Egenberger, and Ken Williams]
Asilomar 44 (September 23-25. 1994): Unexpected Gifts - Welcome Legacies
Al Young (author): "One Legacy from Many Gifts
Peggy O'Brien and Michael Tolaydo (Folger Shakespeare Library): "Enduring
Legacy”
John Mayher (New York University): “Gifts and Legacies for a Twenty-first
Century”
Film showing: William Stafford and Robert Bly: A Literary Friendship
[Conference Co-chairs: Carrie Jefferson and Dale Oscarson]
Asilomar 45 (September 22-24, 1995): Big Dreams: Many Califomia
Greg Sarris (UCLA): "Coyote and Frogwoman Created Pedagogy
Word For Word performance: The Most Girl Part of You
Film showing: Waldo Salt: A Screen Writer's Journey
Bill Barich and Gerald Haslam, writers-in-residence
[Conference Co-chairs: Ed Cuimingham and Don and Judy Cunningham]
Asilomar 46 (September 27-29. 1996): Threads in the Tapestry of Learning
Deborah Meier (Principal, Park East Secondary School, NYC), keynote speaker
Laurence Yep, writer-in-residence
Peter Donal (actor) in performance
Films showing: It's Elementary & Anne Frank Remembered
Lyle Leverich on Tennessee Williams in an Around the Hearth feature
[Conference Co-chairs: Margaret Dewar, Pat Egenberger, and Ken Williams]
Asilomar 47 (September 26-28, 1997). Beyond Outenberg: Students of the New Millennium
Sven Birkerts (author), keynote speaker
Bebe Moore Campbell, writer-in-residence
Luis Rodriguez (author and poet)
[Conference Co-chairs: Helen Duffy and Brad Shurmantine]
Asilomar 48 (September 25-27,1998): Breaking Through Barriers
Melba Beals, keynote speaker and writer-in-residence
Francisco Alarcon (poet and educator, UC Davis)
[Conference Co-chairs: George Mills and Shurmantine]
Asilomar 49 (September 24-26,1999): Millennium Threshold: Looking Forward, Looking Back
Anne Lamott (author), keynote speaker and writer-in-residence
Frank Sopper (Landnaark College, Vermont): "On Learning Differences and
Alternative Learaing Styles"
Word For Word in an Around the Hearth feature
[Conference Co-chairs: Vicky Greenbaum and Brad Shurmantine]
Asilomar 50 (September 22-24, 2000); Teaching the Many Dimensions of Mind: The Challenge of the New Century
Mike Rose (UCLA) and Cris Gutierrez (Thomas Jefferson High School, Los
Angeles)
Fran Claggett (teacher and author)
Leonard Shlain (surgeon and author): "The Alphabet and the Goddess"
[Conference Co-chairs: Miles Myers, Brad Shunnantine, and Ken Williams]
*Compiled by Ernie Karsten September 2000