From Form to Meaning: Freshman Composition and the Long Sixties, 1957–1974 by David Fleming (review)

As I started reading From Form to Meaning, a book discussing in great detail the ups and downs of one course at one U.S. university during one decade, I kept asking myself why instructors of first-year English courses at Canadian colleges and universities today would find this text useful. After all, Freshman Composition is widespread in the United States but few Canadian institutions require all their students to take such a course. In addition, the cultural contexts and historical events that have influenced courses offered today at U.S. institutions differ greatly from those that have influenced the creation and development of courses at Canadian institutions.

Why, then, should everyone involved in the teaching of writing and literature to postsecondary students read this book? First, because it is a captivating historical account of an era punctuated by momentous events whose effects have spread farther than one state or one country. Second, because learning about what has happened at other institutions may help reformulate and clarify what has happened and is still happening at our own institutions. Third, and most importantly, because the conversations that were taking place at the University of Wisconsin (uw) during the “long sixties” are still taking place today … in our own institutions.

The discussions presented in From Form to Meaning revolve around a number of topics and questions that are familiar to anyone involved in higher education. For example, is the literacy level of younger generations declining? Are high school teachers responsible for not getting their students ready to meet the demands of higher education? What is the responsibility of the university as a whole and of individual departments in teaching students to think, write, speak, and read well? Should first-year students all take the same universally required course to ensure some homogeneity amongst students at the same institution? Should first-year English courses focus on content (for example, literature) or on form (for example, grammar and style)? How do we decide who needs remedial help and who does not? How do you support a student population that is increasingly diverse in socio-cultural and educational backgrounds and needs? Who should teach undergraduate courses and how should these people be trained, supervised, and evaluated? How can graduate teaching assistants (tas) juggle with being at the same time instructors and students themselves? How can tenure-track and tenured professors focus on the pressures of research and publication while still remaining involved in undergraduate education? These are some of the many critical and often-controversial questions heatedly discussed at the uw in the sixties, but, as Fleming explains, his is a case study done “on the assumption that the example (the ‘case’) is in some way typical of a broader phenomenon” (21).

For his “case study,” Fleming thoroughly investigated hundreds of documents (such as department meeting minutes, memos, newspaper articles) and other voices (including a number of tas) to tell this story—a truly impressive accomplishment (at times it reads like a mystery novel). These many voices show how the unsteady times in U.S. history (the launch of the Sputnik, the Vietnam war) and the history of the University of Wisconsin itself (riots, bombings, strikes) were the perfect background for a profound pedagogical revolution that ultimately led to the elimination of the Freshman Composition course, English 102, in 1969 and for the next twenty-five years.

The book starts with a discussion about the concerns of Harvard faculty regarding the literacy levels of their incoming students and the first Freshman Composition course that was created there in the 1870s in response to these concerns. Fleming explains that this course has remained quite stable and unique since then: a stand-alone course required of most university students in the U.S. (and some in Canada), it is usually taken early in students’ academic careers and is a preparation for their future lives as students, citizens, and professionals. Fleming calls these features...