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I have never heard of Holbrook.  Sounds very interesting.  Any connection
to Raymond Williams or Basil Bernstein.  They both seemed to have
influenced what was going on in Britain during this period.

On Fri, 3 Nov 1995, Margaret Procter wrote:

> Cathy and others --
>
> I have saved those lists to add to my books that I Must Read
> Some Day.  One book that I did read years ago, and that had the
> effect on me that Shaughnessy's and Rose's did more recently, is David
> Holbrook's ENGLISH FOR THE REJECTED, published c. 1970 by Cambridge
> U.P.  Holbrook was a Cambridge prof of English who spent a sabbatical
> year teaching middle school in a northern English county; he outlines
> his sense of students' negative attitude towards school and yet their
> creative and rich use of language to formulate their ideas and feelings.
> I felt I was re-learning to read when I looked at their compositions
> (and poems, etc.) through Holbrook's eyes.  He was heavily influenced
> by psychoanalysis, quoting Melanie Klein and others alongside the
> "illiterate" teenagers.
>
> Has anybody else read him?  Is there a better source for this angle
> on composition?
>
> Did I miss references to Frank Smith?   WRITING AND THE WRITER
> (Holt Rinehard & Winston, 1982) covers the neurological basis
> of reading and writing -- another useful angle.  (Also a Canadian.)
>
> Am looking forward to seeing the final choices, Cathy.
>
>
> Margaret Procter
> Coordinator, Writing Support
> University of Toronto
>