The Future

Q: What is the future of basic writing within the ALP model, and of BW as a model for excellent, engaged teaching in general for FYW?

Shor argues that the 'father' of Accelerated Learning Programs (ALP), Henry Levin, "only wanted to work with at-risk students in at-risk schools" and that Levin saw those students as needing "accelerated learning, not remedial [learning]" (2:23).

"...that they should not be slowed down with the technical study of language or anything else, they should be speeded up by some kind of encounter that inspired them . . . with the use of language to solve something" (2:34).

"but what he was insisting on was I think a foundational notion . . . the notion of accelerated is to move people. . . to catch up with the speed of intellect; that is, intellect moves very quickly" (2:46).

"And it's the slowness of intellect that makes the learning module impossible for students unless they have a tremendous tolerance for boredom" (3:05).

"What Henry Levin, twenty-five years ago, was proposing was that accelerated project . . . was not just to get you in and out fast, but was also to stimulate you at the level of . . . subjective delight, subjective desire to say I wanna do more of this, this really feels good, this counts and so on; instead of sitting there waiting for the next thing to do" {3:29).

Q: As ALP becomes a more popular model, shouldn't we keep some full Dev. Ed. sections for students with more profound instructional needs?

"...all the things missing, all the things that the basic writer lacks, have been provided to most of the students racing ahead of them already . . . these [basic writers] didn't have that happen to them at all (5:10).