Elbow, Peter. Preface. Writing Without Teachers. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.

In the preface to his book, Elbow talks of how empowering it can be to learn to control or use their words, "especially written words" (vii). This book is meant for practitioners of writing, not writing teachers; however, Elbow professes to use these methods in the writing classes he teaches. He says a "teacherless" writing class can have a teacher "as long as (the teacher) follow(s) all the same procedures as everyone else: I too must put in my piece of writing each week; I too must get everyone's responses and reactions to it; Itoo must give my own reactions to other pieces of writing" (ix). I believe Elbow isn't talking so much about classrooms being "teacherless" as collaborative, then; without one authoritative voice leading the rest. This ties in well with the reading on authority in the classroom I did previously. Teachers must remember that their writing students must go forth and do their work once they are out of the writing classroom: "I think teachers learn to be more useful when it is clearer that they are not necessary" (x).