Peter Elbow presents an interesting concept on how writing should be taught in the classroom. Where traditional teaching involves students writing papers and a single teacher grading them based on what he or she believes to be good writing, Elbow proposes what he calls the “teacherless writing class.” In this model students learn by reading each others works and commenting on them. This is an idea that I find particularly interesting. Some of the problems which he points out from traditional teaching are ones that I have seen in classes which I have participated in. Students who only receive feedback in the form of corrections of mistakes will often become discouraged. By having a large group of students provide the feedback on a work students can get a broader selection of reactions. Instead of one teacher there may be twenty or more students reading their writing. Each of these students will have a different reaction to the others and can show the writer not only ways in which there writing was ineffective but the ways in which it struck them. With so many different views someone will find an aspect that particularly moved them. Elbow uses an example of a woman who read a poem in one of his classes. When it was first read on paper, and even when it was read aloud the first time, the other students did not really understand the message. But when she read the poem a second time the students finally made there way through to the message at the center of the poem. When a writer sees that their writing has in some way affected another person it encourages them to write and by experiencing multiple sessions of this they can begin to learn what they do that is effective and what they do that is not. Now rather then a teacher bestowing their wisdom upon you it is your fellow students. This can also help with some of the uneasiness that students may feel while writing.

Since a teacherless writing class would involve more interactions with students some may find this a less stressful setting. They do not feel like they are being criticized by someone who has studied this subject to a greater extent then they have. Now it is there fellows who are providing feedback, students who are learning along with them. I could see how this would be far more comfortable for many students. Though Elbow argues that rather then being a comfortable subjective setting a class such as this would be more objective then a traditional class. I can see his point, in that he wants only the raw response, not interpretation after the fact but I still feel many would find this a more comfortable setting since it is there fellow students not the teacher who is providing the feedback.