Stubborn Pilgrimage

Resistance and Transformation in Ontario English Teaching

Stubborn Pilgrimage traces both the development of new teaching methods (what I call the post-Diltzian paradigm) and the resistance of English teachers to the serial attempts to have their programme hijacked by well-meaning psychologists and sociologists and a Ministry of Education increasingly in opposition to the kind of programming B.C. Diltz promulgated as long-time instructor and later principal of the Ontario College of Education; that is, the aesthetic appreciation of our best literature and its power to speak to the human spirit. The book contains several examples of lessons and units designed to have students appreciate literature (including their own), and talk and write about it. It insists on letting teachers teach. It demonstrates the commitment of English teachers over the past five decades to the special pleasures and enriched language experiences of literature and its appreciation.