This review considers the history of school-based creative writing in the light of today's professional perspective. Curricular documents in English education throughout the twentieth century indicate a growing pedagogical disjunction between advocates of the personal, expressive functions of writing and defenders of its utilitarian functions, though this trend included periods of reconciliation and retreat. The overview concludes that the merits of creative written expression must be cogently defended during the current back-to-basics movement because of its intrinsic therapeutic, functional, and purely intellectual benefits.
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