Just Writing

Bill Bernhardt - 2nd edition, 2019

Bill Bernhardt teaches at the City University of New York (CUNY), where he is an Associate Professor of English at the College of Staten Island and the School of Professional Studies. He has also taught at Fisk University and Reed College in the U.S., Keele University in the U.K., Hebei Teachers University in China, and conducted seminars in the teaching of writing in many countries throughout the world including Brazil, France, and Vietnam.

Despite many years of formal academic study in the U.S. and U.K., as well as extensive reading in many fields, he feels that his training as a teacher only began in earnest in 1971, when he came under the influence of Caleb Gattegno (1911-88), creator of the "subordination of teaching to learning," and perceived that he could never hope to instruct others without first understanding his own process of learning.

This book, originally published in 1977 and now substantially revised, represents the results of his attempt to study himself and apply his findings to practical situations, especially with reluctant and discouraged writers of all ages. In addition to this book, he has published widely in academic journals and magazines and is the co-author, with Peter Miller, of Becoming a Writer (1986). He and Professor Miller were also co-editors of the Journal of Basic Writing, a peer-reviewed journal published by CUNY.

Since 1990, much of his focus has been on the application of computer technology to writing in the spirit of "the subordination of teaching to learning," first in a computer-assisted classroom and subsequently on the internet.

He is one of the founders of the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, a public primary school dedicated to "the subordination of teaching to learning" that has demonstrated, over a fifteen-year period, that every child can become a "responsible and independent learner with a sustained love of learning."

Just Writing is available at Amazon (US, UK and elsewhere) and from other online booksellers and bookshops.