Instead of the well-groomed mountain trails, I found the road to the dump. While others saw only wild flowers, I saw wildflowers and abandoned refrigerators and broken beer bottles. But as I walked along in the mud, I managed to do a lot of thinking. And a lot of it was philosophical. In my view, extreme situations demand philosophical thinking.
Leisure never does.
And so this first issue of the Forum is somewhat philosophical, because in addition to practical tips and new ideas, we need reflection, need to make time for it. Sharon Lynch Norton 's essay pursues exactly this radical idea, suggesting not just that we need time for reflection, but that our students do as well and that insisting on it may be a powerful, neglected pedagogy. Alan Altany describes the teacher in more heroic terms, but, in the end, finds the teacher's true heroism in disappearing. Gabrielle Fletcher offers some purely practical advice on using the Internet to teach composition, and Linc. Fisch rounds out the issue with an AD REM . . .