ABSTRACT
Academic classrooms were fundamentally changed by contemporary feminist movement's insistence that “the personal is political,” that experience is to be valued as much as factual information, and that there is indeed a place in the learning process for telling one's personal story. In the worst case scenario, in some classrooms confessing became the central basis for class discussion. In those classrooms, assigned reading would often be ignored as students talked with one another about their personal stories. These were extremely rare settings. However, individuals who oppose any use of personal experience in the classroom have often made critiques suggesting that any use of experience in learning meant that a class was no longer academic or that such a class could not be seen as engaging students in intellectual work. This is simply not the case.
