ABSTRACT
The radical middle provides a nice home for the particular approach to curricular balance that the author have been moving toward. The debate rages tend toward an enlightened eclecticism when it comes to matters of practice. So they see no contradiction in embracing an authentic writing activity in the same breath as a new approach to teaching conventional grammar. Those who aspire to theoretical consistency find this sort of eclecticism disturbing because they see it as a disconnection between theory and practice. The radical middle, with its fascination with apparent contradiction, allows the author to work comfortably at that level. It is, most likely, as a member of the panel on which the Expert Study was based, to find so much to agree with in the statements that emerged in each iteration of the agreement process.
