ABSTRACT
This chapter describes briefly a project in which these possibilities did seem to some extent to be translated into actuality, and where the primary aim, which was envisaged as a combination of problem-solving and improvised drama, had at first no immediate relation to writing. A context that can be more fruitful than it is often assumed to be is ‘other subjects’. Poems may be written about ‘nature’, and, less often, about history and geography, but they seldom seem to be written from within maths, or science. The writing itself began in a sense out of doors. The children had taken photographs of cornfield, paths, stream, bridge, old mill, pond, and so on which turned out well. The suspension for a while of more formal teaching allowed one to take note of how some children may choose to write in the least coercive kind of situation. More than half the class tried poems to go with their photographs.
