Book excerpt: "In this book journals are seen in every situation and from every angle, as if mounted on a slow turntable under a spotlight. The conclusion of most of the teachers and students using them is that they get people thinking, they help them test their own experience against the ideas of many others-- the authorities they're studying, their teachers, their fellow students ... The payoffs from using journals in classrooms are here shown to be astounding. Students learn from making mistakes and half-forming ideas. They learn to think, not by doing exercises in a faddish "critical thinking" textbook, but by working their way through real questions, with real interest and real intent"--Back cover.