James Moffett

After this setback, Moffett's career changed dramatically. The Interaction curriculum was reformed as Active Voice, published in 1981, and adopted as the state-wide curriculum of California for many years. After relocating to Northern California, his pedagogy began to focus on alternative education and spirituality. He continued to write several other English language learning books through the 70's, 80's, and 90's. He founded the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning in 1992, and died from cancer in 1996.

Moffett's paired publications, Teaching the Universe of Discourse and Student-Centered Language Arts, K-12, were both initially published in 1967, and updated throughout multiple editions through 1992. Shortly after their publication and ensuing success, Houghton-Mifflin approached him about writing a textbook, and the result was a influential language-learning collection entitled Interaction, published in 1972; the most expensive education collection in history.

James Moffett (1929–1996) was an American teacher of English, author, and theorist of the teaching and learning of language arts and especially writing.

James Moffett was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1929. After growing up in the southern US, he spent his high school years in Toledo, Ohio. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University. Drafted to serve in the military for two years shortly after graduation, and after a stint as a teaching assistant for S. I. Hayakawa, he thereafter taught at Philips Exeter Academy for ten years. He then took a faculty position in Harvard's Graduate school of Education for three years while he worked on his first major work Teaching the Universe of Discourse.