Due to the "radically mistaken notions" British and American participants had about each other's basic views of education, the 1966 Dartmouth Conference witnessed an unplanned national division, with Americans defending the trinity of language, literature, and composition, and the British advancing their concern for the gratification and fulfillment of the individual student. As Americans espoused their disciplined curriculum, and Englishmen, having discarded that philosophy, promoted the former American position of anti-establishment progressive education, it became clear that the two sides were not debating with each other so much as with their own pasts. The group's final statement, although articulating the agreement reached on two minor issues--the evils of ability grouping and the overemphasis on examination--was generalized and evasive. It failed to reflect the real worth of the Conference, which lay in personal participant discovery of previously unexamined social assumptions forming the foundation of educational theory and practice. The recognition of a need to work together in combining the best of discipline and creativity could lead to a more fruitful second meeting and, perhaps, to more effective English teaching on both sides of the Atlantic. (MF)