At many colleges, professors trained in the discipline of rhetoric and composition are finding that the specialized knowledge they bring to teaching writing is held in thrall to older notions of how students learn to write--what Linda Brodkey, an author and director of the Warren College Writing Program at the University of California at San Diego, calls "common-sense myths of literacy." Such myths are pernicious. They poison colleges and universities, affecting the morale of writing instructors, the attitudes of other faculty members, and, worst of all, students' acquisition of literacy. In this article, the author contends that professors should dispel the old, "common-sense" myths about teaching rhetoric and composition and should replace them with a new approach to first-year composition and a new commitment to upper-level writing. He also cites several truths about the acquisition of literacy.