The conceptual starting point for almost all recent gender related theory and research is to identify the characteristics of current educational practice as rooted in a type of thought that is linear, analytical, stage dependent, discursive, and "objective," and that separates thought and language--this is the mode that is typically associated with males. Critics, on the other hand, propose a type of thinking that is holistic, inductive, circular, narrative, and subjective, and that asserts that language and thought are inextricably interrelated--this is the mode that is typically associated with females. The error that is often made is treating analytic and holistic thought as dichotomies. A new model of development for composition and cognition portrays the two as interrelated processes that evolve separately. Holistic thinking provides the context for analysis. In fact, it may be the only base from which analytic thought develops and fully matures. The educational system should work toward an "integrated dialectic" mode of thinking that is dialectic in nature, integrative in design, capable of switching quickly from analytic to holistic, able to address ambiguities and uncertainties, and reflective. Such a model can be a transcendent one for human beings, allowing them to live in each reality as though it were the only one. (One diagram is included; 20 references are attached.) (SG)