In this article, the author reflects on the flawed writing and composition teaching he received in his early Dartmouth University days. He reports that it took extraordinary classics professors like Don Rosenthal and Jack Zarker to turn around his work, and that these professors contributed to his eventual successful career as a college-level writing teacher. After discussing the problems rampant in the American schools of education, he reports that a 3-step program of professional reform is needed that: (1) dissociates composition teaching from literature teaching, (2) dissociates composition teaching from composition studies and composition theory, and (3) puts writing instruction in the hands of practitioners so that student-writers can be guided toward proficiency. He offers recommendations that, when applied, would create success for practitioners who want to guide student-writers toward the return to excellence of conception and expression.