Composition: History & Theory: 1800 - 1865
Classroom Practice
Description
Robert Connors, in Composition-Rhetoric: Backgrounds, Theory, and Pedagogy (1997), pinpoints 1800 as the time when rhetoric texts were more like treatises than textbooks. They were comprised of abstract categories, generalizations, taxonomies, and rules. Classes were run in a lecture-and-question format, and students were expected to memorize material. American education (unlike British education) relied on books to be the focus of the course, and instructors were not as learned as in England. There were very few genuine American scholars. In the early 1800s, writing was thought of as a mental discipline. To master it, one must learn abstract ideas about writing. By 1820, books started including questions, exercises, and drills—which led to the birth of the textbook. This format allowed for a decrease in lectures and a more interactive pedagogy. Connors theorizes that this transition occurred to deal with the large number of instructors who were not skilled enough to teach courses using only their own knowledge. Over 600 colleges were founded in the U.S. between 1800 and 1860, leading to an influx of younger, inadequately-trained teachers.
Date of Upload
3/13/09