Composition: History & Theory: 1900 - 1919
The NCTE
Description
In Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985 (1987), James Berlin begins his discussion of this time period by discussing how the National Council of Teachers of English was founded to try and “protest against college domination of the high school curriculum” (33). Colleges attempted to inform high school methods of teaching at a time when only a small percentage of students were attending universities. The Harvard approach was still dominant during this time period and still required “a short English composition, correct in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and expression, the subject to be taken from such works of standard authors as shall be announced from time to time” (33). To try and determine “standard authors” a Uniform Reading List was implemented. The NCTE fought against these and successfully completed its campaign in 1916.
Date of Upload
3/13/09