ED443120.Pdf

DOCUMENT RESUME ED 443 120 CS 216 938 AUTHOR Schultz, Lucille M. TITLE The Young Composers: Composition's Beginnings in Nineteenth-Century Schools. Studies in Writing and Rhetoric. INSTITUTION Conference on Coll. Composition and Communication, Urbana, IL. ISBN ISBN-0-8093-2236-6 PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 231p. AVAILABLE FROM Southern Illinois University Press, P.O. Box 3697, Carbondale, IL 62902-3697 ($14.95). Web site: www.siu.edu/-siupress. PUB TYPE Books (010) Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC10 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Cultural Context; *Educational History; Elementary Secondary Education; Higher Education; *Rhetoric; Student Centered Curriculum; *Writing Instruction; Writing Strategies IDENTIFIERS *Nineteenth Century; Nineteenth Century Rhetoric; Pestalozzi (Johann Heinrich) ABSTRACT This book, the first full-length history of school-based writing instruction, demonstrates that writing instruction in 19th-century American schools was more important than has previously been assumed in the overall history of writing instruction. Drawing on primary materials that have not been considered in previous histories of writing instruction (little-known textbooks and student writing that includes prize-winning essays, journal entries, letters, and articles written for school newspapers), the book shows that in 19th-century American schools the voices of the British rhetoricians that dominated college writing instruction were attenuated by the voice of the Swiss education reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. It was partly through the influence of Pestalozzi's thought that writing instruction for children in schools became child-centered, not just a replica or imitation of writing instruction in the colleges. These 19th-century schools prefigured some contemporary composition practices: free writing, peer editing, and the use of illustrations as writing prompts. The book features a chapter on the agency of textbook iconography, which includes illustrations from 19th-century composition books as well as a cultural analysis of those illustrations. Contains an extensive bibliography of 19th-century composition textbooks and student and school newspapers. (NKA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. O U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Composition's Beginnings This document has been reproducedas received from the person or organization originating it. in Nineteenth-Century Minor changes have been made to Schools improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY /V,4. M*Ls TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES VnfG12, INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) §ooD2Wob %Mom tIncomeg The Young Composers 3 *Studies in Writing and Rhetoric In 1980 the Conference on College Composition and Communication established the Studies in Writing and Rhetoric (SWR) series as a forum for mono- graph-length arguments or presentations that engage general compositionists. SWR encourages extended essays or research reports addressing any issue in composition and rhetoric from any theoretical or research perspective as long as the general significance to the field is clear. Previous SWR publications serve as models for prospective authors; in addition, contributors may propose alternate formats and agendas that inform or extend the field's current debates. SWR is particularly interested in projects that connect the specific research site or theoretical framework to contemporary classroom and institu- tional contexts of direct concern to compositionists across the nation. Such connections may come from several approaches, including cultural, theoretical, field-based, gendered, historical, and interdisciplinary. SWR especially encourages monographs by scholars early in their careers, by established scholars who wish to share an insight or exhortation with the field, and by scholars of color. The SWR series editor and editorial board members are committed to working closely with prospective authors and offering significant develop- mental advice for encouraged manuscripts and prospectuses. Editorships ro- tate every five years. Prospective authors intending to submit a prospectus during the 1997 to 2002 editorial appointment should obtain submission guidelines from Robert Brooke, SWR editor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of English, P.O. Box 880337, 202 Andrews Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0337. General inquiries may also be addressed to Sponsoring Editor, Studies in Writing and Rhetoric, Southern Illinois University Press, P.O. Box 3697, Carbondale, IL 62902-3697. The Young Composers Composition's Beginnings in Nineteenth-Century Schools Lucille M. Schultz SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY PRESS Carbondale and Edwardsville Copyright 0 1999 by The Conference on College Composition and Communication of the National Council of Teachers of English All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 02 01 00 99 4 3 21 Publication partially funded by a subvention grant from The Conference on College Composition and Communication of the National Council of Teachers of English. A previous version of chapter 2 was published as "Elaborating Our History: A Look at Mid-19th Century First Books of Composition" in College Composition and Communication 45 (February 1994): 10-30, and a previous version of chapter 3 was published as "Pestalozzi's Mark on Nineteenth-Century Composition Instruction: Ideas Not in Words but in Things" in Rhetoric Review 14 (fall 1995): 23-43. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schultz, Lucille M., 1943 The young composers : composition's beginnings in nineteenth-century schools / Lucille M. Schultz. p.cm. (Studies in writing & rhetoric) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. English languageRhetoricStudy and teachingUnited States History -19th century 2. English languageComposition and exercises TextbooksHistory-19th century.I. Title.II. Series. PE1405.U6S38 1999 808'.042'071073dc21 98-21923 ISBN 0-8093-2236-6 (pbk.) CIP The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.0 For Mary and Frank Schultz in gratitude 7 Contents List of Figures ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Telling Our Stories 3 1. The Beginnings of Composition in Early Nineteenth-Century Schools 11 The Early National Period and Learning by Rote 11 The Antebellum Period and the Great Educational Awakening 15 PostCivil War Industrialization and the Turn to the Practical 29 2. First Books of Composition 34 Walker's Pedagogy and the Reform Pedagogies of First Books 38 The Beginnings of the Democratization of Writing 52 3. "No Ideas but in Things" 56 Pestalozzi in the American Classroom 58 The Pestalozzi-Mayo-Frost Connection 65 Other Pestalozzian "Showings" 74 Pestalozzi's Significance 77 4. The Agency of Textbook Iconography 85 The History and Technology of Illustrations in Children's Books 87 Illustrations in Composition Texts 91 Framing Text and Cultural Codes 100 5. Textual Practices of the Young Composers 107 Textbook Instruction and Classroom-Based Writing 110 Extracurricular Writing at Home: Letters and Memoirs 128 Extracurricular Writing at School: School Newspapers 135 Conclusion: "We Say to Him, Write!" 144 vii viii Contents Appendixes 1. Tables of Contents from John Frost's Easy Exercises (1839) and George Quackenbos's First Lessons (1851) 169 2. Three Student Readings of an Illustration, 1886 174 3.Student Essay: June 20, 1846 177 4.Excerpt from Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Autobiography, Eighty Years and More 179 Notes 183 Bibliography 193 Index 211 9 Figures Figure 1. "The Young Composers" 2 Figure 2. "A Peacock," "A Macaw" "A Carrier Pigeon" 47 Figure 3. "A summer holiday" 52 Figure 4. "Factory Girls," "The Mechanic," "The Mechanical Powers" 55 Figure 5A. Mayo's lesson on glass 70 Figure 5B. Engraving of greenhouse 71 Figure 5C. Writing prompt based on Mayo's lesson on glass 72 Figure 6A. Mayo's lesson on leather 72 Figure 6B. Engraving of sleigh 73 Figure 6C. Writing prompt based on Mayo's lesson on leather 74 Figure 7. "Boy telling about his studies at school," "girl learning her lesson" 95 Figure 8. Illustration of a child and text of a prompt 97 Figure 9. "Topics for Study and Conversation" 104 Figure 10. Suggestions for describing a picture 105 Figure 11. "Boy writing composition" 109 Figure 12. First page of King's essay, "On Novel Reading" 160 Figure A1.1. Table of contents from John Frost's Easy Exercises, 1839 170 Figure A1.2. Table of contents from Quackenbos's First Lessons, 1851 172 Figure A2.1. An old woman and three children 174 10 Acknowledgments The primary sources that ground this book are composition textbooks from nineteenth-century schools and the texts that nineteenth- century students composed. Because not many copies ofthese textbooks or examples of student texts have survived, I have spent a good deal of time in public and private archives, searching them out. It is thus that I owe a heavy and ongoing debt to the many librarians and archivists who have enabled my work in countless ways. I was privileged to do most of the research for this book at the Library of Congress and at Harvard University's Monroe C. Gutman Library; in both cases, the professional assistance

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