Q&A with Lucy Schultz

Archives of Instruction

by Lucy Schultz and two co-authors has been praised for offering “a compelling new perspective on how (19th-century) literacy textbooks were written, used, and read.” Schultz describes below valuable insights the work provides about rhetorics, readers, and composition books during the period.

Q: You begin by explaining that early in the century composition books reflected and transmitted the culture’s value system. How did they characteristically do that?

A: Prior to 1830, and in some cases well after that, students learned to write themes by listening to a passage a teacher read aloud and then writing what they remembered of that passage. The topics typically grew out of the culture’s values. So having heard a theme about benevolence or fortitude, students might then have written what they remembered. Embedded in what they heard and wrote were values the culture supported. And we know for certain that students were not writing about controversial topics.

Q: Were there intellectual property concerns?

A: Early 19th century culture did not value originality as we do today. For example, Richard Green Parker, a well-known textbook author, writes in a preface to an 1844 book (he’s using third person, but writing about himself), “As usefulness, not originality has been his aim, he has in some instances copied verbatim from the pages of those, in whom he has found anything of value.” And Emerson, in his 1859 essay, “Quotation and Originality,” writes, “In a large sense, one would say there is no pure originality. All minds quote.” It’s also true that 19th century textbook authors rarely used citations in the ways we do. They frequently borrowed large chunks of text from “authorities” without acknowledging the author, source text, edition, or pages. While some readers may have recognized the source texts, such unacknowledged borrowing presents interesting challenges to contemporary scholars.

Q: But even early on there were departures from emphasis on abstract concepts and authorities. Correct?

A: This was the great watershed of composition instruction in US schools in the mid-19th century. A few textbooks authors, notably John Frost, began to ask high school students to write themes based on personal experiences. Frost’s 1839 textbook asked students to write in response to engraved illustrations. Perhaps the most celebrated of these shows students at play, and the prompt reads, “Describe your own idea of a pleasant summer holiday.” While we might poke fun at such a prompt, in 1859, it represented a significant change in the classroom because it signaled that students’ knowledge was valued as it had not been earlier. The result was a democratization of instruction that, in some ways, continues in today’s classrooms.

Q: What do you make of all this? There seems to have been so much progress with far more limited understanding of human beings and the teaching/learning process, and yet so many of our students have reading and writing problems.

A: Whoosh—this is quite a question. But rather than offer an “answer,” I’ll complicate the question. To begin, we can’t romanticize the past. We shouldn’t assume that students then were more successful at reading and writing than they are today. Secondly, it’s important to consider what students know now that they didn’t then. And finally, we need to think about how, say, a 12-year-old spent an evening in 1850 and how a 12-year-old spends an evening in 2006 and to reflect on the cultural forces and values that speak to a 12-year-old today. Success in school and with peers may depend as much on knowledge of popular culture, technology, and hand-eye coordination as it does on the ability to work with complex texts. As cultures change, schools change. How many “average” Americans today spend their leisure hours reading--and enjoying--lengthy or complex texts? And those of us who do? Hmmm. Are we en route to becoming an endangered species? Or?

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