Michael, Ian . The Teaching of English.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987.
Summary by Sarah K. Wilson
Chapter 1:
The enquiry: scope, method, texts (Introduction)
-- The skills English classes teach today
have long been taught. These
skills include:
-
expressing oneself in speech and writing in one’s native tongue
-
understanding texts
-
judging what one hears and reads (5)
-- For
Michaels’ enquiry, education in “English” includes education
in reading, spelling, handwriting, grammar, literary analysis, composition,
& elocution. (5)
-- It is
extremely difficult if not impossible in many cases to distinguish reading
texts for use at home from those for use at school. (6-7; 135)
-- It is
difficult to analyze the cultural feelings toward literature and “great
literature” by looking at the anthologies because the compiler may have
had several factors influencing his or her decisions. (169-70)
Chapter 4:
Interpretation: literature presented
The
teaching of literature: before 1700
Indirect literary influences
Students most likely read books outside of the classroom; and students likely brought books from home into the classroom as well. Many authors of books and anthologies aimed at both a school and a public market. Literature that was used in the classroom before 1700 was intended to “bring about other, and educationally more important, changes,” particularly “the development of sensitivity: awareness of, and responsiveness to, human, aesthetic and verbal experience” (137).
Teachers of this period probably didn’t think of “teaching
literature” as we teach it today.
They were more interested in helping students learn moral behavior
from the texts than in helping them learn to analyze and interpret. In fact, “Until at least the end of the seventeenth centruy,
the first connected reading for almost all children would seem to have been
what it is convenient to call doctrinal” (138). Students learned the catechism, the liturgy, biblical passages,
prayers, and proverbs. Nonetheless,
even in this setting, students had contact with English literature.
There
is evidence that books of Latin “commonplaces and aphorisms” also
were used in classrooms in order to teach Latin. In the late-16th century, books of “English aphoristic
and proverbial compilations” began to replace the Latin texts, but
followed the Latin form (140).
Specifically, these included: Politeuphuia: Wit’s Common Wealth
(1597) and Fracis Mere’s Palladis Tamia: Wit’s Treasury
(1598). By 1699 (and perhaps in
earlier editions as well) the prefaces to these books specifically state that
they are for use in schools.
Rhetoric
and logic books, though mostly written in Latin, did occassionally refer to
English authors and use English examples consisting of sentences or passages.
Direct
literary influences
Some
rhetoric books were actually written in English (148). Still, even in these books, many
illustrations are translations of Latin.
Abraham Fraunce’s Arcadian Rhetorike (1588) uses
illustrations from Sidney’s Arcadia; however, his book was aimed
at adults and was most likely not used in schools. Spelling books after 1680, on the other hand, provided
“continuous reading-matter” in English (156). Before 1660, spelling books were
“exclusively doctrinal.”
In the 1680s, they became more “secular,” though still
greatly moralistic.
Harland’s The English Spelling-Book revis’d (3rd ed. 1719)
includes the Church Catechism, other religious texts, and “more than
forty pages of passages from English literature” by Dryden, Cowley,
Prior, Shakespeare, Milton, and others (159).
The
teaching of literature: eighteenth century, to 1770
In the 17th century, the purposes of students’ encounters with
English literature were to 1) improve their competence in the mechanics of
reading; 2) strengthen religious practice, morality, and behavior; 3) give
useful general knowledge; and 4) to being pleasure.
But reading English literature “was not seen as a skill, and
was therefore not taught” (160).
In the 18th century, however, reading English literature begins to
be encouraged; anthologies appear. Michael
says: “By the 1770s, the teaching of English literature had become a
matter of normal educational discussion” (160). This discussion included debates on the
benefits and the dangers of literature and, by the end of the 18th century,
the discussion included teaching methodolgy.
Throughout the
18th century, spellers, lessen the amounts of reading material (what remains
is largely doctrinal) and readers and anthologies provide reading matter in
their place (161-62).
Rhetorics
also changed as the ideas about rhetoric changed. Passages quoted in the rhetorics were no longer
“confined to a summary analysis of the figures; [rather] illustrative
quotations were fullwe and not tied to the figures” (163). Some rhetoric texts (for example, The
Circle of the Sciences by John Newberry, 1746) included complete texts in
English as illustrations. In
essence, these rhetorics became small anthologies.
Three writers of verse for children
Isaac
Watts, Thomas Foxton, and Nathaniel Cotton wrote poetry for children that was
included in many anthologies and, though perhaps not exclusively written for
school use, was probably used in schools.
Their writing is very moral.
Anthologies
One
of the most significant and earliest school anthologies is James
Greenwood’s The Virgin Muse (1717). The work includes 126 pieces including Cowley, Milton,
Dryden, Waller, and Garth, but no selections by Shakespeare or Pope. The preface of the work states that the
book is “for the Teaching to Read Poetry” (171). This is, according to Michaels,
“the first expression in a textbook of the idea that poetry could be
taught, and not just presented to pupils” (171). Other school anthologies followed
through the 18th century. Most of
the anthologies that include a preface, including Greenwood’s, specifically
state that the literature had been chosen by its moralilty. Ann Fisher wrote in the preface to The
Pleasing Instructor (1756): “The sole View of the Editor . . . is to
exhibit a connected Plan of Morality” (173).
She also says that her goal is for “the young Reader . . . [to]
acquire a true
Taste to [sic] an Ease and Elegance in his Native Tongue” (173). These goals, to develop morality and to
develop a taste for good literature, seem to continue.
Chapter 5:
Interpretation: literature taught
The
teaching of literature: eighteenth century, from 1770
In
the 1770s, teachers began to approach literature differently. They began to teach it instead of only
present it, and they began to see the value of literature--for all classes
(183). They began to teach
students how to read and help them with understanding the texts.
The
rhetorics during the last 30 years of the 18th century became less important as
school texts; the rhetorics that were published were published as part of
grammar texts and they did little more than “enumerat[e] the figures of
speech” (184). Spellers
likewise lost popularity and literary significance. With the exception of two books, the reading matter they
included now was “of slight literary value,” often taken from
magazines (185).
Anthologies
Anthologies
were very popular in this period.
Michaels states that “more than fifty texts were explicitly or by
clear implication designed predominantly for school. That so many school anthologies were published within thirty
years is evidence that English literature was widely read, if not taught, in
schools during the later decades of the eighteenth century” (185).
Several
“elocutionary anthologies” were published during this time in order
to provide dramatic texts for students to recite aloud or perform. The leading elocutionary anthologies
were William Enfield’s The Speaker (1774) and John Walker’s Elements
of Elocution (1781) and The Academic Speaker (1789) (185).
Vicesimus
Knox compiled six anthologies during this period that were very popular. His prefaces stated that he wanted
students to enjoy reading. He says
that “books should be read ‘merely as a matter of
entertainment’” (188).
He believed that teachers should use great poets in order to help the
boys develop a taste for great literature. Then they can read other things. His book Elegant Extracts (of prose) contained more
than 800 pieces and Elegant Extracts (of poetry) contained over 900
(190).
School
anthologists of the period were forced to make decisions about “the
potential power of imaginative literature” (193). Most often, the literature in school
anthologies was restricted to only purely moral pieces (as was the case in
anthologies by J.H. Moore (1784) and Lindley Murray). Sometimes nonfiction readings were included in order to
avoid the problem.
Another
debate of the period was over novel reading. Most anthologists seem to have considered novels
“superficial reading” that would “damage [children]
intellectually as well as morally” (194). Hannah More and Lucy Aikin, both anthologists, were overtly
against novels.
Analysis
of anthologies, 1771-1801
The
most popular authors in anthologies were, according to Michaels: Pope, Thomson,
Cowper, Shakespeare, Addison, J. Cunningham, Milton, Elizabeth Carter, Watts,
Goldsmith, and Young (in that order) (198).
Teacher’s
comments on English reading, 1698-1801
Teachers
of the period began to discuss the value of literature for children. Many believed that reading literature
would help develop moral sensibility and good writing. Many believed that literature could
help develop children’s imaginations; others feared that
imagination. Many also begin to
realize that students need to be taught how to read literature, and taught to
understand it (212). Many teachers
also didn’t see the value of English literature in the classroom at
all. Richard Lovell Edgeworth and
Maria Edgeworth compiled several anthologies and contributed a significant
amount to the literature education discussion. They believed that students need to be taught to understand
literature -- for only then will they be able to enjoy reading (208-09). They also believed that fiction was not
good for students to read, not because it was “false,” but because
being engrossed in a fictional world would numb their sensitivity to the
disease and pain of the real world (209).
The
teaching of literature: nineteenth century
The nineteenth century anthologies paid increased attention to explanation. In the 1850s, English examinations were
introduced. This seemed to change
literature texts as they were tailored to prepare students for an exam.
(212)
Literary
history
With
the public examinations came a market for literary history. Authors’ biographical information
was published and books detailing the history of English literature entered the
scene (219).
Anthologies
A
few elocutionary anthologies were published during this time; many included
American authors. General
anthologies of the time continued to be published. There was a fear that any poetry but religious poetry would
corrupt children and so many anthologies emphasized prose pieces. Class distinctions also became a topic
of concern in terms of teaching literature (221).
Analysis
of anthologies, 1802-1870
The
most popular authors in anthologies were, according to Michaels: Cowper,
Shakespeare, Campbell, Wordsworth, Milton, Scott, Byron, Hemans, Pope, Southey,
Thomson, Longfellow, and J. Montgomery (in that order) (236).
Readers
Spelling
books waned during this period, and readers (with an emphasis on reading
material and some direct attention to spelling) took their place. Some of these readers include
“Classical poetry” such as J.M. M’Culloch’s A Course
of Elementary Reading in Science and Literature (1827) and The Irish
Commissioners’ Reading Book for the Use of Female Schools
(1845). Contemporary essayist J.M.
Goldstrom listed the readers’ major themes to be: 1) Christian
theological instruction; 2) class structure; 3) domestic and vocational
training; 4) the outside world; and 5) good and bad conduct (245). American readers were popular (in
America) as well.
Imagination,
understanding, memory
There
were debates over imagination, as I mentioned earlier. Understanding literature began to be
emphasized. Memory and elocution
remained a part of the curriculum of most schools, although it was met with
some debate (259).
Authors,
set books and examinations
Some
texts by individual authors were published separately. The English exams which started in the
1850s focused on word etymologies, grammar, and literary interpretation --
therefore, the English texts worked to prepare students in these areas.
J.W.
Hales and E.A. Abbott
Both
of these men wrote important pieces about the methodology of teaching
literature. Hales’ Suggestions
on the teaching of English and Abbott’s On Teaching the English
Language are really the first examples of writing about English education.
Chapter 8:
English: the development of a subject
The term
“English”
The term “English” was first used to refer to a school
discipline as early as 1587. In
this case, “English” refered to the teaching of reading and spelling
(372). We don’t really know what “English”
meant in reference to the school subject during this period (378).
However, as Miachaels has proved, the skills we teach today in English
class are skills that have been taught for centuries.