![[The Real Pupils of...] The Boarding School](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0GyREsJIR4/SOgoVM12jUI/AAAAAAAAABo/HmJmy2mfwjU/S1600-R/BoardingSchool.jpg)
This is just a small observation I saw when starting to read this novel. The quote caught my eye (bottom of page 15, top of page 16) and I thought it fit in really well, considering that we, as English majors, put a lot of focus on reading.
"Reading is so common a part of education that the value of it is not duly estimated nor the manner of performing it sufficiently attended to. It is not the mere propriety of pronunciation accent and cadence which constitutes good reading. You must enter into the spirit of tho subject and feel interested in the matter before you can profit by the exercise. But you are so well acquainted with the manner of reading that the quality of books most worthy of your perusal is the only point on which I need to enlarge."
-The Boarding School, page 15-16
Even today I find that this quote holds true. During a service learning (I used to be an Education major), I attended to a second-grade classroom. My assignment was mostly to go over their reading with them one-by-one; I was a little upset when quizzing them. Each student could read through a passage quickly, but their comprehension basically told me they only truly read the first sentence. When I informed the teacher, she told me that her class was a hopeless case when it came to reading and none of them would get higher than they were now. It was almost heartbreaking, to know that a teacher didn't care enough to get the students to care about reading.
The second part of this quote is extremely true; you can't truly learn from a subject unless you're interested enough in it. It's a sad truth, but I feel like this novel pointed it out quickly, gaining the reader's attention along with it.
"Reading is so common a part of education that the value of it is not duly estimated nor the manner of performing it sufficiently attended to. It is not the mere propriety of pronunciation accent and cadence which constitutes good reading. You must enter into the spirit of tho subject and feel interested in the matter before you can profit by the exercise. But you are so well acquainted with the manner of reading that the quality of books most worthy of your perusal is the only point on which I need to enlarge."
-The Boarding School, page 15-16
Even today I find that this quote holds true. During a service learning (I used to be an Education major), I attended to a second-grade classroom. My assignment was mostly to go over their reading with them one-by-one; I was a little upset when quizzing them. Each student could read through a passage quickly, but their comprehension basically told me they only truly read the first sentence. When I informed the teacher, she told me that her class was a hopeless case when it came to reading and none of them would get higher than they were now. It was almost heartbreaking, to know that a teacher didn't care enough to get the students to care about reading.
The second part of this quote is extremely true; you can't truly learn from a subject unless you're interested enough in it. It's a sad truth, but I feel like this novel pointed it out quickly, gaining the reader's attention along with it.
2 comments:
Justine,
You present a great point that even today this quote remains true. Williams addresses the words toward her pupils and then continues to say “but you are so well acquainted with the manner of reading, that the quality of books most worthy of your perusal is the only point on which I need to enlarge,” thus claiming her pupils to be well read and only needing assistance in the selection of further literature (17).
Williams warns the listeners on different genres of literature, starting with romance and describing it as “not interesting; nor can they be pleasing to the correct taste and refined delicacy of the present day” (17). She then describes novels as “the favorite and the most dangerous kind of reading” (18). According to Williams, the ladies should consider them dangerous as a result of the passion they raise. Furthermore, “their romantic pictures of love, beauty, and magnificence, fill the imagination with ideas which lead to impure desires” (18).
Since Foster keeps her personal voice quite throughout the book and mostly quotes from Williams (at least thus far), these quotes make me inquire upon Foster’s perspective on what literature ladies should read. The Coquette, Foster’s first book can be categorized as romance and a novel, though the book also reads as extremely moralistic and tragic. As a product of boarding school, and someone who supports it to such a degree that the pages of her second book pervade with boarding school support, did Foster agree with William’s notions on proper literature for her pupils? If Foster became headmistress of a school would she educate differently?
- Alle Colen
Justine, As a former Education major, you might enjoy the materials I posted in our course site about educational reforms in the 1790s. You will also be interested in what Judith Sargent Murray had to say! I love the quote about reading. Alle makes an excellent point that we'll have to watch and see what Foster's view of reading really is. Sure, she wrote a seduction novel herself, but how do these comments reflect on how she may have imagined that text worked and would be read? Great stuff here. LML
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