Reading and Writing in Secondary School: From Teaching Rhetorical-Poetic Precepts to Encouraging Originality and Creativity (1914-1969)

Abstract

In the teaching of writing in Portuguese Secondary school classes, there may have been, at first, practices that mobilized rhetorical-poetic knowledge mixed with the idea of originality, until approximately the first half of the 20th century. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, when the notion of originality was further developed, such practices began to value the individual creativity of the student in the elaboration of writing. The purpose of this article is to discuss how rhetorical-poetic precepts, as well as the concepts of originality and creativity are presented in guidelines for teaching writing in didactic texts published between 1914 and 1969. The analysis of the school anthology Céu, terra e mar (1914), by Alberto de Oliveira, of the teacher’s manual O idioma nacional na escola secundária (1935), by Antenor Nascentes, of the school collection Português através de textos (1960-1969), by Magda Soares, and of the article “Importância da composição” (1951), published in Revista de Educação, which comprise our corpus, is based on the theoretical and methodological framework of the Cultural History of Reading. In textbooks edited between 1914 and 1935, rhetorical-poetic precepts are recommended, such as those of invention, disposition, and elocution, which comprise the three rhetorical operations for the composition of speeches, in addition to that of imitation, while originality in writing is also encouraged. In the 1960s, the encouragement of original writing then brings out the idea of writing as an individual creative activity in new textbooks and in teaching journal articles produced in the period.

Keywords

• ensino da escrita
• ensino da leitura
• história do ensino de português