Page 162 - Šolsko polje, XXX, 2019, št. 5-6: Civic, citizenship and rhetorical education in a rapidly changing world, eds. Janja Žmavc and Plamen Mirazchiyski
P. 162
šolsko polje, letnik xxx, številka 5–6
elective course. During the last 16 years of teaching rhetoric, I have come
a long way as a teacher and have learned a lot. The goal of this article is to
present what I have learned and to describe the benefits of this elective.
Because looking at the past only makes sense if it provides us with useful
experience and a starting point for the future, I will also present how I see
the course in the future and how the rhetoric teacher can be helpful in the
school process for each primary school.
Getting started
Although Slovenian schools have a rich tradition of elective activities,
from which elective courses have often developed, the compulsory elec-
tive course in rhetoric was something new in the nine-year primary school
programme. Because Slovenian teachers had no experience in teaching
this course, it is safe to say that we were not acquainted with the goals
of this compulsory elective course and were not properly qualified for its
teaching. The content of the course was not included in the formal educa-
tion of teachers, nor was special didactics for teaching rhetoric. With the
new Basic School Act, published in the Official Gazette on 29 February
1996, rhetoric has become a compulsory elective course, which means that
all the schools in Slovenia are required to offer it in the ninth grade. It has
thus become a challenge for all Slovenian schools. If a teacher has not been
trained in a particular course, they may have different ideas about what
rhetoric is and what they should teach in that course. The absence of a tra-
dition of rhetorical pedagogy means that the general idea about rhetoric
is very diverse in Slovenian society — both for teachers and others — and
often represents the basis on which pupils choose the course or ask their
parents to help them out.
In the period after independence, various public speaking courses
began to appear on the Slovenian market and public speaking skills have
begun to gain recognition in the society. In the first seminars I attended
as a young teacher wanting to teach rhetoric, I mainly received informa-
tion about public performance skills. We mainly practiced oratory perfor-
mance and non-verbal communication, and learned that Cicero said that
performance was “the master of public speaking” (Ciceron, 2002, p. 299),
so we focused primarily on that. We also analysed the performance of our
speeches, as well as observed and analysed the performance of the speech-
es of others. Many of us thus adopted the idea that rhetoric is the practice
of speaking skills and the acquisition of knowledge and skills for a persua-
sive oratory performance. It was only after reviewing the syllabus for rhet-
oric (Žagar et al., 1999) and attending a seminar organized by the Ljublja-
na Educational Research Institute that I realized that performance was
160
elective course. During the last 16 years of teaching rhetoric, I have come
a long way as a teacher and have learned a lot. The goal of this article is to
present what I have learned and to describe the benefits of this elective.
Because looking at the past only makes sense if it provides us with useful
experience and a starting point for the future, I will also present how I see
the course in the future and how the rhetoric teacher can be helpful in the
school process for each primary school.
Getting started
Although Slovenian schools have a rich tradition of elective activities,
from which elective courses have often developed, the compulsory elec-
tive course in rhetoric was something new in the nine-year primary school
programme. Because Slovenian teachers had no experience in teaching
this course, it is safe to say that we were not acquainted with the goals
of this compulsory elective course and were not properly qualified for its
teaching. The content of the course was not included in the formal educa-
tion of teachers, nor was special didactics for teaching rhetoric. With the
new Basic School Act, published in the Official Gazette on 29 February
1996, rhetoric has become a compulsory elective course, which means that
all the schools in Slovenia are required to offer it in the ninth grade. It has
thus become a challenge for all Slovenian schools. If a teacher has not been
trained in a particular course, they may have different ideas about what
rhetoric is and what they should teach in that course. The absence of a tra-
dition of rhetorical pedagogy means that the general idea about rhetoric
is very diverse in Slovenian society — both for teachers and others — and
often represents the basis on which pupils choose the course or ask their
parents to help them out.
In the period after independence, various public speaking courses
began to appear on the Slovenian market and public speaking skills have
begun to gain recognition in the society. In the first seminars I attended
as a young teacher wanting to teach rhetoric, I mainly received informa-
tion about public performance skills. We mainly practiced oratory perfor-
mance and non-verbal communication, and learned that Cicero said that
performance was “the master of public speaking” (Ciceron, 2002, p. 299),
so we focused primarily on that. We also analysed the performance of our
speeches, as well as observed and analysed the performance of the speech-
es of others. Many of us thus adopted the idea that rhetoric is the practice
of speaking skills and the acquisition of knowledge and skills for a persua-
sive oratory performance. It was only after reviewing the syllabus for rhet-
oric (Žagar et al., 1999) and attending a seminar organized by the Ljublja-
na Educational Research Institute that I realized that performance was
160
