More a Torment than a Benefit: English Grammar in Nova Scotia Schools in the Nineteenth Century

ABSTRACT

Practice in Nova Scotia schools from 1850 to 1883 rested on a strong claim for the value of grammar. That claim required pupils to learn a complex system of linguistic definitions and to apply them to literary sentences as a prerequisite to effective speaking, reading, and writing. Approved textbooks, provincial curriculum guides and policies, inspectors' reports, and anecdotal records revealed the grammar curriculum of that time. Its epistemology was sought in contemporary beliefs about the nature of language and its social functions and in the psychology of learning and in the nature of knowledge. An historical perspective showed the connections between visible discourse—those artifacts, actions and stated rationales that constitute a curriculum—and the sometimes invisible belief systems that underlie it. This perspective may be helpful to both proponents and opponents of formal grammar instruction, for it provides an heuristic thinking about one's convictions.