Teaching rhetoric in primary school – towards modernization of society with classical techniques and practices

Abstract

Author Janja Zmavc in the chapter Teaching rhetoric in primary school – towards modernization of society with classical techniques and practices presents the characteristics of teaching rhetoric as a compulsory elective subject in the ninth grade of elementary schools in Slovenia. It represents a unique education feature, since in other European educational systems (as well as elsewhere in the world) at elementary level stakeholders are not familiar with an independent subject where pupils could systematically learn the principles of successful public persuasion. After a brief presentation of the circumstances surrounding the placement of the subject of rhetoric in the Slovenian elementary school curriculum, the author outlines its characteristics and presents some particularities of teaching this skill from 1999 to the present day. The main focus in the second part of this paper is the presentation of partial results of the project Developing of theoretical bases and practical guidelines for teaching rhetoric in primary and secondary schools which has been conducted at the Educational Research Institute Slovenia from 2018. The author demonstrate the main (content and didactic) directions of developing a new version of the subject-curriculum for teaching rhetoric in the primary school. Thus, the author tries to show that rhetoric seen as an integral part of the elementary education does not represent an additional ballast or burden but precisely because of its unique (i. e. classical) features, it enables a critical reflection of knowledge and promotes democratic processes within the school environment, which represent one of the key elements in the development of students’ competences for effective participation in modern democratic cultures.