Quintilian is a proud man; a man who believed that rhetoric and oratory could not be condensed or reduced to anything less than TWELVE books focusing on the orator, from birth to death.
In his text, Institutes of Oratory (Institutio Oratoria), he further explains his theory of 'A good man speaking well' and truly insists that not only does an orator need to be a good man, but "that no man, unless he be good, can ever be an orator... a fool, assuredly, will never become an orator"(413, 12:3-4).
All I can think about it how utterly and completely disappointed Quintilian would be if he were alive today. It seems, now, that the great respect for language and oratory that these ancient rhetoricians held has completely faded away. Now we elect in to office those who cannot speak well (GWB), and by a large margin there are far more bad men speaking in mediocrity, than good men speaking well. How did we come to shift so far away from these ideals? Is this what happens when we poorly educate relatively poorly on a large scale in many subjects? For Quintilian, orators needed to be well rounded, and educated enough that they could defend and reason in a court. He and Cicero stressed this importance, and I think our interpretation of this has forced our modern understanding into something quite different. Now in schools we see most children getting a broad education, and regardless of their talents, they all pursue the same general education, lightly touching the surface of each subject. In a perfect world, those who excelled would go to college and become masters in particular subjects-- but our world doesn't work idyllically, and somewhere along the lines society allowed education to become a place of profit, instead of a necessity. If only Quintilian were alive...
Do you agree? How does our society shape the values of education, and is this natural, or something we have control over?
You make a good point! I, too, think Quintilian would be disappointed with our contemporary orators. I agree that there are many “bad men speaking in mediocrity;” when I hear that phrase, I immediately think of most talk-radio hosts. However, I can’t imagine that all orators of Quintilian’s time fit this perfect mold of a “good man speaking well.” Maybe he so strongly emphasized the orator’s moral character because he felt that good morals were lacking in orators.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, it’s interesting to apply the terms “good” and “well” to contemporary orators. As we discussed in class, those terms are somewhat problematic, and maybe they don’t work so well today. Actually, Quintilian’s whole discussion of morality in education seems problematic. Our education system is uncomfortable at best with morality in the classroom. Where does it belong? Does it belong it at all? Many people would object to Quintilian’s idea that teachers should be intellectual parents. Teachers should be intellectual, sure, but parents? Parents are the ones who teach you morals. Most would argue that teachers do not have an obligation to fill that role.
On a side note, I attended Catholic schools for 15 years, so I come from a background where morality and education are very much interrelated. That’s a whole other discussion that I won’t get into now :)