Capturing the traditional rhetoric curriculum

The first thing to say about the traditional rhetoric curriculum and its place in the educational spectrum of the times is that it was the ONLY curriculum. There were no others. Thus it did not define itself as concerned with some aspect or domain of reality or social life as opposed to some other curriculum that dealt with some other aspect. So rhetoric was not a discipline in the sense that we think of a discipline; that is, a specialised field of study stream-lined to deal with a limited slice of reality.

Rhetoric of the whole curriculum. It educated the whole man - yes! unfortunately, man! It was designed to produce 'men', to produce adults who could take responsibility for the world, for their people, for everything - in so far as men had a say in what was, is and will be. So, it was designed to turn boys into men, men of power, mean of words, men of action, men of thoughtfulness, men of judgment and moral responsibility, men who could disclose the issues and lineaments of a situation demanding a response, men who could win consent with their words.

- a curriculum of being, not just of knowing or acting or doing.