Quiet Classrooms, Educational Soundscapes, and the Power of Silence

Pieter Verstraete is Senior Professor in the History of Education, Research Centre for Education, Culture and Society, KU Leuven, Belgium.

"In this book, Pieter Verstraete provides a long-needed history of silence in classrooms. Does silence facilitate learning or enforce discipline? Does it support the shy student or suppress the extravert? Is a noisy classroom a joyous expression of educational engagement or an impenetrable barrier to order and thought? The book’s answer to these questions is: yes. It turns out that silence provides a clear window into the multiple and conflicting aims that educators have sought to accomplish in classrooms over the years."- David F. Labaree, retired Professor of Education, Stanford University, USA"This book throws a new light on silence in schools, a theme that has been a concern of educators for several centuries but that has been scarcely conceptualized. It brings to the fore some figures and practices such as shy children and silent reading that are worth interrogating, and succeeds in connecting present educational and historiographical debates in meaningful ways. Moreover, this book provides a methodology for studying schools as acoustic or sound spaces in ways that will be useful for researchers and teachers as well."- Professor Ines Dussel, full-time researcher, Department of Educational Research, CINVESTAV, Mexico"‘Silence,’ as Pieter Verstraete writes, ‘is ubiquitous in the history of education.’ It may be everywhere, but to understand its complex educational history it is necessary to listen to silence and this is what Verstraete’s book offers the reader. A listening journey where we encounter silent practices across time, enter silent spaces, hear the voices of pedagogues and above all track the child’s experiences of silence and education. In sum, the book is both an excellent addition to the ever-growing corpus of sensory history and at the same time addresses pedagogical gaps in the history of education."- Professor Ian Grosvenor, Emeritus Professor of Urban Education History, University of Birmigham, UK"Pieter Verstraete’s new book on the fascinating history of silence in the history of education poses uniquely consequential questions for the past as well as for the “here and now.” Surveying the meanings attached to silence in educational spaces, beginning with 17th century efforts to evoke classroom silence as a measure of discipline and control to the 20th century pathologization of the “silent, shy, child,” Verstraete enhances significantly our understanding of silence as an educational phenomenon. Uncovering the many educational goals attached to silence over the centuries, Quiet Classrooms, Educational Soundscapes, and the Power of Silence: Towards an Acoustic History of Education, enables us to see both the connections with, and breaks from, our current concerns for the next generation of “ear-budded” learners. A must read for historians of education, children, youth, and beyond."- Professor Mona Gleason, Professor in the Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada

• Introduction: Listening to silence in the history of education1. Silent practices in education2. Research into silence in current pedagogical practices3. A critical look at existing histories of silence4. Towards a history of silence at school and in the classroom5. The silent self, exemplary Bobby, and history as megaphoneChapter 1: The rise of classroom-based silence1. ‘He squeals just like a thin pig, whose throat must be cut at once’2. Noise and silence in the work of Jean-Baptiste de la Salle3. Servile silence and philanthropic freedom4. Regarding proper, exact, good, mechanical, sweet, or healing silence5. A lesson in silence for the youngest childrenChapter 2: Maria Montessori’s rediscovery of silence 1. The first cry of the newborn child2. Silence, discipline, and the din of falling chairs3. Silence exercises, whispering voices, and controlled liveliness4. The meaning of silence for (the education of) teachers5. ‘If we want to reach silence, we have to educate them’6. Reaching a new world through silenceChapter 3: The silent child and the loud self1. Silence and shyness2. Dictation, exam questions, and observation lessons: the omnipresence of shy children in the classroom3. The voice of the eighteenth-century Timidus: ‘I’m not mad!’4. From good and evil to normal and abnormal shyness5. Social Darwinism and the noisy struggle for existence6. The successful self, the culture of personality, and the war against shyness7. Maria Montessori, self-education and shyness as monstrosityChapter 4: Silent reading and the child as open book1. The art of reading aloud2. Silent efficiency and the economisation of education3. The rise of silent reading in the Low Countries4. Silent reading tests and the call for responsible selection5. Critical noises and the triumph of silent readingEpilogue: Silence, the chargeable self and the direction of our future