A Lost Tool of Learning: Rhetoric and Why It Matters

A Lost Tool of Learning: Rhetoric and Why It Matters
Medieval theologian St. Augustine used rhetoric as a tool for learning. "St. Augustine Reading Rhetoric and Philosophy at the School of Rome," 1464–1465, Benozzo Gozzoli. Public Domain
Jeff Minick
Updated:
Search online for “the meaning of rhetoric,” and you’ll find the word typically defined as speech or writing intended to persuade others. Some sources list as a secondary meaning bombastic or sentimental speech and writing, often deceitful in their attempts at persuasion. “He’s just gaslighting us,” someone might say of a politician’s appearance. “It’s all just hot air and rhetoric.”

If asked, most Americans might be unable even to define rhetoric, much less explain why or how it might be studied and deployed. To fault them for their ignorance would be wrong, for with the exception of students in homeschools, classical academies, and some liberal arts colleges, most people aren’t exposed to rhetoric—neither the word nor its worth.

Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.
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