Writing the Nation: Colombian Student Writing Samples, 1820–50

This paper focuses on primary school exams – on novels, the Constitution, virtuous behavior, and word drawing of civic virtues – administered between 1820 and 1860. The focus is on the three distinct elements of these examinations. The first is the way the nation was modeled during the ritual of the public exam, with an emphasis on the ideals of the Colombian republic. Held in building such as parish churches examinations were administered by teachers, priests, mayors or officials, and might be attended by local elite witnesses, parents, relatives, and friends. These ritual events centered on student performance were simultaneously markers of individual accomplishment, and celebrations of a political community and its literate, virtuous citizens. The second element to consider is the audience of the exams. The emphasis on pictograms highlights the point that the examinations were to educate children and adults in the audience. Further, they were reviewed by the Ministry of Education and archived, a practice that allowed communities to their commitment to education. Finally, I consider which images, words, and forms were used with an eye toward the gendered nature of the exams. The feminine script varied significantly from the normalized masculine questions emphasizing areas such as the constitution that were not applied to girls, who were more likely to be tested on poetry. Citizenship was, apparently, a masculine virtue.