A history of student advice literature and those claiming a duty to inform

What is it about?

This chapter is about the Hodegetik, which has been described as a genre of texts and courses that taught eighteenth- and nineteenth-century students in the German lands how to study and live. Looking more closely, there is much ambiguity regarding the actual prevalence and distinctness of the Hodegetik. Based on the self-proclaimed reasons of authors for writing their hodegetics as well as those of later researchers for studying the genre, both the existence and recognition of the Hodegetik appear to hinge upon a similar sentiment: a duty to prevent the vice of improper, uninformed studying. As I argue, the Hodegetik was repeatedly reinvented and re-acknowledged, perhaps even brought to exist by virtue of vice.

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Photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash

Photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Proper studying has been repeatedly tied to morality, finding future societal belonging and promises of happiness and success. Student advice helps us question who we consider to be responsible for reaching these goals and why. Whereas a neoliberal, individualistic system might lead to students informing themselves using social media, nineteenth-century German nationalists, GDR historians and educational scientists have claimed that this responsibility to inform fell on themselves.