Reading to the soul: narrative imagery and moral education in early to mid-twentieth-century Queensland

This paper examines the way in which narratives, including stories and poetry, have been used in school texts relating to moral instruction. The paper will draw on texts used in Queensland classrooms in the early part of the twentieth century to demonstrate the ways in which description of sights and the experiences of the senses, and of exaggerated consequences, are used in narratives and poems with the intention of imparting moral lessons. The texts analysed include both those used in ‘Civics and Morals’ lessons and the Queensland School Readers, a long-running series of classroom readers designed to suit the unique needs of the state’s children.