# Dunce > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dunce > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dunce.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunce > Source revision: 1346638205 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Pejorative term}} {{Italics title}} {{pp-pc|small=yes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}} '''''Dunce''''' is a mild insult in English meaning "a person who is slow at learning or stupid". The etymology given by [Richard Stanyhurst](/source/Richard_Stanyhurst) is that the word is derived from the name of the Scottish [scholastic](/source/Scholasticism) [theologian](/source/theologian) and [philosopher](/source/philosopher) [John Duns Scotus](/source/John_Duns_Scotus).{{cite book |last=Jeaffreson |first=John Cordy |year=1870 |title=A Book About Clergy |publisher=[Hurst and Blackett](/source/Hurst_and_Blackett) |page=81 |isbn=9780598437297}} ==Dunce cap== {{Redirect|Dunce hat|the topological space|Dunce hat (topology)}} thumb|upright|A young boy wearing a dunce cap in class, from a staged photo {{circa}} 1906 alt=1828 engraving showing a boy standing on a stool wearing a dunce cap with the ears of an ass.|thumb|1828 engraving showing a boy standing on a stool wearing a dunce cap with the ears of a donkey A '''dunce cap''', also variously known as a '''dunce hat''', '''dunce's cap''' or '''dunce's hat''', is a [pointed hat](/source/pointed_hat), formerly used as an article of discipline in schools in Europe and the [United States](/source/United_States)—especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries—for children who were disruptive or were considered slow in learning.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Chico|first=Beverly|encyclopedia=Hats and Headwear around the World: A Cultural Encyclopaedia| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GdbYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA116 |title=The Dunce Cap |date=3 October 2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-063-8|pages=116}}{{cite news |last=Grundhauser |first=Eric |title=The Dunce Cap Wasn't Always So Stupid |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-dunce-cap-wasnt-always-so-stupid |access-date=1 September 2018 |work=Atlas Obscura |date=10 September 2015}} In the 19th century, it was seen by some as degrading: in 1831, children's book author Sidney Babcock wrote of the dunce cap as debasing and harsh, and in 1899, historian [Alice Morse Earle](/source/Alice_Morse_Earle) compared it to other forms of school discipline she saw as degrading and outdated. It became unpopular in the early 20th century.{{Cite journal |last=Weaver |first=Heather A. |date=2012 |title=Object lessons: a cultural genealogy of the dunce cap and the apple as visual tropes of American education |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00309230.2011.560856 |journal=Paedagogica Historica |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=215–241 |doi=10.1080/00309230.2011.560856 |s2cid=143950402 |issn=0030-9230 |via=EBSCOhost|url-access=subscription }} However, some North American schools still permitted caps as late as the 1950s. In modern [pedagogy](/source/pedagogy), punishments like dunce caps have fallen out of favor:{{cite journal |last=Ryback |first=David |year=2022 |title=Eastern Sources of Invitational Education |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234074320 |journal=Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice |page=79 |location=Atlanta, Georgia |volume=2 |number=2 |doi=10.26522/jitp.v2i2.3760 |s2cid=141095154|doi-access=free }} By 1927, an editorial in the ''Educational Research Bulletin'' stated: "The rod and the cap were not eminently successful ... we have our doubts about exclusion being the solution to the problem. ... High scholarship is not produced by students who have their curiosity stifled by their teachers. Curiosity must be stimulated if scholarship is desired, and sympathy is essential to this stimulation."{{Cite journal |author=E. J. A. |date=January 19, 1927 |title=Editorial Comment: Better Scholarship |journal=Educational Research Bulletin |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=32–33|jstor=1470231}} Quoted in {{cite journal |first=Heather A. |last=Weaver |year=2012 |title=Object lessons: a cultural genealogy of the dunce cap and the apple as visual tropes of American education |journal=Paedagogica Historica |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=215–241 |doi=10.1080/00309230.2011.560856}} The ''[Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary)'' (3rd edition) cites mid-16th century examples of the term ''dunce'' used to describe a follower of [Duns Scotus](/source/Duns_Scotus), a person engaged in ridiculous pedantry, or a person regarded as a "fool" or "dimwit".{{cite OED|dunce|access-date=1 March 2022}} A visual depiction of the hat was first shown in the 1727 edition of ''[The New England Primer](/source/The_New_England_Primer)'', and the term ''dunce's cap'' is recorded as early as 1791. The first use of the term in literature was in 1840, in Charles Dickens' ''[The Old Curiosity Shop](/source/The_Old_Curiosity_Shop)''. Scotus apparently believed that the hat would funnel knowledge into the brain, and in the centuries before his followers became unpopular, was a social signal of an intelligent person.[https://allthatsinteresting.com/dunce-cap How The Dunce Cap Went From A Sign Of High Intelligence To A Humiliating Classroom Punishment][https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/10/john-duns-scotus-and-the-dunce-cap-a-brief-history-of-a-pointy-hat-that-was-once-a-symbol-of-respected-scholars.html The Dunce Cap Wasn’t Always So Stupid] The dunce cap has also been connected with donkeys to portray the student as asinine. An engraving featured in an early 1900s textbook depicts a child sitting on a wooden donkey in an "eighteenth-century" classroom, wearing a dunce cap with donkey ears.{{Cite book |last=Duggan |first=Stephen |year=1916 |title=A student's textbook in the history of education |url=https://archive.org/details/studentstextbook00duggrich |publisher=D. Appleton |location=New York |pages=239 |oclc=881816892}} A similar cap made of paper and called a [capirote](/source/capirote) was prescribed for sinners and penitents during the [Spanish Inquisition](/source/Spanish_Inquisition).{{cite web |last1=Viar |first1=Lucas |title=Traditions of Holy Week in Spain: The Capirote |url=https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2021/03/traditions-of-holy-week-in-spain.html |website=Liturgical Arts Journal |access-date=11 February 2023 |date=29 March 2021}} The dunce cap was also used to humiliate intellectuals and officials during the [Cultural Revolution](/source/Cultural_Revolution) in China during the Maoist era.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-19807561|title=Rare Chinese Cultural Revolution photos on display|work=BBC }}{{Cite news|url= https://time.com/archive/6702664/beware-the-dunce-caps/ |title=Beware The Dunce Caps|work=Time|date=1989-05-29 }} ==See also== * [Capirote](/source/Capirote) - although with the same shape, the Capirote has no derogatory meaning * [Fool's cap](/source/Cap_and_bells) * [List of hat styles](/source/List_of_hat_styles) * [Sanbenito](/source/Sanbenito) * [Tin foil hat](/source/Tin_foil_hat) * [Donkeys in France](/source/Donkeys_in_France) ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Further reading== * {{cite web |url=http://www.spdrdng.com/posts/dunces-corner-banned-but-how-did-it-all-start |title=Dunce's corner banned – but how did it all start? What's the origin of the dunce cap? |publisher=Spd Rdng |date=January 2010 |access-date=8 December 2016}} ==External links== {{commons category|Dunce caps}} * [http://blogs.pjjk.net/omniana/2-etymology-of-dunce/ Etymology of "dunce"] Category:History of education Category:Slurs related to low intelligence Category:Pointed hats Category:Child abuse Category:Human rights abuses Category:Humiliation --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Dunce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunce) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunce?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.