Latin Secondary Education Costs and Benefits

Classical World, 2009

1998

This 1996 essay (published 1998) on how to improve Latin pedagogy is reproduced here with minor changes. Early modernity's humanist approaches to the teaching of Latin have much to offer us, and they can help us to counter the deficiencies of the philological approaches that have long been dominant in the field. The clue to the improvement can by found in an appendix to a 1956 book where the author, George Ganss, discusses the history of Latin teaching.

2017

This thesis considers the history of Latin pedagogy through the lens of the Comprehensible Input Theory of second language acquisition (SLA) developed by Stephen Krashen in the 1980s. It rejects Grammar-Translation pedagogy in favor of Living Latin pedagogy, which prioritizes language acquisition over language learning. Evidence of successful Comprehensible Input pedagogy found in many examples of Latin instruction from history shows the potential to adapt for the modern classroom those historical methods which were oriented towards the acquisition of the Latin language, and these have subsequently been shown to be supported by Krashen's work.

As a language lacking a state, native speakers, and business- or economically-oriented use, Latin is unique amongst the languages commonly taught in American schools. Its purposes are defined by the community of those who study, teach, and use Latin. There has been no scientific needs analysis ever performed to identify the motivations and goals of Latin teachers and students at the high school level. The current inquiry focuses on the topics that students of Latin in secondary schools in the United States identify as desirable targets of instruction. The purpose of assembling this list is to inform curricular and pedagogical decisions. Currently enrolled elementary and high school Latin students (n = 9,527) participated in the study. The findings showed that mythology, Latin vocabulary, and English vocabulary were the top three topics that students were strongly interested in studying.

2006

T he initial reaction of many secondary teachers to "Missing the Heart-Shaped Piece" by Rob Hardy was not favorable.1 It hit very close to the unspoken but often assumed hierarchy in education in classics: if you truly have talent, you become a professor; if you do not quite have what it takes to be a professor, you become a high school teacher; and if you do not have what it takes to teach even high school, but you still love Latin, you can at least manage middle school without doing much harm. This prejudice is not necessarily malicious or intentional, but it is ubiquitous. When I was acting as a consultant at a teacher in-service in Virginia in fall 2004, it was clear that some teachers doubted whether a middle school teacher could offer much to people who regularly taught AP Latin courses. Fortunately, I changed that view as the day progressed.

Teaching Classical Languages 9.1, 2018

The Standards for Classical Language Learning have great utility and value for those providing instruction and training to Latin teachers. As a faculty member who contributes to the UMass MAT program I have used the Standards as a significant structure within my pedagogical methods courses. The assignments within those courses ask students to examine and apply each Standard individually and, over time, build a curriculum that incorporates all their aspects. This paper describes some of those assignments and provides examples of the creative and pragmatic ways students have applied the Standards. The Standards provide a streamlined and structured field of academic goals that allow teachers in training to understand what will be expected of them in their teaching and that provide teachers a way to defend their Latin programs if such need arises. Faculty at the college level who have students interested in a career in Latin teaching would do well to inform their students of the Standards for Classical Language Learning so that they better understand the standards by which the effectiveness of their future teaching will be judged and assessed.

Journal of Classics Teaching, 2020

This article describes the ways in which four non-specialist Latin teachers are introducing Latin to their schools1. The interviews reported here took place in four secondary schools in London and the South-East in 2019. The interviews were informal and were held with the teachers while I was consultant on behalf of the charity Classics for All while training non-specialists to introduce Latin into their schools, where no classical subjects had been offered previously. Teachers use Latin to meet Ofsted targets for the uptake of the English Baccalaureate (henceforth EBacc2) and to provide a broad and ambitious curriculum for all students. Resources and subject knowledge provide intellectual challenge and also stimulation. In conclusion I recommend greater support from the Department for Education (DfE) working with subject organisations to develop a coherent strategy for introducing classical subjects in state-maintained schools in order to support DfE and Ofsted objectives.

Issues of Teaching Classics (Collection of Papers), 2018

The papers delivered at different seminars and conferences held in Georgia and abroad are presented in the book. The paper “Teaching Latin as an Elective Course at University Level in XXI c.” has been delivered at the International Conference: “Illinois Classical Conference” Organizer: University of Chicago (USA) Dates: 5-7 October, 2012, Chicago (USA).

2021

tcl.camws.org

A description of ideas and strategies that have worked among a group of educators in Illinois to foster communication between college and high school Latin programs. Represented are two large universities with active teacher training programs and two secondary schools with well-established Latin programs. Personal connections have been crucial to forming these relationships; regular contact and institutional support have been necessary to maintain them. The models described here can be replicated by other programs.