“'By making the passive learning of language into an exercise of active awareness where every linguistic component is accounted for; by providing students with a scientific lexicon, a vocabulary, which enables them to become active understanders and practioners of language, not mere consumers.'”
That was the last comment from the post immediately previous to this. Let's rejoin our two conversants.
"But how does Latin do this?"
"Not just any Latin program; cagse's."
"Okay. How does cagse's Latin do this?"
"Well, you agree aboutt he power of word order in English?"
"You mean, that it establishes meaning, and that without it, there isn't any?"
"Yes."
"In that case, yes."
"But what does that imply?"
"What does what imply?"
"The power of word order in English?"
"Oh, that. I guess that each word plays a function in the sentence?"
"And so?"
"And so particularly functioning words have a particular place in that word order?"
"Yes."
"Okay, but let's get concrete here."
"Fine. Back to our friend, 'Cows eat grass.'"
"I've missed it so."
"The waiting is over. What is the function of 'cows'?"
"It's a noun acting as the subject."
"And 'grass'?"
"A noun, the direct object of 'eats'."
"And nouns and verbs are what in terms of grammar?"
"Hmm. A hint, please."
"Parts of Screech."
"Surely you mean 'Speech'?"
"Right you are. Parts of Speech."
"So are you saying that parts of speech have their own specific places in word order?"
"Yes. And so are you."
"Just to be clear, what are those parts of speech, anyway? Their official titles?"
"Good question. They are:
nouns
pronouns
verbs
adjectives
adverbs
conjunctions
prepositions
interjections
"Thanks. And each of these has its place in a sentence?"
"Yes. Back to 'Cows eat grass.' What can we say about it?"
"That we're bored of it already?"
"That, too, but don't hurt its feelings."
"Apologies."
"No worries. Sentences don't actually feel anything. If we talk about 'Cows eat grass' in terms of parts of speech, what is the word order?"
"Noun-verb-noun."
"The first noun acts as...?"
"Subject."
"And the last?"
"As object."
"Be more specific?"
"Oh. As direct object."
"So, 'noun-verb-noun' in terms of word function would then be..."
"Subject-verb-direct object."
"You've got it."
"But again, why cagse's Latin?"
"Because everything we do in Latin we do in English first; because we believe kids can and will approach and master grammar with excitement and interest if it is compellingly introduced."
"Why don't you just do English then?"
"Because we're not interested in English alone. We're interested in language and how language establishes meaning. English and Latin, when studied in relation to one another, afford students a close encounter with the inner workings of the mechanics of meaning."
"But why cagse?"
"Because cagse's Latin goes one step further."
"I'm waiting."
"Right. We require our students to engage in a careful, painstaking, in-depth accounting of those linguistic mechanics."
"In English?"
"Yes."
"And in Latin?"
"Yes."
"Both English and Latin?"
"Yes."
"That is different."
"Yes."