Via Facilis

My email was bombarded recently.
Friends, students, colleagues sent me a link to a
New York Times article on the resurgence of Latin in schools.

Fabulous.
Wonderful.
So glad other people decided to join the party.

I'm thrilled that the Times would deign to take an interest.
Twice within a year, too.

But some of this has to be addressed.
Actually, a lot.
And we'll start with this quote from the article.

"Ms. Abbott, a former Latin teacher, said that today’s Latin classes appeal to more students because they have evolved from 'dry grammar and tortuous translations' to livelier lessons that focus on culture, history and the daily life of the Romans. In addition, she said, Latin teachers and students have promoted the language outside the classroom through clubs, poetry competitions and mock chariot races."

"'dry grammar'"
Yes, grammar is dry.

BUT ONLY

if you teach it that way.

If you expect a thing to be boring,
guess what.

It Will Be.

Very simple.
Kids aren't stupid.
And when they know that a teacher feels a particular way about something, and it happens to fit their desired outcome (i.e., to junk it because they find it 'boring', - read, Challenging), they will be all over it.
Grammar is doomed to fail.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

That is why my favorite oxymoron is
An English Grammarian.

English teachers don't generally teach grammar anymore.
Oh, and look at that.

One of the things that employers have the biggest problem with is that their folks
don't know how to write.

The same is true, of course, at the university level, where many tests have become multiple choice.

Oh, but, I know, let's just make sure our kids are having FUN in school.
That's really all that matters.
Having Fun.

I mean, who cares whether or not they actually LEARN anything?

Good Idea.

As teachers, why don't we go down to our students' level instead of bringing them up to ours?

Why Didn't I Think Of That?

Enough of the ranting.

Here's the deal.

The linguistic study of Latin helps people identify and establish the underpinnings of language. It is a scientific approach to the acquisition of language.

All the other stuff is fun.
No question.
I myself like a chariot race first thing in the morning to really get me going .
Though I'd rather skip the dormice for breakfast.
Or dinner.

What is particularly critical about the study of Latin is that it helps young people harness their minds. (Take a look at my previous blog post Altius Citius Fortius.)

All this other stuff is window dressing
It's okay.
For window dressing.

Language is part and parcel of "culture" and "history".
Anybody who doesn't get that is going to be in trouble, as many of the major wars that have been fought in Europe are matters of Language.

Just look at Adolf Hitler and his reclamation of Austria, the Sudetenland, Poland, etc., all because of his "concern" about the persecution of the ethnic Germans in those lands.
Oh, and does the word "holocaust" mean anything?

Language, let's get real here, is pivotal.

As George Santayana said in A Life of Reason,
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

You cannot splice culture and history away from language.
Language is the nervous system of a people.
It is what communication is based on.
People don't say
"You're the same culture as me"

or

"You've got the same history as me"

No, they say,

"We speak the same language."

Language.

It is the key.

And Latin, when it's taught effectively, can turn that key into a Master.

drg

I was going to continue responding to that New York Times article on the resurgence of Latin from last week. Then an old student of mine read the blog post right before this one. His/her assessment (all tongue in cheek/sarcastic) was so right on, so funny, so much better than anything I could say - this is a student, you see, someone in the system, as opposed to yours truly, who writes, shall we say, against the system - that I reproduce it here verbatim.

And no, none of this is mine.

Except the quotation marks, the bold, and one bracketed pointer.

The rest is hers/his.

And here it is:

"Ha. In a Latin LANGUAGE class, culture and history are the only things that matter, not to mention the spells in Harry Potter. Who are these people actually teaching Latin grammar and vocabulary? Someone should give them a good talking to....

And to use that lovely metaphor of yours [see the post just before this one], window dressing is okay, but without the window of language to put it on, it is oh so much more enticing."

Yes, it does.
True, lots of folks shy away from it.
Not all.
But most.

Too bad.
Because it is fascinating.

"What do you mean?"
"Exactly."
"Exactly what?"
"That, too."
"Come on...."
"Okay. Grammar allows you to understand the relationship between words. It allows you to say what you say, and mean what you say, and say what you mean, and mean what you mean."
"It does?"
"We've been through this before, you know."
"Have we?"
"before this through been know you we've."
"What? I don't understand."
"Why not? Everything I just said was an English word."
"It was?"
"Straight damn."
"Straight what? don't you mean, 'Damn straight'?"
"Why would I mean that?"
"Because 'straight damn' doesn't mean anything."
"Why not?"
"Because it's backwards."
"How do you know it's backwards?"
"Because 'Damn Straight' Means something."
"So, can I say 'a nice day is it I think'?"
"You can, but it makes more sense if you say 'I think it's a nice day.'"
"Oh, so word order means something in English?"
"It means everything!"
"Guess what, buddy."
"What?"
"Word order in English is grammar."
"It is?"
"Yeah. Still think grammar is boring?"
"But it makes you think about every little thing!"
"Oh. So thinking about every little thing is a problem?"
"I didn't say that. It just should be easier."
"Easier? Oh, you don't want to think too hard? Or is being thoughtful problematic?"
"I didn't say that."
"Yeah, you did. You just want to speak without thinking, is that it?"
"Why do I have to know how sentences make sense?"
"Who said anything about sentences?"
"You did."
"No, I didn't. But let's get one thing clear: Every time you have a conversation with anybody, you are having a grammatical exchange."
"I am?"
"How do you know what someone is saying?"
"I speak the language."
"And a language is a bunch of patterns."
"Yes."
"A bunch of recognizable patterns."
"yes."
"And the patterns are predictable."
"Yes."
"That's grammar, baby."
"But why do I have to be analytical about something I already know?"
"Ever see a really gifted athlete?"
"Sure."
"Did every gifted athlete you ever met always excel and make it to the very top?"
"No. Not unless they worked at it."
"Right. And why would they do that?"
"Because they knew that having the talent was only part of the process."
"Exactly. Now think about that in terms of language."
"Ohhhhh. I see. I think."
"For you good."

Back to that New York Times article on resurgence of Latin in schools.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm thrilled that they're actually giving Latin its due long over due (sort of).
It's just that there needs to be some readjustment in the paint-job.
And Latin has to be careful about being damned with faint praise.

The article said, among other things,
"Latin has quietly flourished in many high-performing suburbs, like New Rochelle..." [my emphases]

Of course it has. Any school that's "high-performing" would and will do well with any subject at all, regardless of its "dead" nature (I might add here that history is likewise "dead" but people never seem to question the relevance of it - and well they should not; also that students of biology often dissect "dead" things, and again, nobody questions why - and, again, they should not).

The point to make about Latin is that if it is taught right, it's not simply the "high-performing suburbs" that will benefit - it's all schools, particularly and especially and explicitly the ones performing less well. Or rather, that the ones performing less well will, by virtue of their having a real robust Latin program, become "high-performing". Give students the opportunity to work with Latin, syntax, grammar, etc., and the problems they have in English will disappear. Why? Because to really understand Latin, you must understand the grammatical and syntactical underpinnings. Which means you have to do the same in English.

Which means you are forced to grapple with, and make sense of, the nuts and bolts of language.

This is what is so critical about studying Latin.
This is what Latin, unlike any other language, native, foreign, living, dead
has to offer.

Now the trick is to choose the right program.

Because All Latin Program Are NOT Created Equal.

drg

Ever more frequently I find myself
at my sister's and brother in law's house on fire island.
The house is on the dunes on the ocean, which right now is boiling and moiling
with a steady, concentrated, distinterested anger.
I come here because it is peaceful -
peace for my mind foremost.
I read, I write, I play boggle with my sister.
My brother-in-law is a guitar man, a thinking man, who loves
playing his music.
By trade, he's a carpenter.
Even as I sit here, writing away, he's at work on the house.
He is busy strengthening the windows and deck facing the relentless ocean, the side bearing the brunt of weather. Winter is coming, its storms along with it.
His work is a pain-staking process.
Measuring, cutting, planing, smoothing, painting, attaching
- all to shore up the house, well, actually, more than that -
To make it stronger.
Not just for it to survive,
but for it to THRIVE.
He works basically alone.
My sister provides moral support, sustenance, the occasional sandwich -
and of course hours on the phone to make sure he has the tools and supplies he requires -
To his one man show.
He could let others do this job of his.
But he knows that nobody is better qualified,
and nobody is more invested.
And so he works
Steadily,
Persistently,
Patiently.

His work is an analogue of my own in CAGSE.
Our tools are different,
But our purposes are the same.
To make the house stronger.
To help it become all it can be.
I want our students to do the same with their minds.
To learn how to make themselves stronger.
How to harness their own power.
To use what they were born with to their utmost.
So we pay attention to detail, never losing sight of how that detail, that part, fits into, and in with, the whole.
Only thus does the whole become greater than the sum of its parts.
My brother-in-law understands that well.

It is a lesson to build on.
And upon.

drg