Via Facilis

"These Very Grim Times Demand It."
That of course is the translation of the Latin you see in the title of this blog entry.

"It" (illam) being cagse's Latin program.

These are, as I said, grim times.
We know that.
People are losing their jobs left and right.
Through no fault of their own.
Through no incompetence of their own.

I am not going to write like some people do when they say, "How could people possibly miss these problems?"

That is absurd.
Hopeless.
Helpless.
Useless.

Instead, I say this:
How will we prepare our young people so that something like this economic debacle never happens again?
Or, since "Never" is the most hubristic of adverbs,
How will we prepare them so that they will be well equipped to handle something like this?
Because it probably will happen again.
What doesn't is the absence of readiness.

Answer:
Give them the opportunity to become highly analytical of all data that comes their way at any given time.

How to do that?

Give them the opportunity to learn as deeply as possible.
To master language.
To understand its pitfalls, its blindspots, its dead-ends.

In a way, this entire crisis has to do with our oversight.
In both senses of "oversight", good and bad.
Challenge our young people to not accept what they see before them.
To not fear that their responses may not be welcome.

To assess information critically and face the ramifications of that understanding.

This is what cagse's Latin program does at a very early level.

We invite our students, require them, to grapple with language.
And language is the key.

What about numbers?
Numbers, too, are but another language.
The analysis is the same.

And so -

Let Them Learn Latin.

cagse's Latin.

Or,

Linguam Latinam Cagsiensem Cognoscant.

- drg

I have been in something of a funk lately.
Experiencing a type of writer's block.
Blog Block.
When that happens, I like to do something a little different.
Doesn't mean I always do.
But sometimes I manage it.

That's what happened today.

My sister Peggy, whom I've spoken of before, sent me a copy of her documentary about the abusive, IRS-esque behavior of the California Coastal Commission.

Let it be known I have three sisters:
Peggy is the eldest
Ginny is the middle
Britt-Louise is the youngest.

(And then there's yours truly, not a sister, the only brother, and the youngest.)

We get a lot of our grit and pertinacity from our parents.
Recently, we've also been getting it from each other, as well.
Lucky us.
Truly.

We support what we do individually.

So I spend this blog speaking about my sister Peggy.
She and her husband Dan are involved in a gargantuan task.
David and Goliath.
Fighting an extra-governmental agency that regulates as it damn well pleases.
This agency uses the attorney general of the state of California as its personal bully boy.
This agency meets three times a month.
They give no guidelines whatsoever for how people are supposed to comply with their regulations - regulations which they themselves make.
And nobody has the power to gainsay them.
They, on the other hand, can go into anybody's property within five miles of the coast of California and dictate that nothing can be done.
If folks who have been so warned don't comply, they are subject to fines of up to $10,000 a day.

Let me reiterate.

$10,000 a day.
That's $3,650,000 a year.

But don't take my word for it.

Go see the website yourself.

www.sinsofcommission.com

These people make the IRS look tame.

I have one, and only one, question.

In the David vs. Goliath battle, who actually ended up winning?

- drg

You may have noticed that the blog's name has changed to "Latin, Literacy, Learning, Life - An Educationalyst's Journey".

You may have asked yourself,
"Why?"
Or maybe it struck you that something was different, but you couldn't put your finger on what that difference was. (Isn't it funny how we use concrete terms in abstract ways? I mean, can you really put your finger on a "difference"?)

Perhaps you observed that there were suddenly a lot of L's all up front, and thought, Cool, Alliteration!

But what the heck is an "Educationalyst"?

In any event, the change of title bears explanation, as Bill Landau, old friend and colleague, gently brought to my attention.

The first part of the title reflects the direction this blog has gone in.
It is about Latin.
It is about Literacy.
It is about Learning.
And it is about Life.

I may change it again to "Latin, Language, Learning, Life - An Educationalyst's Journey".
In any event, the title now is more representative of where I am than the previous "For Teachers of Classics and Lovers of Language".

Certainly more inclusive.

But what is an Educationalyst?
Why not "Educator"?
And why a journey?

The 'journey' part comes from how I view the living and progressing of my life.
I have always thought of it as a journey.
Maybe because a lot of what I have read speak of journeys.
JRR Tolkien, one of my all-time favorite authors, always talks about how
"The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began...."

Sheldon Kopp wrote one of the most amazing books I've ever read, entitled,
If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him!

As any reader of epic could tell you, the Road, the Journey, plays a major role.
Often, it is the occasion of the piece.
Think of Homer's Odysseus.
Or Vergil's Aeneas.
Or the far-travelling meandering brilliance that is the poetry of Ovid.

It is why I'm not really interested in "goals" per se.
I used to have to write about "goals" when I was teaching for others.
To me, they were but pit-stops on the way, rest areas, not particularly germane, and, indeed, physical and mental digressions from the real business at hand.
But that was not the correct answer.

Which is why I do what I do now.

Which is why I speak of myself as an Educationalyst.
And again, What Is An Educationalyst?

The term is one I came up with.
I am not an "Educator".
An "Educator" is someone who stays within the parameters of education as it currently goes about its business.
Who is satisfied with the system as it exists.
Who promulgates that system.

I do none of that.
Look at the word Educationalyst.

Educationalyst is a hybrid word:
education- this is the stem
-al- - Latin suffix, meaning "that which pertains to" a particular field
-lyst- - Greek suffix, from "lusis", cognate with English "loose" as in "let loose, unleash"
This suffix appears in words such as "catalyst", "analyst", etc.
It is not to be confused with "-ist", someone who does something or has a set of beliefs
causing them to act in a particular way.

So then, an Educationalyst is one who unleashes, lets loose powerful forces in things pertaining to the field of Education, not to further Education as it stands, but to create the environment in which Education goes further in different directions, ones not necessarily in concert with, and often in radical opposition to, the Educational Status Quo.

An Educationalyst, then, is an Agent of Change.
As the Furies unleash the incredibly creative power of their targets,
so do I.
My target is Education as it Stands.
My weapon is my Latin program.

It is not a weapon that harms.
It is a weapon that transforms.
That helps schools and their students unleash in themselves a power and understanding of language that will stand them well for their whole lives.

And so, that is what I am, among many things.

An Educationalyst.

- drg

Almost a year ago, I wrote the following post.

Given recent developments, documented in an article by Robert Winnett in the Telegraph of December 28, it seems germane to reissue that post of 1/22/08 once again.

A Silver Bullet? Latin, Modern Languages, and UK National Literacy

'[earlier this year] I commented on the sentiments expressed by the authors of The National Curriculum regarding modern languages.

This is That Post, Part II, Paragraph II of Modern Languages:

"Learning languages gives pupils opportunities to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and to express themselves with increasing confidence, independence and creativity. They explore the similarities and differences between other languages and English and learn how language can be manipulated and applied in different ways. The development of communication skills, together with understanding of the structure of language, lay the foundations for future study of other languages and support the development of literacy skills in a pupil's own language.

I'm a Latinist/Classicist/linguist.
I agree with the sentiments of this paragraph wholeheartedly.
The question is how to effectively achieve its purposes.

Here is my response:
Learn Latin.

"But Latin isn't a modern language."
"True."
"It's also dead."
"Also true."
"So?"
"So, word one: Frisp."
"Frisp? Never heard of it."'
"French
Romanian
Italian
Spanish
Portuguese

Which are all recognized languages of the European Union.

We also refer to them as Romance Languages."
"So?"
"So the structural basis of these languages is Latin.
Learn Latin, and you exponentially increase your capability of learning a Romance Language."

"Okay, but what about the other EU languages? Latin can't help with those, can it?"
"Actually, it can."
"How?"
"Many of the languages of the EU are inflected."
"Infected?"
"No, 'inflected'. A language that is inflected establishes meaning by changing the forms of its words, particularly nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs. The form of the words shows their function in a sentence."
"And?"
"And Latin is also inflected.
Learn Latin, and you exponentially increase your capability of learning a non-Romance language."

"But it's still not spoken, right?"
"Right."
"So how does that address the "listening, speaking, reading, and writing" part of the paragraph?"

"In terms of listening and speaking, it doesn't."
"But isn't that a problem?"
"Actually, it's a solution in conundrum's clothing."
"You'd better explain."
"Sure. When students learn a foreign language, it often happens that their proficiencies - speaking and listening - mask their deficiencies - reading and writing."
"So they can't read or write."
"And how would you rate the literacy of someone who can't read or write?"
"Low?"
"There is a technical term for it. A person who cannot read or write his own language is 'illiterate'."
"So much for national literacy."
"You said it."
"But how does Latin help deal with this problem?"
"Which problem?"
"The literacy problem."
"With which language?"
"Better start with foreign languages."
"Fair enough. You have to ask why students find reading and writing difficult in the first instance."
"Okay, consider it asked."
"They find reading and writing difficult because they have done very little of those exercises with their own language. To really read and to really write, you have to more than inherently know a language; you have to understand it. You have to understand how words relate, how they fit together to make sentences, ideas, concepts, etc. You have to have done time, so to speak, working with the nuts and bolts of language - its grammar, its syntax, its vocabulary. To write it out long-hand, type it, chant it, play with it. Become friends with it. Writing is the tactile recording of literacy. Reading allows you to see how others go through that experience. Literacy is, in effect, the expertise with which you deliberately handle your own language. So if you are going to master another language, you will have to spend some serious time with your own."

"But why Latin then?"
"Because when students learn Latin, they cannot hide behind a good ear and convincing accent. They must focus on the other two aspects: reading and writing. Latin forces them to account for everything. That, in turn, forces them to account for everything in English. Which reenforces what they are doing with language in Latin. It becomes a benevolent cycle, feeding on itself."

"So, you're saying that Latin is good because it addresses reading and writing almost exclusively?"
"Basically, yes."
"So it makes students hyper-aware of their choice of words, and why they are saying what they are saying?"
"Yes. It turns a potentially passive exercise into an active one. It requires that they develop critical tools of linguistic discernment."

"And the student who takes Latin will be ready to study a modern language in all aspects?"
"Yes. They will be happy to be speaking a foreign language, but it will not be so completely different in terms of vocabulary or structure. They will have already been there. They will be jazzed up about going forward in their study of language."

"And this same student will have done a tremendous amount with the building blocks of English, too? All that grammar and vocabulary?"
"Yes."

"But doesn't that take care of two major concerns of the government?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, there's the national literacy recommendations, and there's the modern language entitlement, too."

"Right."

"Wouldn't a serious study of Latin help students, particularly at Key Stage 2, make significant strides in both these areas?"

"Let me get this straight. You're saying that you think that the study of Latin at...?"
"Key Stage 2."
"What's that mean in American English?"
"Ages 7 to 11."
"Oh, right. Okay, so you're saying that you think that the study of Latin, particularly CAGSE's Latin, at Key Stage 2 will facilitate both a growing mastery of English and set the stage for the thorough learning of Modern Languages? As required by the UK government?"

"Yes."

"I couldn't have said it any better. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

drg'