I just returned today from the annual American Philological Association meeting down in Philadelphia.
I haven't been to one of those meetings in a long time.
Twelve years, probably.
I saw my old UPenn profs - they probably don't like being called 'old'.
But they are definitely wise:
Ralph Rosen.
Joe Farrell.
Bridget Murnaghan.
The inimitable, incomparable Jim O'Donnell.
I had been hesitant, fearing to go.
To no avail.
I did, in fact, go.
And found that those fears were all in vain.
I also got to see old "classmates", fellow strugglers now making good for themselves, including Eric Casey (now of Sweet Briar College) and Nigel Nicholson (Reed College).
I've been, as some know, teaching at every level from third graders through graduate students.
And recently, the last two years, I have heavily invested/been investing/involved in my own company, both in the US and in the UK.
CAGSE, which gets Latin into schools - state schools, public schools - at an early age.
Not just into schools -
Into their curricula.
Into the life blood of the public/state schools' academic life.
My method of teaching is different from most.
I do not shy away from teaching the tough stuff.
The grammar, the syntax, the vocabulary.
Everything my teachers in the UK - that is, the teachers who teach for CAGSE - do, they do in English first.
We treat English as a case/inflected language.
We use English as a vehicle for Latin;
Then, we turn around, and use Latin as a vehicle for English.
Ultimately, it is about language acquisition.
Latin is key in that acquisition.
Because these are all keys to reading, writing, thinking effectively.
But it has to be age appropriate.
Games, singing, manipulatives are all part of the delivery mechanism.
Story-telling - a major piece.
How to breathe life into the material.
And pervading all - the credo that students are capable of whatever they aspire to.
And we foster those aspirations.
CAGSE will be coming to America in the Fall of this coming academic year.
Probably in New Orleans, but discussions are on-going.
So why did I go to the APA?
Not for the papers.
Not to see the meat market of candidates going around to various and sundry interviews.
To reconnect. As I did.
But also, to deliver a message.
To be the message.
(But people kill messengers.
Worth the risk.)
And what message is that?
This.
All around us, the world is reeling in economic mayhem.
People are looking to put their money, what little they have available, into real things.
Into The Real.
And what is The Real?
Real skills.
Understanding the nuts and bolts of language.
The beauty of it.
The art of it.
The drudgery of it.
Classics is one of the few fields that is still in The Real.
We have to teach basics.
Our students have to learn grammar, the blood and guts of language.
They have to learn paradigms and morphology - the bones of language.
And they have to be able to put it all together and see how it works in context - syntax.
And what is syntax? The nervous system of language.
People who go through a rigorous Latin/Greek study learn, above all, how to think.
Deeply.
Critically.
Flexibly.
We do this in our field better than anyone does in theirs.
My favorite oxymoron?
An English Grammarian.
Nobody ever would even attempt to make the same joke with Classics.
So what then am I saying here?
I urge folks in professional organizations to make a major commitment - not lip service, not just the award here or there to the occasional good teacher of the subject - to the study of Classics from the ground up.
The Ground Up.
Ground Zero.
And what is Ground Zero?
Primary Schooling.
A concerted, coordinated effort.
An urging of graduate students to go into teaching at any and all levels.
Especially the lower levels.
Lower does not mean "worse" or "less-qualified".
We need to think of this rather as getting in at the groundfloor.
We in Classics have always been able to see the value of the double accusative:
We teach the subject.
We teach the students.
And sometimes, when everything goes right, we teach the one to the other.
This needs to come not just from the ACL.
Not just from the JCL.
But from the APA.
Digital Portals are nice.
But what are we supposed to do, virtually walk through them?
Who besides Classicists benefit from such a thing?
But:
Who would benefit from studying Latin and Greek, taught well, from the earliest age?
Everyone.
Anyone.
So what?
Here's so what:
Because Classics has always done the gritty work, always required its students to master the basics, Classics is in the position to become The Means by which education in this country and in the world, maybe, can change for the better.
We stick to our guns.
Our students can learn real skills: reading, writing, thinking.
Whether they remain in the field or not, those skills will always be with them.
It is our Secret Weapon.
If we dare to use it.
If we dare to say, This is What We Are About.
And Classics will cease being a marginalized field.
Cease to be that living exemplar/epitome of "Ivory Tower".
Cease to be just for "The Best and Brightest" - whoever they may be.
Universities will run in the other direction before they even think of cutting a department.
We will not just become relevant.
We will define Relevance.
But directed leadership is absolutely necessary.
And then - watch how the money rolls in.
-drg