tag:www.viafacilis.com,2010://1 2010-01-31T20:16:02Z Latin, Literacy, Learning, Life - An Educationalyst's Journey Movable Type 3.33 tag:www.viafacilis.com,2010://1.101 2010-01-31T19:54:18Z 2010-01-31T20:16:02Z

An Open Later to Parents re: After School Latin at All Saints Academy, Newport, RI Over the last twenty-four years, I have been teaching Latin and Greek to students of every level from fourth grade through graduate school. Three years...

Dr. Richard Gilder III An Open Later to Parents re: After School Latin at All Saints Academy, Newport, RI Over the last twenty-four years, I have been teaching Latin and Greek to students of every level from fourth grade through graduate school. Three years ago, I founded CAGSE, a company which has been getting Latin into schools, and teaching it, in the UK. Five schools in the London area use our program to help their students meet government standard literacy requirements. To get a better idea of what CAGSE does, I encourage you to explore our website at www.cagse.com. Most recently, I decided to bring this program to schools in the United States, with Newport, RI and the surrounding area as the focal point. I’ve written my own text books, and developed my own pedagogical tools whereby students of any age and perceived capability can readily learn Latin. When students work with CAGSE’s Latin, they are asked to grapple with the building blocks of Indo-European. In doing this, they begin constructing a door through which they can readily access English as well. Learning Latin also puts students in a good position to pick up any European language: the Romance languages as well as the rest, which, like Latin, are inflected: word endings play a significant role in establishing the syntax, and therefore the meaning, of a sentence. Working with the basics, in turn, helps students develop their language skill to the point where any language they look at, whether or not it is Indo-European, is accessible. I would like to meet with you regarding the offer of my Latin course to your children in an after-school program. Not because six out of every ten words in the English language are Latinate, or that your students’ SSAT scores will go up. We go deeper than that. CAGSE’s Latin program has students working with every part of every word to determine what role each has in the formation of linguistic meaning. The fact of the matter is that your students’ linguistic competence, not merely their dictionary knowledge, will both deepen and broaden as they work with the nuts and bolts of a language which is integral in the development of their own. I look forward to meeting with you. Very Sincerely Yours, Dr. Richard Gilder III CAGSE (845) 309 5808 (cell) Six Week Program $180 per student Each class as a group is unique. What we cover will vary. We go as fast as the class goes. There is no constraint upon the students one way or the other. A Sample Syllabus Week 1 – Learn Latin Greetings and numbers I-X Who were the Romans? When were the Romans? What would have happened if Remus had prevailed? Week 2 – Revisit Week 1 New Material Build Up English Parts of Speech – Focus on Noun Noun in English vs. Noun in Latin English Building Blocks manipulatives Latin Building Blocks Week 3 – Revisit Weeks 1-2 Build Up English Parts of Speech Work with the Verb in Latin and in English English Building Blocks Latin Building Blocks Week 4 – Revisit Weeks 1-3 Build Up English Parts of Speech Noun and Verb together in Latin and English How does the English sentence establish meaning? How does Latin establish meaning? Week 5 - Revisit Weeks 1-4 Build Up English Parts of Speech Prepositions in English Prepositions in Latin Week 6 – Revisit Weeks 1-5 tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.100 2009-12-02T05:56:01Z 2009-12-02T06:50:43Z

Teachers and schools. My oh my, do they love to brag. About that "Ahah" Moment. You know that moment. When a student suddenly sits bolt upright in his chair and says, "Oh my goodness. (Or, rather, since it is Y2K...

Dr. Richard Gilder III Teachers and schools. My oh my, do they love to brag. About that "Ahah" Moment. You know that moment. When a student suddenly sits bolt upright in his chair and says, "Oh my goodness. (Or, rather, since it is Y2K plus, OMG!) That's so cool!" Teachers live for The Moment. They speak about it like it's something almost sacred. holy. holy of holies. righteous justification for all the teacher's hard work. But here's the catch - Students are not dumb. Even the ones who are tagged that way. They know what their teachers are looking for. Particularly in terms of rewarded behavior. Do kids, who long to belong, who at the same time entertain the diametrically opposite yearning to shine, and be in the spotlight all by themselves, lack awareness regarding adults, teachers, etc., the Guardians of those Pearly Gates of Acceptance? No. They know their keepers extremely well. They are more apt to say what adults want to hear from them. Adults are themselves needy, young teachers in particular. We are human, after all. We like to know we're doing our job right. To hear students say "Ahah" is the pedagogical equivalent of the Holy Grail. You can hear teachers all over the world, particularly the new ones, hugging themselves in celebration, whispering congratulations to themselves. We have arrived. Our students have had an "Ahah" Moment. Here's the hard part. When you've taught long enough, you realize that there are "Ahah" moments and "ahah" Moments. False "ahahs" happen all the time. Teachers can be very much like Pavlov's Dog when it comes to The Moment. When they hear those two long awaited syllables, even the experienced ones, they feel like they've been touched by the Gods of Pedagogy. Their prayers have been answered. Their vocational choice rewarded. Not so fast, people. Does this mean, then, that the Ahah moment doesn't exist? No. It exists. But it's more likely to happen a little bit at a time, not suddenly burst into being like some Big Bang. And when the ahah moment does occur, it can be very humbling for the student. In fact, the most effective moments of "ahah" are not "ahah" moments. They are Moments of "Duh". A "Duh" moment - when the student finally sees what has been in front of him the whole time. It is a truly self-realized and self-actualized moment in time. It is brought about not by the teacher, but by the student himself. The teacher supplies the environment, yes. But the student brings the tools to exploit that environment with him. Here's an example of a "duh" moment. A few years ago, I gave my 7th graders a quiz. I decided I would not erase the board. On the board were the answers to the very quiz those kids were taking. The students took no notice of what was on the board. They were intent upon the quiz itself. They did not look around, up, to the sides, anywhere. Finally, they handed in their quizzes. I said to them, "Okay, folks, now look at the board." They did so. Realization creeped up on them. Tapped them on the shoulder. Shook them roughly. At last, it happened. Dawn. They were floored when they realized that what they were looking at were the answers to the quiz they had just completed. So close they could touch them. One of the students said to me, "You kept the answers right there all along. That's so unfair!" All I did was direct their attention to what had been there from the beginning. Before I had even handed out the quiz. Yes, I provided the thing for them to see. But I did neither the not seeing nor the seeing for them. They had to do both for themselves. Only in doing the one was the other so effective. And so they felt humbled and somewhat silly, because the answers were there all the time. They just did not see them. Until they saw them. That is a "Duh" moment. Of all Learning Moments, the most effective. An Epiphany of Greater Luminosity. tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.99 2009-11-29T21:03:03Z 2009-12-02T06:16:37Z

"Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" That's the name of a popular new game show. The title actually is predicated on a misconception. "Smarter" really doesn't mean "Possessed of Deeper Understanding". What then does it mean? It means, in...

Dr. Richard Gilder III "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" That's the name of a popular new game show. The title actually is predicated on a misconception. "Smarter" really doesn't mean "Possessed of Deeper Understanding". What then does it mean? It means, in this context anyway, "More knowledgeable". Herein lies the flaw. Our society is severely hampered now because we put a premium on Knowledge at the expense of Understanding. As such, Math and Science have become key. The Liberal Arts are in peril. Why study History? Why study English? Why study Language? China and the Far East are going to take over: in every aspect, in every respect, in every suspect. The West's Response: We better get cracking on our Science and Math then! Wait a second. The Far East is ahead of us in many ways. Including language. The Chinese get that better than we - They Make everyone learn Chinese, Make them speak Their language, Make it Illegal to Speak Anything BUT their Language. Including an understanding of History. Their History is paramount. Ours is but a drop in the bucket in comparison. Of Life. Of Philosophy. Taoism. Buddhism. Hinduism. And of never putting one discipline ahead of another. To the exclusion of another. They understand that there is a oneness about things. That all disciplines are different facets of a oneness. And that is where we in the West fail miserably. We believe that Knowledge is Key. In the Far East, where they believe the World was Created, they already are ahead of us. Because they're behind us. They get what we don't. Why? Because we live in a society wherein Knowledge is mistaken for Understanding. It's not just that the two are equated. The One apparently is the Other. The difficulty, however, is this: Knowledge is one thing. Understanding is something else. We in the West believe that some types of Knowledge are MORE IMPORTANT than others. That some types of Understanding are More Important than others. We are in serious trouble. We put ourselves in that predicament. We have no one but ourselves to blame (after all, we have become experts in the Blame Game). Here is where Education in the West Fails Miserably. We do not see what real education is Not: It is not a matter of knowing all the answers. What then is Real Education a matter of? Understanding the Question. tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.98 2009-11-09T18:35:38Z 2009-11-30T20:39:35Z

It is a sad commentary on our nation's inability to grapple seriously with the severe problems of our educational system when a highly successful department in a state university - Classics at UMD College Park - faces elimination because of...

Dr. Richard Gilder III It is a sad commentary on our nation's inability to grapple seriously with the severe problems of our educational system when a highly successful department in a state university - Classics at UMD College Park - faces elimination because of supposed budgetary difficulties and shortfalls - which they had nothing to do with. It is deplorable that Classics at UMD has to suffer the consequences for a not-quite-competent fundraising effort on the part of institutional Advancement. Classics folks are Classicists, not fundraisers - yet they are the ones who will bear the "rewards" of the failures of those who have not done the job they were hired expressly to do. Meanwhile, Dean Harris, in his concerns over a future fiscal shortfall, seems to believe that these concerns are realities, that the future problems will not simply occur, but already have. He bears a striking similarity in his fiduciary clairvoyance to Apollo's Oracle at Delphi. The difference: even that divine eye had the prudence to couch its responses in ambiguous language. As for the condition of those human beings who were so sure of the rightness of their determinations/calculations, the Ancients had a damning term: "hubris". Such humans set themselves up for a fall. The Dean - the holder of a fleeting title, an administrator enamored of the power bestowed upon him by virtue of his office - forgets that he has many predecessors, and that those predecessors have many successors. I urge the Dean to show genuine foresight, to not close or force to become a dependant a department as successful in its efforts to turn out superior k-12 teachers for primary and secondary education as is UMD Classics. Is the Dean showing fiscal responsibility? Perhaps (Pennywise, pound foolish). Are his actions wise? In keeping with the best principles of Liberal Arts? In aid of the flagging education system? No. The Dean wants to see Classics at UMD survive. Ironic, since he is penalizing the department for the very thing that makes it superior. Take a step back, Dean Harris. Lay the blame at the doorstep of those truly responsible; and put your money where your mouth is. drg tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.97 2009-11-04T21:15:18Z 2009-11-30T20:20:34Z

Once again, a disaster looms. Once again, it is brought on by a well-meaning, befuddled, unwitting Administrator. Once again, severe damage will be the outcome. The Dean of Arts and Humanities at University of Maryland, College Park can no longer...

Dr. Richard Gilder III Once again, a disaster looms. Once again, it is brought on by a well-meaning, befuddled, unwitting Administrator. Once again, severe damage will be the outcome. The Dean of Arts and Humanities at University of Maryland, College Park can no longer support the Classics Department as a separate and distinct entity. He has instructed them to find a home in a bigger department, such as English. Why? Because the Classics department at UMd does not offer ph.d.s. Wait! Does that mean that the department is a drain on the University? That it doesn't pull its weight? No. Actually, the Classics department does more than its share. Every one of the professors teaches at least one four hour lower language class per week. None of the professors who are advisors are given course release time. UMd is the only public institution in Maryland that offers coursework in Latin and Greek for students aspiring to be grade school and high school teachers. Newsflash here: There's a Dearth of Latin Teachers; this department in the work they do addresses that serious deficiency in our school system. Yes, students can earn an MA there. Yes, the professors know how to write articles and books. Some of them have even appeared on the History Channel. Yet it is a department that is deeply committed to pedagogy - to having its students learn how to most effectively teach, not simply spew facts to show how smart they are. UMd is a shining example of what an ideal university Classics department could look like. This is not a department with Publish or Perish tunnel-vision; it is one which truly serves its students in the best of all possible ways. It is why I am writing about them. This is one of the few departments in the country that is taking head on the serious issues facing the youngest students in our country by preparing teachers for their time in grade school. And what happens? They are being penalized. Why? Because they are meeting a need. And the irony here? The Dean of Arts and Humanities? He wants to see Classics survive at UMd. Bravo for him. Yeah. Right. Really. tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.96 2009-09-17T07:07:48Z 2009-11-30T20:21:04Z

God help us all. Harvard has come up with its first new ph.d. program in something like eighty years. School Administration. To save the schools, or give them a jump start toward innovativeness. Oh, this is rich. Absolutely brilliant. Not....

Dr. Richard Gilder III God help us all. Harvard has come up with its first new ph.d. program in something like eighty years. School Administration. To save the schools, or give them a jump start toward innovativeness. Oh, this is rich. Absolutely brilliant. Not. It's funny because everybody thinks that Admnistrators are the key to successful and meaningful revamping of our schools. Just ask the Administrators - they couldn't agree more. But keep in mind as well that it is Administrators who have helped to get us into this mess. It is Administrators who make the decisions. Like getting rid of language study. Like calling the acquisition of foundational linguistics the appalling title of "Language Arts". Like setting standards which are so low, they play handball against the curb. Like making meetings a priority. Like allowing ETS ridiculous power through the proliferation of SATs which basically show nothing. Administrators are the ones who end up hampering, hamstringing, and crippling the excellent teachers. Who make those excellent teachers dry up like a soft contact lens that's been left out of its container. Teachers get sapped. They lose heart. Or, worse, they end up complying with the ridiculous demands of Administrators who think that schools are a "business" or should be "productive" or "efficient" without understanding what they really mean by such buzz words. Yet it is not the Administrators who make the difference. Not that they don't make decisions that influence situations with long reaching effects. Take Bob Watson. He was the Yankees general manager who hired this old has-been who never seemed to do anything right. His name? Joe Torre. And Joe Torre became a hell of a Manager for the Yankees. But. It is the excellent teachers that make things happen in the classroom. It is the excellent teachers who get their students to engage their minds, develop critical thinking, and a real awareness of how they learn. It is excellent teachers who are the pioneers. Schools are not and should not be the playground for CEO wannabes. Look at where such folks got the world economy over the last year. Their administration, their chief executive officers, made serious blunders that screwed the world. And what are these fine fettled Executive Officer types? They are Administrators. So I say to you, Harvard - Are you out of your mind? Maybe I am. After all, I'm the one addressing an Institution and expecting an answer. I actually do have one question. Who remembers Bob Watson? Nobody. He did his job, and was duly forgotten. As is fitting. drg tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.95 2009-09-14T03:34:47Z 2009-11-30T20:21:37Z

I was having dinner at this restaurant down the street last night. Having a drink at the bar. A saturday night sort of deal. I started speaking to these people about...Latin. What a surprise. I know, I thought that, too....

Dr. Richard Gilder III I was having dinner at this restaurant down the street last night. Having a drink at the bar. A saturday night sort of deal. I started speaking to these people about...Latin. What a surprise. I know, I thought that, too. The guy says to me, "Why Latin?" And I say to him, well, ever see that comic strip "Cathy"? One time she's saying hello to her dog. And her dog thinks to itself, "I love you anyway, even if you have a one dimensional nose." That's what someone who studies Latin CAGSE's way gets for themselves. A dog's nose? Something that. It is the linguistic equivalent. When you take Latin and truly study it inside out, outside in, you are developing your linguistic sensibility, sensitivity. You can sense things in English that before were just, well, words on a page. Suddenly, instead of looking at just a two dimensional piece of paper on which are written two dimensional letters making up words, the words begin to speak in a way you never heard them before. They leap off the page. Each word has a story to tell. Meaning to establish. Do you get this just from studying English? No. Most folks who study and teach English are enamored of ideas, plots, themes, symbols. They miss the fundamental lesson that Latin offers: you want to understand those ideas, plots, themes, symbols, you had best understand the bare bones, the nuts and bolts, the manner in which meaning is established. Then, and only then, will the ideas, plots, themes, symbols have real meaning. Until then, it's just a breath of hot air. Or two. tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.94 2009-08-24T05:12:32Z 2009-11-30T20:22:08Z

O come let us Learn IT, Oh Come let us Learn IT, OH COME LET US LEARN ITTTTTT Laaaa aaaa tin! My Latin class for adults continues tomorrow evening in Newport, RI. We'll be doing English Building Blocks for verbs...

Dr. Richard Gilder III O come let us Learn IT, Oh Come let us Learn IT, OH COME LET US LEARN ITTTTTT Laaaa aaaa tin! My Latin class for adults continues tomorrow evening in Newport, RI. We'll be doing English Building Blocks for verbs and their Latin counterparts. No, not the whole verb. Just the Present Indicative Active. We'll take language apart and see how it ticks. It'll be a blast. Come ON OVER! -drg tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.93 2009-08-11T01:06:05Z 2009-11-30T20:23:21Z

What a difference a day makes. I should write a song. Nah, too late. Somebody already did. Anyway - I'll be offering that Latin for Adults class sooner than expected. $10 a class. I was looking at houses, and my...

Dr. Richard Gilder III What a difference a day makes. I should write a song. Nah, too late. Somebody already did. Anyway - I'll be offering that Latin for Adults class sooner than expected. $10 a class. I was looking at houses, and my realtor type told me she would be thrilled to learn Latin. She graduated from college years ago, hasn't done any academic thinking since. A family will do that to you. Brings out the animal in all of us - nurture, protect, etc. An animalistic preservation of species mentality. But she's ready to learn something new. And Latin is it. And, even better - She's getting a whole bunch of friends to join. Or several. Rah. What's better than advertising? A realtor to spread the word. More effective than the Apostles. So - Come on down! Or over. You get to work with the nuts and bolts of language. Building Blocks made real. You think you can't do languages? Bosh. You think you were bad at Latin? No worries. That was then. This is now. Come one, come all. Learn Latin - it is for everybody, and that's how I teach it. You'll have a blast. And, as critically, so will I. -drg tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.92 2009-08-09T22:30:12Z 2009-11-30T20:23:59Z

So here I am, getting CAGSE's Latin program into schools in the US. Only, it ain't happening. Kids think its better to have a live language, a modern language. Even one that's swank, like, say NAIS' flavor of the month...

Dr. Richard Gilder III So here I am, getting CAGSE's Latin program into schools in the US. Only, it ain't happening. Kids think its better to have a live language, a modern language. Even one that's swank, like, say NAIS' flavor of the month Mandarin Chinese. The parents don't know better. So here's what I have to say to the parents. Call me. 845 309 5808. Come to a class. We'll do some Latin together. Then you can make an informed decision about how critical Latin could and will be in your son's or daughter's education. It ain't just about feelings. Oh, I love that book. Yeah, but why? Well, because it's cool. No, there has to be something. You have to be able to articulate what that something is. English doesn't necessarily accomplish that for you. Latin will. And here's the fun part. It is immediately applicable to everything you do. I kid you not. drg tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.91 2009-06-25T23:47:07Z 2009-11-30T20:24:45Z

Here's the situation. Your kid has the opportunity of taking one of the following languages: French, Spanish, German, Latin, Mandarin Which one is best? Hmmm, you think. Well, if we go by what everybody else thinks, the answer is obvious....

Dr. Richard Gilder III Caveant Parentes Let The Parents Beware]]> tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.90 2009-06-16T19:55:47Z 2009-11-30T20:25:18Z

Schools which drop Latin completely. Schools which think that modern language learning is better. Schools which believe that Mandarin Chinese is the Wave of the Future. These schools, the administrators who run them, and the the trustees/regent types who tacitly...

Dr. Richard Gilder III Schools which drop Latin completely. Schools which think that modern language learning is better. Schools which believe that Mandarin Chinese is the Wave of the Future. These schools, the administrators who run them, and the the trustees/regent types who tacitly or openly condone such actions and the belief systems whence they spring, are ruining their own academic integrity. Worse, they are setting their students up for failure. Failure on every level. How? By stripping students of the opportunity to establish foundational linguistic understanding, one which Latin, and Latin alone, achieves for the speaker of English. How did this happen? In next few posts, I will be addressing these issues. I'll begin with where and how Latin Lost Its Way. Let's Face It. Latin has been taught in - to put it mildly - an inaccessible manner. Not just for years. For centuries. Poor pedagogy has fed the bondfire of the ever more widely-held belief: "only the most academically advanced/gifted/brightest students have a prayer of ever learning Latin." The Message: "If you aren't gifted, you aren't good enough." Students' translation: "You can only learn Latin if you're super smart" ergo, "I'm not taking Latin, so I must not be smart." ergo "I must be stupid." Factor into this the shift in the American attitude about learning languages to a type of linguistic utilitarianism - "Learn a Language That You'll Use, Like Spanish" "Spanish is preferable to French, but French is better than nothing" "Let's All Learn Mandarin Chinese" (The Latest So-Called "Language of the Future", replacing Arabic, which replaced Spanish, which replaced Russian as former "Languages of the Future" according to Public School educator Honchos and NAIS) And folks come to the insidious, dangerous, but not unpredictable conclusion, "If it's dead, why learn it at all?" and the equally shallow "If most of the world doesn't speak it, why should you?") Surprise, Surprise! The study of Latin finds itself beleaguered, if not endangered. Yet Latin was the language of Europe for over a millenium – one that was so flexible, it gave rise to an entire family of languages, and greatly influenced and affected the development of English. St. Jerome's Vulgate is proof of that – the Vulgate, the Bible for the Common Man, was written in the Common Man's tongue: Latin. Yet the feeling of the inaccessibility, and therefore of the uselessness of Latin, persists. Classicists have felt the public's loss of understanding. School systems have done away with Latin on utilitarian grounds. Even in private schools, Latin and the classics have lost their footing. To restore Latin's lost prestige and traditional place in the typical school curriculum, classicists have in the last thirty years or so come up with several different approaches, all with emphasis on reading Latin. The Cambridge Latin Reading Course, Ecce Romani, the Oxford Latin Reading Course, and Latin Via Ovid are examples. The Cambridge series, for instance, has students reading about a family in First Century Britain around the time of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Italy; the Oxford, meanwhile, follows the life of the Young Horace, the great Latin lyric poet. Ecce Romani chronicles the life of another Roman family. The didactic premise of all these works is this: students learn more effectively when they read a story than when they have to sit down and just memorize paradigms and forms. As far as that goes, the premise is sound. No classicist would deny that it is wonderful for students to read Latin from day one. But what type of Latin are they in fact reading? And here is what we find. They are learning a lot about culture; they also learn about history and Roman politics. Again, all to the good. But the main question is this: What are the students learning about how to read Latin -- not canned Latin, but real Latin? The texts are effective in Europe because the people who teach Latin there know the language and its background extremely well. If the teachers did not, then these texts would be useless. And this is what has happened. Now students like these books; they also wouldn't mind eating nothing but candy for a week. These texts tend to give students a false sense of accomplishment. More Tomorrow. tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.89 2009-05-18T01:53:55Z 2009-11-30T20:25:59Z

Dear Readers - I did not write the following tongue in cheek piece. I wish I had. "I think we should forget Latin! You know what? You're all wrong, every last one: you [drg], Mr. Francese, and anyone who holds...

Dr. Richard Gilder III Dear Readers - I did not write the following tongue in cheek piece. I wish I had. "I think we should forget Latin! You know what? You're all wrong, every last one: you [drg], Mr. Francese, and anyone who holds Latin with any smidgen of worth. Emma Willard had the right idea. Drop Latin! Let's write all the diplomas in Chinese instead. (that seems to be the fad language everyone's flocking to these days) In a few years, English will be practically archaic! Why not get ahead of the curve? And besides, Latin is so illegible; Chinese is much clearer! Speaking of illegible, these days, when one can photoshop a diploma and print it out in the same amount of time as it takes to TiVo "Desperate Housewives," it doesn't matter what you say or in which language you say it, because with the click of a mouse, you can make it seem important. Arial Narrow might make it easy to read, but one of these loopy ones might have more of an effect on whoever happens to be looking at it. The less work, the better, right? Latin text would be too much work, and like I said, Chinese is the language of the future. Now, if I only spoke Chinese... oh well, I’ll just use Rosetta Stone and my handy, reliable online translator. Annno. Honestly! Who proofread the thing? Did anyone, or was it a nearsighted person (in a half drunk stupor) rushing to get them off to the printer? And I hate to burst the bubble, but if they get the same person to type them up, it won't matter in what language it's written. Most people with a first year knowledge of Latin could spot that. Does any word have three of the same consonants in a row? i thinnnk not. Chinese is harder to mess up! Those characters all look so different and are formed in such a different way from each other! You should write that "an encyclopedia for every child" part down. I think you have a real winner there. Send it to the president; then diplomas won't need to be written in any language because teachers would be obsolete, and the woman who had her diploma returned wouldn't have a job for which to apply. Just teach them some Chinese and maybe how to make change for a dollar, and they can go off, read the encyclopedia, and get their job at the fast food restaurant of their choice. Problem solved! A diploma isn't supposed to be an elegy. It's not an epic poem. It's not a Shakespearean sonnet. Heck, it's not even supposed to be eloquent prose. It's a diploma. So, with that logical progression of thoughts, I think..... Chinese." tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.88 2009-05-15T20:40:11Z 2009-11-30T20:26:32Z

I read the New York Times these days. It's a trashy paper. I should probably read the Wall Street Journal. Or the Daily News. Or the Post. But let's face it: The Times has the best crosswords. Still, it is...

Dr. Richard Gilder III faux pas ( - "annno" instead of "anno" written on the diplomas at Dickinson one year - wait a second, "faux pas" is French. Can I use French instead of English? It's possible nobody will understand it, but I think I'll use it anyway. It gets the point across, and is better than "my bad"), his real error occurred not in making the mistake. That happens. The real error was his failure to pass the piece by colleagues and students. Another set of eyes or three always helps. Especially in Latin. (Obviously, as one of the guy's own students identified the error.) Especially when we take so much pride in our work. Pride, it's always good to remember, goeth before a Fall. Thank you, Proverbs. I know, I could have used "hubris", more in keeping with the Classics theme of the piece. But I didn't want anybody to miss what I was saying (not that anybody would). So I'll use Pride instead. Problem #2: "When one Dickinson College alumna recently applied to work at a public school, she had a photocopied version of her Latin diploma returned as foreign and illegible." News flash. Latin IS a foreign language. As for "illegible", heck, that has to do with font, not choice of language. But that's incidental. The problem here is not that the diploma was written in Latin. The problem is that the folks in a public school didn't recognize it as such. Didn't realize what that meant. Didn't get the import of the Latin. That is a more egregious error than that they couldn't read it. It speaks to a shallowness of understanding and learning in this country at the most basic level. And that's what's troubling. Not that the diploma was returned as "foreign and illegible." Problem #3: Two different "goals/purposes" of education. "The goal of education is the creation and transmission of thought." "[The] purpose [of education] is the development of the mind and social usefulness through the clear communication of information and ideas." Well, which is it, mon frere (damn, there's that French again.)? I find the first quotation representative of an absurd oversimplification. First of all, think twice before you use the word "goal". It is not a service industry with "products". Indeed, real learning occurs when our students realize that education is more of a road than a pitstop. To continue: If the goal of education is to merely create and transmit thought, heck, just buy every kid an encyclopedia, and have him read it. The second quotation, meanwhile, highlights a preferable precept, at least in terms of the "development of the mind". I would instead speak of it in terms of "harnessing" the mind, having students tap into their own powers. But I accept what the prof here has to say. To a point. As for "social usefulness". Hello, 1984. George Orwell, where are you? I mean really, What is it? Who decides what is "socially useful"? Society thinks a lot of things are "useful" which in fact are questionable, at best. Society teaches that professional athletes are more valuable than good teachers. Society teaches that if you keep telling people a lie, they will believe you. Society teaches that if you screw up, trust people you had no business trusting, that it's their fault, not yours. Society, in short, is not trustworthy at all. Not surprisingly, when students harness their minds, they find that a lot of things which are socially acceptable are the epitome of shallow. They reject such things and redefine that which is "socially useful." As well they should. Problem #4. Why diplomas in Latin? "I've heard some argue that Latin is on diplomas because it's beautiful and the language of Virgil and Cicero. The sad fact, though, is that diploma Latin is a far cry from Cicero's Latin." Latin in the wrong hands, like any other language, can be a bludgeoning object of disgust. English can be atrocious as well. The vocabulary and syntax of diplomas - regardless of language - is meant to be legalistic. It grates in any language. The question is, why Latin? The answer? Latin was the language of scholarship well into the 17th century and beyond. The University movement was founded by theologians who wrote, argued, spoke, etc. in Latin. The degrees they earned were written in that language. That universities continue to have their diplomas written in Latin is a lesson in history. It requires students to wonder and ask the question, Why Latin? If only for that reason, thank god that some universities continue with the practice. The practice facilitates the question Why? And this question is the most facile in helping students harness their brain power. And for those of you who are intimidated by Latin, do yourself a favor. Learn Latin. It is the nervous system, the linguistic spinal cord, of our language. It will help you do or be whatever you want. Even if your goal is to be Socially Useful. Vale atque Ave, drg ]]> tag:www.viafacilis.com,2009://1.87 2009-01-12T05:42:33Z 2009-11-30T20:27:12Z

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...

Dr. Richard Gilder III 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