Via Facilis

Dear All:

CAGSE Challenges You.
To invest in public education in the UK at the level where the impact will be greatest.

Specifically, state schools.
More specifically, primary schools, years 5 and 6.
Even more specifically, in state schools that employ the cutting edge teaching of Latin. CAGSE's Latin program.

What if you could have a profound impact upon education from grassroots to leaftip?
If you could not simply remodel education, but revolutionize it whereby kids would be in a position to define their own social status, not have it foisted upon them by economic constraints?

CAGSE is that opportunity.
We have programs in eleven schools.
Soon to be a thousand.
With your help.

Your schools need you. They have been asked by their government to meet requirements - the 12 strands of UK Literacy - in a vaguely spelled out, sprawling, thirty page document available on the internet.

CAGSE has crystallized that thirty page document into one page.
Our program is the key to helping schools fulfill their dream.
To give students the fighting chance to forge their own destiny.

This is your cue.
Your participation is invaluable.
Your effect on education: incalculable.

Your company's name will forever be linked to not just the rejuvination or the renaissance of learning, but the Reformation of UK Education.

Your money will go to underserved state schools.
At the primary level.
The Ground Floor.

Your Mission:
Accept the Challenge.

drg

Who is Dr. Richard Gilder III?
Why did he found CAGSE?

If you want to know, read on.
If you don't, plug in a new destination and keep on surfin'.

I am on what is currently a twenty-four year journey to deepen my understanding, knowledge, and flexibility of thinking in several meaningful areas. These areas include, but are not limited to, an on-going investigation into the power and eloquence, the brashness and boldness, the mechanics and intricacies, the beauty and the absurdity, the good sense and the nonsense, of the essence of Latin, Greek, English, language in general, lacrosse, learning, teaching, coaching, advising, and guiding students and teachers on the beginning, middle, or end of the road upon which they find themselves at a particular moment in time.

CAGSE is the expression, the physical manifestation, of that quest.

I have taught and coached students of every age level from 4th grade through graduate school. I know where they began, where they are, where they're going. I understand their motivations, their hopes, their fears, their disappointments (sometimes borne of bitter unexpected failure, sometimes accepted with lukewarm acknowledgement), their successes (garnered with anything from a modest shrug to a wild whoop of exultation). When it comes to students, I have seen the means, the extremes, and everything in between. I am a student of the mind inchoate belonging to that age group undergoing the angst and grind of growing up. Students sense this intuitively. They know when they come to me that I will tell them what they need to hear. Each student is different. One needs compassion, another compulsion, a third someone who will simply lend an ear. One student would do well to stop kidding himself, another to give herself a break. And there's always the student who is desperately seeking the answer to the lonliest of all questions, "Is there anybody out there?" I encourage students, and teachers, to undertake more and greater challenges, to opt for the more difficult path, or the one less obvious. Yet whether in the classroom, in my office, or on the athletic field, I'm ultimately in the business of putting myself out of business. There will come a time when students walk out of my classroom, out of school, and on to the next phase of their lives. I prepare students not against that day, but for it.

As a colleague, I'm open and frank; I speak my mind; I don't break if you speak yours. I work extremely hard, am self-motivated, but not self-absorbed.

If you want to work for me, I expect nothing less from you.

I have a clear vision about the whos, whats, whens, whys, wheres of Latin and language, of lacrosse, of teaching, of coaching, of mentoring. I am direct. I've written two Latin text books, used in the UK in CAGSE's state schools in the London area. And I attend conferences such as that held by the Classical Association of Atlantic States, by the American Classical League, and by JACT.

drg

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."

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