Via Facilis

Last week - directly below this post, actually - 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 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

"So where've you been? And what's wrong with your face?"
"Sporting, isn't it? Only the best education consultants are wearing it."
"No, but seriously. Where have you been?
"In hospital. Getting my left nostril's septum undeviated."
"That would explain the chic gauze moustache. For a second I thought you were the physical manifestation of Drama, strand four."
"I appreciate your imagination. But no. Just got my nose fixed."
"If only fixing the UK curriculum were so easy."
"It's not broken. It's just a matter of understanding how the pieces work together, and which are the central strands. And then how to make those strands powerful."
"Right. I've been thinking about that since you were away, brief though it was."
"Wait. Wasn't this the long Easter week-end?"
"Yes."
"I thought all thinking was generally suspended until after it ended."
"Well, I was bored."
"To tears, apparently. So what did you come up with?"
"To be honest, I think I got myself even more muddled than I was before."
"Well, let's see if we can't remedy that. What does 'Word Recognition' entail? Is it simply a matter of recognizing a word as what it stands for?"
"Could you explain that more?"
"Sure. What does 'cow' mean to you?"
"It's an animal we get drinking milk from."
"Anything else?"
"Beef, too."
"No, I mean, is that all 'cow' means to you?"
"Well, they wear bells, sometimes."
"Okay, wait. Let me rephrase. At its most basic level, what is 'cow'?"
"A mammal?"
"Hold on. This isn't working. Let's take a different approach."
"Please."

"How about this:

'cow, picture, ship, chair, book, grass, foot.'

What do you make of that?'

"They're a bunch of nouns."
"That it?"
"Yes. Just random nouns."
"Nothing else?"
"Well, there are seven of them."

"Fine. Now what about these?
'cows, picture, ships, chair, books, grass, foot.' "

"The same seven random nouns again."
"Random, huh?"
"Oh yes, they seem so to me. But they're the same."
"No changes?"
"Let's see. Actually, now three of them are plural."

"Right. So what about this?
'cows grass.' "

"Still nouns - from that same set. But now only two."
"Do they still seem random?"
"Well...what do you mean?"
"I mean, Do those two nouns placed right next to each other like that have any meaning for you?"
"They seem to."
"Meaning what?"
"Cows and grass seem to go together. But not as you have them, 'Cows grass.'
"What would you do so that they could go together?"
"You'd have to add another word."
"Okay, how about 'cows hills grass.' "
"No, that doesn't help."
"Why not? You said to add another word. 'hills' is another word."
"Yes. But it's the same sort as 'cows' and 'hills'.
"How so?"
"It's another thing."
"So?"
"So you still have to figure out how the first two, 'cows' and 'grass', fit together. If you add only another noun, you've have three things to explain, not just two."

"So what word would you add?"
"Well, first I'd have to ask myself about what 'cows' and 'grass' have to do with one another."
"And what's the answer?"
"Several, actually."
"Do tell."
"Let's see. Cows stand on grass. And they eat it. Yes. That's easiest. I'd add 'eat'."
"Okay, 'cows grass eat'. Right?"
"No. That doesn't look right."
"How about, 'eat cows grass'?"
"That just doesn't make any sense."
"So what would?"
" 'Cows eat grass.' "

"So 'cows' and 'grass' are 'things', and 'eat' isn't?"
"Right."
"What is the technical term for 'things'?
"Uhhh, I think it starts with an 'n'..."
"and ends with an 'n', too."
"I'm not sure..."
"And has '-ou-' in the middle."
"A NOUN!"
"Exactly. So 'cows' and 'grass' are nouns, and 'eat' isn't, right?"
"Right."
"But if 'eat' isn't a noun, what is it?"
"It's the action word."
"What is the action word called? Does it have a specific name?"
"This one I remember. You don't have to spell this one out for me. It's called a verb."
"Excellent."
"You're too kind."
"I'll take your word for it. Now, let's consider your creation:
'Cows eat grass.' "

"Okay."
"Is this a complete thought?"
"What do you mean?"
"Does 'Cows eat grass' convey a complete thought or idea?"
"Does it?"
"What would happen if I put the word 'If' right before 'cows'? Then you'd have 'If cows eat grass'. Does that sound complete?"
"Well, if you added something like, 'then they get fat' it would."
"But by itself?"
"No."
"How about if there's no 'If'? Just plain old 'Cows eat grass'?"
"Yes. That's a complete thought."
"What do we call that? Technically?"
"Hmmmm."
"I'll give you a hint. When a person is convicted of a crime, the judge in the case pronounces....?"
"Sentence! Right, it's a sentence. A sentence is a complete thought. Of course."
"Tremendous. Now, in that sentence, 'Cows eat grass', how is 'Cows' functioning?
"They're doing the eating."
"They're performing the action of the verb?"
"Yes."
"And when a noun is performing the action of a verb, it is functioning in a particular way. It is acting...?"
"on impulse?"
"Inventive, but no. Think technically, again."
"I'm lost."
"Okay. Someone gives a talk on a particular what?"
"Field? Area?"
"Close. Maybe a little narrower?"
"Expertise?"
"No. How about this? All UK nationals are the Queen's..."
"Subjects! Oh, right. Subject."
"Right. The Subject is the noun that does the action of the verb."
"And the verb is the action word that the Subject is doing."
"Also right. So in the sentence 'Cows eat grass'..."
" 'Cows' is the Subject."
"And 'eat'..."
"is what the 'Cows', the Subject, are doing, and is, therefore, the verb!"
"Excellent. Only one word left to account for. How is 'grass' acting in our favorite sentence, 'Cows eat grass'?"
"It's what the Cows eat."
"It's receiving the action of the verb?"
"Yes, I suppose it is."
"What term do we give nouns when, like 'grass', they receive the action of the verb?"
"It's on the tip of my tongue...."
"Okay. Hint: 'Not the Subject of my attention but the...."
"Object!"
"Yes. But because it is directly receiving the action of the verb, we can go one step further and call it the ___________ object."
"Direct! The direct object!"
"Precisely. So, to review:
1. Nouns are things (or persons or places)
2. Nouns can act as subjects, i.e., doers of the action of the verb
3. Nouns can act as Direct Objects (i.e., direct receivers of the
action of the verb)
4. Verbs are action words, i.e., words that denote action performed
by Nouns acting as subjects on nouns acting as direct objects.

Make sense?"

"Yes. But how do we know when a noun is acting as a subject or a direct object?"

"Excellent question. And psychic, too. You have anticipated our next lesson: The Primacy of Word Order. So see you tomorrow."

"Brilliant."

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."

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

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