Part Fifty-eight--Heroes Quest: Mount Olympus and the Guardians of the Flame, part 2

LATIN, YOUNG ADULT CLASSES, STUDENT PROJECTS

"A language must die to be immortal."
Chesterton

 "Once you see a classical school, the first thing you will say to yourself is, 'I wish I could go back to school.' " Pete Hegseth, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation.

This was the perfect year to learn Latin. I used curriculum from Memoria Press, and it  was so impressive. 

Latin and Roman influence permeates the American government. These are just a few examples that I wrote about in my journal of discovery: Our founding fathers set up our government as a republic like the Romans. They called our federal government home, Capitol Hill, like Capitoline Hill in Rome; they called part of our legislature "the senate" after the Roman senate; they used the word "veto" for one of the executive powers--Latin for "I object."

The House of Representatives podium with Roman fasces--sticks bound with an ax head  on either side. These are an emblem of authority. (Fasces is where we get the word fascism). 

The seal of the U.S. senate contains Latin and the Phrygian/Thracian/liberty cap, which was the cap of emancipated slaves in ancient Rome. Oh! And the fasces are there also.

If we learn all this about Rome and how we are similar to them, then we will also see why their republic failed. We might not make the same fatal mistakes they made, like lowering their morals, instituting social programs, embracing multiculturalism, becoming soft through riches. 

The cover of my Latin binder

Here are a few others reasons for studying Latin😁: 

• You really understand English just by learning Latin
• When you learn Latin you study the great Romans and want to inculcate their virtues
• Latin students perform far better on standardized tests, especially the SAT
• many careers require knowledge of classical languages 

I became passionate about the ecclesiastical pronunciation of Latin. It's much more beautiful, and has been spoken continuously for well over a thousand years, and is more reliable in my mind. Anyway, who wants to say the silly-sounding 'Kee-kero' when you'll be saying, 'Cicero' ever after? I mean, really! 

LATIN CLASS

Before our first day of Latin, I had never met half the students who showed up that day. I had to capture their attention, so I stayed in the back room getting ready while the students arrived and had an opening prayer.

Tammy introduced me as a special visitor. I walked in wearing a 'toga' with a green sash covered in Romaine lettuce leaves and holding a bottle of Caesar salad dressing. I was Julius Caesar Salad--the cousin of the famous Julius Caesar!

My goal for the first class was to inspire the students to want to learn Latin. We learned some basic grammar and talked about why knowing Latin is so cool. Latin is all around us, and we should recognize it. 

To wrap up our class we went out to the temple/stage. I gave each student a toga and the assassination scene from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. They each had a part. I was Caesar. 

As students stabbed me I called out, Et tu, Brute? "See?" I told them, "Latin is everywhere!"

A few of the students wanted to get assassinated too, so we all switched parts and replayed the scene a few more times! It was definitely a memorable first day of Latin!

Earlier Giselle told me she didn't want to learn Latin. But after we were home from her first Latin class I overheard her talking to a friend on the phone, and sounding like she was trying to complain, 'I'm taking Latin." I could hear the pride in her voice. She came to learn to love it.

We had Latin every Wednesday morning at Tammy's home. We also offered other classes: a drama class culminating in a Greek tragedy performance; a writing class; and a colloquium. Tammy taught the writing class, and the students ran the colloquium--reading and discussing the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and other books like David McCullough's 1776.

I made some bookmarks for the students after the fashion of Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Educated Mind. 

And I have to put a few Potty Key Point papers here. We learned so much on the side!

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We always began class by reciting the Latin grammar we knew. (Grammar schools were called grammar schools because it took several years to learn all the Latin grammar). 

We played Latin games like Jeopardy, with such Latin topics as parts of speech, derivatives, declensions, direct objects. Students earned Caesar cash and Brutus bucks to be spent at our sponsored class auctions. 

We learned Latin sayings, like carpe diem, e pluribus unum, sic semper tyrannis, in principio creavit Deus caelum et terram, and the Roman republic phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus. We also memorized the Pater Noster, and sang old Latin Christmas songs.

Some of Harry Potter spells really are Latin!

Expecto Patronum--expecto=I await, patronum=protector

Sola lingua bona est lingua mortua--

The only good language is a dead language.

I often split the class in two teams and gave them a word to decline. Each person on the team had to write just one of the ten declensions for that word, and then pass the marker on to the next teammate, etc. The team to finish first, won. 

FAMOUS MEN OF ROME

Each week one student gave a short presentation on one of the famous men of Rome. During Giselle's presentation of Coriolanus, she compared him to Benedict Arnold, which worked out nicely since our school group was beginning to study the founding of the American Republic.

Another week Giselle impersonated Nero, though she explained that he really didn't fiddle while Rome burned.

CLOSING DAY

ARTEMIS AND THE HUNT FOR THE GOLDEN MEAN

During the component, Artemis and the Hunt for the Golden Mean, Giselle did a research project on Beauty and the Golden Ratio.

After doing a lot of fun research, and measuring 30 faces of people between the ages of 13 and 25, and then doing all the calculations, Giselle gave a nice presentation.She gave a demonstration during her presentation.

Several students gave presentations that day, but first, my Latin class gave a recitation of the little bit of Latin grammar they've learned so far. They sounded impressive!

CLOSING DAY 

LYRE, LYRE, PARTHENON ON FIRE!

Giselle presented her research project on modes. She shared how Beatles' and other modern composers used Greek modes to create their music. It was a fun and informative presentation along the lines of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts.

CLOSING DAY 

LET FREEDOM WING

Giselle wanted to write a school year theme again for her end-of-year project. (See closing day of Jane Austen/Charles Dickens Literary Society). At first she thought she needed to write a theme based on the year subjects. Instead she took a key point about the decline of the Roman families and civilization, and decided that one way she could help prevent the decline of the American civilization was by learning how to be a good mother. 

She decided that the connection with this year would be writing a school year theme so she could teach her children at home. She put together a theme using Disney's Newsies as her inspiration. She called it Carrying the Banner.

Newsie Giselle in our Greek Temple, happy to have her last presentation for year complete!

The high school students gave their presentations on one day, and we also attended the presentations of the younger students. They were so entertaining! One family made this quilt for a year-long project:

Teaching Latin to the high school group and watching them grow all year was so fun and rewarding. I received many thank you notes from students through this and other years--probably spurred on by Tammy. The students and I loved learning together.

Gratia tibi ago - Thank you

Chesterton made this observation as to why Latin is such a great language to study:

"Every living language is a dying language, even if it does not die. Parts of it are perpetually perishing or changing their sense; there is only one escape from that flux; and a language must die to be immortal." 

We had so much fun learning this dead language!