The classical model emphasizes vocabulary studies as the beginning of tackling a new subject. The Bible emphasizes the study of words and The Word. Therefore, it is very important to Classical Conversations to make language studies accessible to the average American. We have chosen Latin because it is foundational to the English language. The study of Latin is difficult so it trains students to work hard. The study of Latin prepares students for the study of the sciences. It enables them to enter in the Great Conversations of history. As one who studies Latin, I can't figure out why anyone whould say it is a 'dead language.' I came across Latin while reading about politics, church history, economics, the Bronte sisters, and family medicine. It is useful to me for spelling rules and decoding words on my trips abroad. So we have a lot of Latin studies in Classical Conversations. In Foundations we just show parents that the most important part of language studies is memorization. So we memorize noun and verb systems and do a little translating. We don't teach Latin. We just show what needs done to learn any language. Then we study Latin more formally in Challenges A and B. We have chosen the 'Latin's Not So Tough' series because it lives up to it's name. We want to make foreign language studies as approachable as possible. Then we begin the difficult task of Henle Latin in Challenges I and II. We try to keep pace with the original authors intention of completing a book a year. Most parents complain about how hard this is. Well, if 13 year olds could do it in the last century, my kids and your kids can too. They may have to do like C.S. Lewis did as a child and work 5 hours a day at it until it is easy. We call these programs 'Challenge' for a reason. As a classical educator, it is not important to me which curriculum I use as I can use any book to teach. There is no perfect text. When a book becomes too difficult we just back up and do the earlier pages over again. This takes time and honest evaluation of what we have mastered. This takes time if we want to finish the text in a year. I hope by studying Latin a little in grammar school, and as an introduction in middle school, our high school students will be able to compete with the rest of the students in the world who study very many languages. I think it is sad that Americans think learning a foreign language is hard. You have to start with the attitude that we will be memorizing a lot of data. Americans don't like to memorize things. By the way, keep in mind that math is a 'foreign language' for most Americans. Tackling Latin will give your students the skills needed to tackle Calculus. So don't give up. Work really hard at the memorization and you'll be amazed at how easy the translating becomes. Leigh Bortins |
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