VIEWS AND GOALS ON LATIN EDUCATION

I am a certified secondary math teacher and a pastor, who has taught and tutored in various contexts since 2001.  Though not an expert, I am proficient in Hebrew, Greek, and working on Latin.  During that time, I have become convinced that a love of learning can never be divorced from clear, organized instruction.  Exuberance without clear instruction always leads to frustration.  At the same time, organized but dull instruction will suck the energy out of any student.  However, more often I have found excited people who don’t know how to communicate clearly.  They love what they are teaching, but they don’t know the best way to explain it.  They want their students to love the material, but they have not effectively communicated what the material is. 

I have sought to put in the hard work of not only being aware of the material, but knowing it so well I can communicate it to others.  This is a daunting task with Latin, and thus, where I hope to be a help to others.

Along with this, I have been convinced that quick, clear feedback is needed to continue progressing in learning.  There is a massive difference between being aware of information and knowing information.  This reality hit me at the end of leading Challenge B.  We had a new student join us in the Spring semester.  They had learned some Latin before they came, and while I could tell they were not getting everything we discussed in Latin, I thought they were mainly tracking.  However, the Blue Book exam was not a “celebration of learning,” but a realization that little had been learned.  Now, I know that in CC I am not the teacher, and that it was up to the parent to ultimately assess and grade.  However, I felt like I had failed to help this student since I was not aware of how much they did not know. If I had realized how much they were not getting, I would have stopped and made sure they were tracking.

Thus, I have created class notes that not only explain the new material, but also have extra examples (often from Henle Latin exercises).  Being able to hear a new idea and immediately practice it greatly helped the students and me assess what we had learned.  Also, each week I gave the students a homework check (aka a “quiz”) over the prior week’s homework.  The questions were not meant to trick them, but to just see what they had truly understood and learned, not just became aware of. The students had five-six minutes to take it, and then we went over it.  We did not put a grade because that is not my role, but this "homework check" drastically helped me and the students.  The students quickly became aware which weeks they actually knew the material and which weeks they were just aware of it.  As well, it helped me know where to pause and reteach, and when we could progress forward.  

​Along with all of this, my goal is to have students who can read Latin.  To this end, I often would encourage readings from the Latin Bible.  That has taken the form of devotionals from the Latin text and reading through some or all of 1 John, James, Galatians, and 1 Samuel.  All that to say, I have fairly rigorous and strong standards, but that is needed if they are going to read Latin.