What are your goals for Latin?

[mamato9]

I know this has been talked about a billion times on the k - 8 board and probably here too. So if there is a great link to a post that already hashes this out I would love to see it.

I have been posting on the k - 9th board as I am trying to help a charter school come up with a latin program. As a homeschooler I loved the parts - to - whole approach of Latina Christiana and Henle. The school has a teacher who has been teaching for over 10 years who will only teach Cambridge. So she will be the high school teacher. I was planning on using Lively Latin in the primary grades and then move into Latin Prep for the Logic stage.

What I have been asked to do is come up with the ultimate goal for where a student should be at the end of their high school career. I want to look at what scholorships may be an option. What Colleges want to see. What else could I be using to help set these goals.

If anyone has any opinions or suggestions I'm all ears.

TIA
Lora

[Maverick]

That is kind of a personal question. :D For me the goal is threefold:

1. Learn how to learn a language - the next language my kids decide they want to learn the process will be easier because they have already done it once.
2. Learn grammar--Latin grammar, English grammar, and the grammar of languages in general--how they are put together.
3. Improve vocabulary--understanding the Latin roots of our English language and learning vocab that will apply to latinate languages if they decide to learn one later on.

If I had a child that wanted to pursue a study of classics and read Latin literature, I would absolutely support them in that, but it is not necessarily a goal of mine for them.

I just thought of a fourth reason--this applies to learning any other language besides your own--so my kids know the benefit of knowing another language--to be able to look at something "foreign" and understand it--I think it expands their personal "world" a bit and helps them see the world from a wider point of view.

HTH!

[Plaid Dad]

A college prep Latin program usually has students preparing for the AP Virgil and/or AP Latin Literature exams, although the College Board has just dropped the latter from its offerings. So the goal would be to get students to a point where they can read Latin literature in the original. For that they need a firm grasp of grammar, a large vocabulary, and, most of all, lots of practice reading extended passages of idiomatic (not canned textbook) Latin.

If you look at the Henle books, you'll get an idea of the traditional reading sequence: Latin I - grammar; Latin II - Caesar; Latin III - Cicero; Latin IV - Virgil. So a year of heavy-duty grammar followed by two years of prose and one of poetry.

Today you usually see two or three years of grammar instruction mixed with a wider range of authors: Ovid, Catullus, Horace, and Livy show up pretty frequently. Cambridge has an anthology (http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Latin-Anthology-Course/dp/0521808871/) that could be used as a third or fourth year text. (There's a new edition that was supposed to be out at the end of last year, but is still showing up as a pre-order on Amazon.) HTH!

[Jackie in NE]

Plaid Dad,
Your knowledge in this area is invaluable. Thank You!

Jackie

[mamato9]

and Maverick. That is what I am looking for. Any one else?

Lora

[LisaNY]

My personal reason for studying Latin is to be able to read real Latin authors. I am gearing my dd's Latin curriculum with the same goals in mind. However, if she chooses not to pursue the same goals in the future, that is her decision.

I think that Cambridge in high school will facilitate the pursuit of reading real Latin authors. I would personally like to see a mix of Latin readings and work on grammar/translation in the elementary/middle school years, so that when they get to Cambridge, they are familiar with the "natural/immersion" style. It is difficult for students used to grammar/translation methods to make the leap to reading "Latin as Latin" without constantly trying to turn it into English. Latin is LATIN, not English.

Just a few more thoughts...:001_smile:

[Moira in MA]

Actually, I think my goals for Latin differ from all the other posters.

I have my dds learn both Latin and a modern foreign language. This way they interact with others longitudinally over time and latitudinally over space. Both are important.

There are many other goals, of course, but these are primary.

HTH

[Hs425]

That is kind of a personal question. :D For me the goal is threefold:

1. Learn how to learn a language - the next language my kids decide they want to learn the process will be easier because they have already done it once.
2. Learn grammar--Latin grammar, English grammar, and the grammar of languages in general--how they are put together.
3. Improve vocabulary--understanding the Latin roots of our English language and learning vocab that will apply to latinate languages if they decide to learn one later on.

If I had a child that wanted to pursue a study of classics and read Latin literature, I would absolutely support them in that, but it is not necessarily a goal of mine for them.

I just thought of a fourth reason--this applies to learning any other language besides your own--so my kids know the benefit of knowing another language--to be able to look at something "foreign" and understand it--I think it expands their personal "world" a bit and helps them see the world from a wider point of view.

HTH!
I would agree with all of the above as well as the information posted by Plaid Dad. I've taught LCI/II through Henle Units 1-5 to my own and students in our hs co-op for 4 years now. I'd like to boast on one of my students who just received a perfect score on the National Latin Intro to Latin Exam. We are following the Memoria Press Study Guide plan for Units 1-5, but this does not help us complete all the syllabus for the Latin I Exam. This 12 year old student began with Henle two years ago (no prior Latin experience).

In all of this, I'd like to add a 5th reason: The obvious one is that the ordering of the mind in the parts to whole grammar approach is definitely helping my students to improve in their ability to make connections in other areas. It takes a well ordered mind to remember where the Present Subjunctive goes and its role in purpose clauses, and other such minutiae. I like to think that by building these neural nets, this student won't have so much difficulty remembering other such minutiae required in higher learning.

And my 6th reason would be that the practice of study greatly benefits the student, and though sometimes grindingly difficult, he learns what types of aids helps him best. This attention to detail will build character, as some studies aren't always the student's choice.

I would also like my children to be able to read for themselves the classical idiomatic texts if they are interested. I certainly have made that one of my own goals before branching out into NT Greek.

[Gwen in VA]

I love the reasons given by other posters, and i would just like to add one of my own -- passing out of the foreign language requirement at college!

If a student gets a 5 on the AP Latin Vergil exam, most colleges will then consider that the student has fulfilled the foreign language requirement. How cool!

[Nan in Mass]

I want mine to see how real and modern the people of Rome and the middle ages were, and to see how real people are in other parts of the world now. Reading about their trials and tribulations with lawyers and teenage children and the price of fish and their wives, even if your Latin or French isn't very good, does that. That is my goal. Our Latin curriculum, with its bits of graffitti and things has done that already for my children, even though we aren't very far along in Latin yet.
-Nan