Because of the Internet, there are many, many options to learning Latin via independent study. YMMV (Your mileage may vary).
1. Simplest: Latin Appreciation- If the goal is Latin exposure or appreciation, then many playful and entertaining books like Minimus
or Secundus are available.
2. A Little More- The next very gentle step for Christian students might be Memoria Press books like Prima Latina or Latina Christiana. The positive side is that children are introduced to common Christian Latin sayings like Table Blessings, The Lord's Prayer, or famous lines from the Bible, but the down side is that grammar is de-emphasized, so that students will have to have a more intensive program to become fluent.
3. Serious Learning - Inductive- Good immersive or inductive Latin programs include Cambridge Latin or Ecce Romani. These books start students reading Latin very quickly, but as students progress through the book, they may become more puzzled by why words with the same meaning have so many different forms...it's because they weren't instructed about the rules of grammar in the first place. This weakness can be softened by the introduction of Latin grammar on the side (some done in the text), but for our 11 year old, the first 8 chapters of Ecce Romani was about all we could handle, we made a switch to Wheelock to learn the "bones" of the language in more straightforward teaching fashion.
Teacher and student workbooks can definitely enrich grammar learning through Ecce Romani, and there are free online resources to help you learn (we'll add in a later post) at Yahoo Groups, KET, and Quia.com. Cambridge Latin also has many fans; its site has many accessible exercises for practice, and it's even possible to have a Cambridge tutor (UK!) in a new distance learning program (here).
4. Serious Learning - Deductive- For those who think they or their students might pursue Latin for several years, a strong program that provides pronunciation may also be preferred. Because our daughter was preparing to enter a Latin school, we had a good start for her using a DVD series Latin Primer. The DVD really is just like sitting in an elementary school class, and both of our children picked up the chants for verb endings quickly; we did become discouraged, though when we found some errors in the materials, and when we found that the teacher was pronouncing some of words incorrectly.
Many Latin teachers and students debate whether pronunciation is important, but pronouncing it correctly will important for later Latin poetry and macron placement (the line over the long syllables).
Which brings us finally to Wheelock's Latin. We are using Wheelock's now for our 11 year old's study, and with it - the audio CDs for pronunciation, and the student workbook. When we first looked at it 6 months ago, it looked too dry to use. After being baffled by the different forms for words in Ecce Romani, it is now a sight for sore eyes! We also obtained access to the Teacher's site (including answers for the Text and Workbook) by emailing a request to: academic@harpercollins.com.
It's true that some of the lessons in Wheelock's are a little boring (even though the author tries to add a joke here or there), but we've also been enjoying Latin mottoes via Amo, Amas, Amat, and More, Aesop's Fables in Latin using Esopus Hodies, and Rufus Fear's fabulous Audio course Famous Romans, for history. Like the other major Latin programs, there are many resources to help Wheelock's learners - the main site here: WheelocksLatin.com, Dale Grote's Study Guide here, as well as support groups at Yahoo.
There are many more curricula, but these are the ones we're familiar with. A more extensive site with reviews is here
Showing posts with label newbies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label newbies. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
What is a Classical Education?
A classical education usually refers to an education founded on the Great Books of Western Civilization, encompassing three stages of education at the K-12 level (grammar, logic, rhetoric), intensive language learning, and moral education.
In the rapidly changing high technology world of the 21st century, many might ask what old educational practices can do to prepare students for tomorrow's Flat World, but classically trained individuals have highly equipped minds that can process, analyze, synthesize, and persuade any subject matter or discipline. The skills of the classically-trained student can be applied to any field or discipline, or to careers that do not exist today.
A classical education often differs dramatically from forms of schooling in the following areas:
Language
Classical education places a strong emphasis on language learning and expression - at the grammar school level, language structure is taught and analyzed in detail. This work lays the groundwork for advanced language understanding and expression, and later it will help students analyzing arguments, resolve and recognize differences of thinking, as well as learn foreign languages. At the earliest stages (grammar), there is an emphasis on learning the nuts and bolts of language (vocabulary, syntax), where as a the logic stage, reasoned language (through speech or writing) becomes the focus. In the rhetoric years, persuasive aspects of language become important, as students learn to appeal to emotions and target their words to specific audiences.
Foreign language study is often a major emphasis of classical educational approaches - and this may mean Latin in the early years, with Greek added in later with the option for Modern Languages. Here foreign language study does much more than translation. It is an important analytical time in the early years, but later does much to help students read between the lines, ask for primary sources, and analyze events and words with in cultural as well as historical contexts.
History
History is a major emphasis of classical education, but importantly, mastery is not aimed at repeating back the mere facts of history, but on the how's and why's, and who's. If history curricula are not chosen carefully, students can be swept away in the minutiae of dates, places, and names, without the time to consider remarkable people in remarkable times, who made decisions that changed the course of history.
There is substantial evidence that the battle for history education has already been lost in conventional American education. With it, an understanding of the follies and the wisdom of the past, our personal history as a country, and how change was wrought. Classical education is distinctive in the importance it places on putting a personal face on previous historical events, differences of opinion and philosophy, and details about how changes were wrought.
Moral Education
Since ancient times, moral education has been an essential part of education. Education is not simply fact storing, but the cultivation of character and pursuit of truth and virtues. Because of the weight placed on biography and history in classical education, students observe many aspects of human nature, and develop their worldview.
In addition, Mathematics, Science, and the Arts often have very different emphases from other educational schools.
Science - Science in particular has attracted some differences of opinion in regard to its importance in the classical education. There is a natural tension between science and technology and the humanities, as well as between proponents of wholly scientific or religious worldviews. But we do a disservice to our young people if we don't educate students in the details, discoveries, and big pictures of the science that we know now, and the science that we have yet to discover.
Some classical programs emphasize observation and history of science for their curricula. These aspects of the curricula are worthy, but not sufficient in our opinion for a comprehensive education. A strong foundation in science today means a significant foundation in the the detailed facts, theories, and unknowns of science as it exists today. By the time a student finishes high school, she should have a solid framework in the details of biology, chemistry, physics, as well a personal experience with the precision and limitations of scientific recording and the scientific method.
Mathematics
Mathematics is often taught as an ally to logic as students progress through schooling. At the elementary school level, mathematics may be similar to conventional curricula, but more history mathematics may be employed. At the logic and rhetoric stage, classical mathematics programs may place more emphasis on proofs and axiomatic learning, often culminating in a progression through Euclid's Elements. Classical mathematics is more deductive than inducative - at least in the K-12 grades.
The Arts
The arts are often incorporated throughout the curriculum, although different programs vary in their exposure. Fine arts study may mean an art history tour incorporated in history and cultural discussions. Music is also woven into the curriculum, ideally with history, but also as a separate discipline as students learn instruments themselves. Poetry is also especially valued in classical education, and often a part of historical period study. Literature is also carefully chosen in classical curricula to emphasize the Greats of the Western Canon and offer studies of differing worldview and philosophy.
Technorati tags: classical education, trivium, homeschooling, Well-Trained Mind, Charlotte Mason
In the rapidly changing high technology world of the 21st century, many might ask what old educational practices can do to prepare students for tomorrow's Flat World, but classically trained individuals have highly equipped minds that can process, analyze, synthesize, and persuade any subject matter or discipline. The skills of the classically-trained student can be applied to any field or discipline, or to careers that do not exist today.
A classical education often differs dramatically from forms of schooling in the following areas:
Language
Classical education places a strong emphasis on language learning and expression - at the grammar school level, language structure is taught and analyzed in detail. This work lays the groundwork for advanced language understanding and expression, and later it will help students analyzing arguments, resolve and recognize differences of thinking, as well as learn foreign languages. At the earliest stages (grammar), there is an emphasis on learning the nuts and bolts of language (vocabulary, syntax), where as a the logic stage, reasoned language (through speech or writing) becomes the focus. In the rhetoric years, persuasive aspects of language become important, as students learn to appeal to emotions and target their words to specific audiences.
Foreign language study is often a major emphasis of classical educational approaches - and this may mean Latin in the early years, with Greek added in later with the option for Modern Languages. Here foreign language study does much more than translation. It is an important analytical time in the early years, but later does much to help students read between the lines, ask for primary sources, and analyze events and words with in cultural as well as historical contexts.
History
History is a major emphasis of classical education, but importantly, mastery is not aimed at repeating back the mere facts of history, but on the how's and why's, and who's. If history curricula are not chosen carefully, students can be swept away in the minutiae of dates, places, and names, without the time to consider remarkable people in remarkable times, who made decisions that changed the course of history.
There is substantial evidence that the battle for history education has already been lost in conventional American education. With it, an understanding of the follies and the wisdom of the past, our personal history as a country, and how change was wrought. Classical education is distinctive in the importance it places on putting a personal face on previous historical events, differences of opinion and philosophy, and details about how changes were wrought.
Moral Education
Since ancient times, moral education has been an essential part of education. Education is not simply fact storing, but the cultivation of character and pursuit of truth and virtues. Because of the weight placed on biography and history in classical education, students observe many aspects of human nature, and develop their worldview.
In addition, Mathematics, Science, and the Arts often have very different emphases from other educational schools.
Science - Science in particular has attracted some differences of opinion in regard to its importance in the classical education. There is a natural tension between science and technology and the humanities, as well as between proponents of wholly scientific or religious worldviews. But we do a disservice to our young people if we don't educate students in the details, discoveries, and big pictures of the science that we know now, and the science that we have yet to discover.
Some classical programs emphasize observation and history of science for their curricula. These aspects of the curricula are worthy, but not sufficient in our opinion for a comprehensive education. A strong foundation in science today means a significant foundation in the the detailed facts, theories, and unknowns of science as it exists today. By the time a student finishes high school, she should have a solid framework in the details of biology, chemistry, physics, as well a personal experience with the precision and limitations of scientific recording and the scientific method.
Mathematics
Mathematics is often taught as an ally to logic as students progress through schooling. At the elementary school level, mathematics may be similar to conventional curricula, but more history mathematics may be employed. At the logic and rhetoric stage, classical mathematics programs may place more emphasis on proofs and axiomatic learning, often culminating in a progression through Euclid's Elements. Classical mathematics is more deductive than inducative - at least in the K-12 grades.
The Arts
The arts are often incorporated throughout the curriculum, although different programs vary in their exposure. Fine arts study may mean an art history tour incorporated in history and cultural discussions. Music is also woven into the curriculum, ideally with history, but also as a separate discipline as students learn instruments themselves. Poetry is also especially valued in classical education, and often a part of historical period study. Literature is also carefully chosen in classical curricula to emphasize the Greats of the Western Canon and offer studies of differing worldview and philosophy.
Technorati tags: classical education, trivium, homeschooling, Well-Trained Mind, Charlotte Mason
Thursday, February 8, 2007
The Aims of Education
I've been enjoying reading Alfred North Whitehead's The Aims of Education (1949), and impressed by its implications today. He had a developmental view of education, and suggested that student instruction change fundamentally at different ages.
Whitehead: "I call the first period of freedom the "stage of Romance," the intermediate period of discipline I call the "stage of Precision," and final period of freedom is the "stage of Generalization."
The Romantic Stage: "...in the stage of romance the emphasis must always be on freedom, to allow the child to see for itself and to act for itself...Without the adventure of romance, at best you get inert knowledge without initiative, and at worst you get contempt of ideas--without knowledge."
The Stage of Precision: Romance should not be dead in the age of precision, but now as students enter their teen years, precise knowledge should become more the emphasis. "...to be effective in the modern world, you must have a store of definite acquirement of the best practice. To write poetry you must study metre; and to build bridges you must be learned in the strength of material...I am certain that one secret of a successful teacher is that he has formulated quite clearly in his mind what the pupil has got to know in precise fashion. He will then cease from half-hearted attempts of inferior importance. The secret of success is pace, and the secret of pace is concentration. But, in respect to precise knowledge, the watchword is pace, pace,pace. Get your knowledge quickly, and then use it. If you can use it you will retain it."
The Stage of Generalization: "There is here a reaction towards romance. Something definite is now known; aptitudes have been acquired, and general rules and laws are clearly apprehended both in their formulation and detailed exemplification. The pupil now wants to use his new weapons. He is an effective individual, and it is effects that he wants to produce. He relapses into the discursive adventures of the romantic stage, with the advantage that his mind is now a disciplined regiment instad of a rabble. In this sense, education should begin in research and end in research...The stage of generalization is the stage of sheddingdetails in favour of the active application of principles."
Whitehead raises some excellent points.
1. Romance should be an essential ingredient to education, but it should not be its sole ingredient. Students who fail to learn intellectual precision in their thinking and habits of learning and analysis, will exclude themselves from many disciplines and activities that require high-level competency and funds of knowledge. Precision is acquired by essential knowledge, challenging analytical work, mathematical or scientific problem solving, writing to a high standard (redrafting), high-level musical training, and subjects such as logic, computer programming, or Latin.
2. The stage of generalization is usually woefully ignored in the conventional educational process, although it is an critical feature and impelling force for virtually all higher-order intellectual and creative work. BTW, Whitehead mourned the state of affairs at his own institutions: "In my own work at universities I have been much struck by the paralysis of thought induced in pupils by the aimless accumulation of precise knowledge..."
3. We should be wary of standardized tests and their resulting effects on classroom culture if they clash with normal developmental shifts in the emphases of learning or the ultimate aims of education at that time.
Whitehead's model may fit in well with many K-12 classical education (trivium) and liberal arts programs like the International Baccalaureate, but it's a good reminder all the same. When students can cram lots of facts into their heads, the temptation is to give them more. But that is why Whitehead was so vehement about careful pacing of the schoolwork at this stage. Multum non Multa (Not many things, but much). Students at this age need to be allowed time to reflect and critique knowledge, then deeply consider where applications and intersections of ideas exist.
The Aims of Education and Other Essays (Alfred North Whitehead)
Technorati tags: education, liberal arts, philosophy, classical learning, mathematics problem solving, gifted, homeschooling
Whitehead: "I call the first period of freedom the "stage of Romance," the intermediate period of discipline I call the "stage of Precision," and final period of freedom is the "stage of Generalization."
The Romantic Stage: "...in the stage of romance the emphasis must always be on freedom, to allow the child to see for itself and to act for itself...Without the adventure of romance, at best you get inert knowledge without initiative, and at worst you get contempt of ideas--without knowledge."
The Stage of Precision: Romance should not be dead in the age of precision, but now as students enter their teen years, precise knowledge should become more the emphasis. "...to be effective in the modern world, you must have a store of definite acquirement of the best practice. To write poetry you must study metre; and to build bridges you must be learned in the strength of material...I am certain that one secret of a successful teacher is that he has formulated quite clearly in his mind what the pupil has got to know in precise fashion. He will then cease from half-hearted attempts of inferior importance. The secret of success is pace, and the secret of pace is concentration. But, in respect to precise knowledge, the watchword is pace, pace,pace. Get your knowledge quickly, and then use it. If you can use it you will retain it."
The Stage of Generalization: "There is here a reaction towards romance. Something definite is now known; aptitudes have been acquired, and general rules and laws are clearly apprehended both in their formulation and detailed exemplification. The pupil now wants to use his new weapons. He is an effective individual, and it is effects that he wants to produce. He relapses into the discursive adventures of the romantic stage, with the advantage that his mind is now a disciplined regiment instad of a rabble. In this sense, education should begin in research and end in research...The stage of generalization is the stage of sheddingdetails in favour of the active application of principles."
Whitehead raises some excellent points.
1. Romance should be an essential ingredient to education, but it should not be its sole ingredient. Students who fail to learn intellectual precision in their thinking and habits of learning and analysis, will exclude themselves from many disciplines and activities that require high-level competency and funds of knowledge. Precision is acquired by essential knowledge, challenging analytical work, mathematical or scientific problem solving, writing to a high standard (redrafting), high-level musical training, and subjects such as logic, computer programming, or Latin.
2. The stage of generalization is usually woefully ignored in the conventional educational process, although it is an critical feature and impelling force for virtually all higher-order intellectual and creative work. BTW, Whitehead mourned the state of affairs at his own institutions: "In my own work at universities I have been much struck by the paralysis of thought induced in pupils by the aimless accumulation of precise knowledge..."
3. We should be wary of standardized tests and their resulting effects on classroom culture if they clash with normal developmental shifts in the emphases of learning or the ultimate aims of education at that time.
Whitehead's model may fit in well with many K-12 classical education (trivium) and liberal arts programs like the International Baccalaureate, but it's a good reminder all the same. When students can cram lots of facts into their heads, the temptation is to give them more. But that is why Whitehead was so vehement about careful pacing of the schoolwork at this stage. Multum non Multa (Not many things, but much). Students at this age need to be allowed time to reflect and critique knowledge, then deeply consider where applications and intersections of ideas exist.
The Aims of Education and Other Essays (Alfred North Whitehead)
Technorati tags: education, liberal arts, philosophy, classical learning, mathematics problem solving, gifted, homeschooling
Sunday, February 4, 2007
The Education We Never Had
Both of us never grew up with a classical education, but Brock discovered the Great Books in high school, and Fernette after her medical training. Now we are discovering the joys of classical education at an even deeper level as our daughter joined a Latin-based Christian school, and we've embraced a classical education for our homeschooled son.
Our other blog is the Eide Neurolearning Blog, a very different blog, so it seemed like a good idea to collect our classical education links in one place.
I am learning Latin with our kids, our daughter is studying the Middle Ages and Renaissance at school, and our son is studying 1815 to Modern Times using materials from Veritas Press. I'll review them for you in more detail in a subsequent post. We are eclectic, using established secular and Christian curricula as well as child-led interest topics. I haven't seen another blog that does quite what we do, so I thought I might as well make one!
I was a little worried about our daughter's joining a Latin-based school because of the intense memorization, but the chants make it easy, there's plenty of repetition and if all are saying it together, there's not the stress of not knowing when you're called on. Our daughter is also motivated a great deal by her peers, and because her classmates are a generally studious lot, she hasn't complained much about the extra work. She also loves the kids at school.
We are still homeschooling our son because of his dysgraphia and sensory / endurance issues. He has been taking an online secular logic course through Northwestern, but easily transitioned over to classical curricula because of his interest in history and word origins (Latin). We would like to run his homeschooling curriculum roughly in parallel with our daughter's school so he has the option of entering it some time in the future. Our son is solidly in the dialectical stage (loves controversy, reasoning, and fallacies), and his writers block is melting away with Progymnasmata or the ancient exercises devised for budding orators. We'll blog more on those as well.
Our other blog is the Eide Neurolearning Blog, a very different blog, so it seemed like a good idea to collect our classical education links in one place.
I am learning Latin with our kids, our daughter is studying the Middle Ages and Renaissance at school, and our son is studying 1815 to Modern Times using materials from Veritas Press. I'll review them for you in more detail in a subsequent post. We are eclectic, using established secular and Christian curricula as well as child-led interest topics. I haven't seen another blog that does quite what we do, so I thought I might as well make one!
I was a little worried about our daughter's joining a Latin-based school because of the intense memorization, but the chants make it easy, there's plenty of repetition and if all are saying it together, there's not the stress of not knowing when you're called on. Our daughter is also motivated a great deal by her peers, and because her classmates are a generally studious lot, she hasn't complained much about the extra work. She also loves the kids at school.
We are still homeschooling our son because of his dysgraphia and sensory / endurance issues. He has been taking an online secular logic course through Northwestern, but easily transitioned over to classical curricula because of his interest in history and word origins (Latin). We would like to run his homeschooling curriculum roughly in parallel with our daughter's school so he has the option of entering it some time in the future. Our son is solidly in the dialectical stage (loves controversy, reasoning, and fallacies), and his writers block is melting away with Progymnasmata or the ancient exercises devised for budding orators. We'll blog more on those as well.
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