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When I teach Roman history, students often ask, “So is he good or bad?” It is fascinating that there is this part in them and me that wants to look at figures in history and make heroes or villains out of them. Do I root for Augustus or Marc Antony? Is Julius Caesar the bad guy, or is Brutus? Claudius was good, wasn’t he? This happens in the movies, too. In Cleopatra, to cite one example, Marc Antony is the lover and Octavian the power-hungry tyrant.
The reality is that almost none of these figures in Roman history were the “good” guys. They were pedophiles, womanizers, brutal to subordinates, dealers of death on massive scales, persecutors of Jews and Christians, and elitists. These sins don’t negate the fact that they were brilliant generals, moving speakers, defenders of the people, etc., but almost every one of these major figures had a closet full of skeletons. One very good portrayal of this grim fact is the HBO series Rome.
So who is the good guy? Who knows? But I still root for Augustus.
This year I opted for the Latin For Americans textbooks instead of the Oxford Latin Course.
Here is why I do not like the Oxford Latin Course.
1. The future tense is taught in Chapter 27, which is in the second book. (Book II starts with Chapter 17.) This means that my students were learning the future tense in their second year and missing any questions having to do with the future on their National Latin Exam, unless I quickly ran through it. By contrast, the Latin For Americans textbook teaches the future tense for the first and second conjugations in Lesson 6 (covered in the first nine weeks) and the future tense for the third and fourth conjugations in Lessons 32 and 34 (covered in the third nine weeks). Separating the two formations of the future is another improvement because the students are not overwhelmed by the two sets of endings.
2. The introduction of grammar in general is too slow-paced. Working through the three Oxford books, I usually complete the grammar halfway through Latin 3.
Additionally, the Oxford books are divided into two halves. The first introduces vocabulary, has a lengthy translation, and describes some aspect of Roman culture. The second section, located at the back of the book, is an explanation of grammar. I think that the authors’ intent for this strange division was to emphasize learning Latin through immersion in reading, but I do not believe this works very well. I also think the explanations of the grammatical concepts are not thorough enough.
3. The Oxford Latin Course readings are a continuous story, following the life of Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) from his childhood in Venusia to his death in Rome. The editors actually do a great job with this story, taking advantage of every opportunity to tell us about Roman life and the events of this particular period of history, which includes the assassination of Julius Caesar, the defeat of Brutus (and Horace, too, who fights in his army), the Battle of Actium (Quintus hears reports about this event), and the rise of Augustus. In the third book, readers learn about poetry as Horace meets Maecenas, Vergil, and Propertius. I applaud the editors for all the information they are able to cover while writing a continuous story following one Roman’s life, and part of me actually enjoys this about the Oxford books.
On the other hand, however, confining the story to Horace’s life, no matter how creative the editors are, confines the variety of things that Latin students get to read about. In Latin For Americans, the selections cover a broad area of topics and gives the editors more freedom.
4. The Oxford books can have very lengthy readings and long vocabulary lists with each chapter. The readings and vocabulary of LFA are much shorter and more varied. I find that students get bored if a story goes on and on.
5. Although the Oxford books cover the Trojan War and Aeneas’s love affair with Dido pretty well (Horace’s grammaticus tells these stories to his students), they do neglect the adventures of Odysseus and the other events of the Aeneid. The Oxford books also tell the Cupid and Psyche story well, but that is the extent of the mythology.
I am not altogether against the Oxford books. As noted above, I appreciate the variety of subjects that they accomplished within the framework of the Horace story. I especially appreciate the cultural explanations that accompany each chapter. And the readings, while lengthy, do immerse the students with Latin, which probably accustoms many of them to Latin prose. As a whole, however, I am glad to put down the Oxford textbooks.
Stay tuned for the end of the year, when I hope to review the Latin For Americans textbooks.
Frequently, as I display text from a microsoft document on my smartboard, students ask me how I am able to type the vowels with macrons over them (those long marks that distinguish long vowels from short). Well, the long and short of it is (sorry, I just couldn’t resist the pun), I programmed my computer to make a vowel long when I type that vowel while holding down the Alt button. For any teachers who do not already know how to do this, simply do the following:
1. From a Microsoft Word document, select the ”Insert” tab and then choose ”Symbol.”
2. From the wide array of symbols, click once on the “ā.”
3. With the symbols box still open, click on the “Shortcut Key…” box toward the bottom.
4. A “Customize Keyboard” window will appear. In the “Press New Shortcut Key” box, type in “a” while holding down the Alt button. (Of course, you can choose anything you like here, like Ctrl A or Shift A.)
5. Lastly, select “Assign,” then “Close,” and repeat for the other vowels.
I hope this is helpful.
Since it is the Christmas season, I have been trying to incorporate a bit of festive spirit into my classroom. We have been singing carols, translating the Luke 2 passage, and learning about Saturnalia.
The three carols we have been working on are Angelus Ad Virginem, Adeste Fideles, and Rudolphus. Since Angelus Ad Virginem is the most challenging, I made only the Latin 3 students translate it, supplying a couple of Medieval words that they did not have in their dictionaries. I personally love this song, and there is a great youtube video of a cheerful choir singing the first, third, and fifth stanzas. The students, however, have not been as excited about it, but then again, this year’s group is pretty grumbly and hard to please. Adeste Fideles is very simple Latin, appropriate for all classes, and there’s a nice youtube of Enya singing the first two verses. Rudolphus is the carol the students find most exciting because it tickles them to think of a modern, silly song being translated into Latin. Incidentally, there is a link on my blogroll to a wonderful site called Gaudium Mundo, which is dedicated to Christmas songs in Latin.
The Luke 2 passage presents a challenge both to the students and to me. The students have a difficult time with the vocabulary, and I have a difficult time keeping them from copying from their Bibles. But once we get past those itinital difficulties, the students have found that the Latin grammar and word order is much more simple than what they have been translating earlier in the year, and they enjoy translating a familiar story.
There is an old book called Augustus Caesar’s World: 44 B.C.- A.D. 14 by Genevieve Foster that my school’s library gave me when they were clearing out a few things. It’s really a book for junior high students, but it has great cultural, philosophical, and historical information, including a short section on the Saturnalia, which I used today to introduce the students to this holiday. The book is probably out of print, but it’s a great resource.
