"Latin is a dead language". Methinks not!

About a year ago, I decided to take on the task of tutoring a group of high school students through Classical Conversations Challenge II level.  This commitment includes being prepared to tutor Latin.  Having never studied Latin, I wasn't sure where to begin. I wanted my studies to be formal and systematic, and maybe even fun. But, as I read about the many methods to study Latin, I also came across numerous articles and book chapters that included the phrase, "Latin is a dead language..." usually followed by, "but here's why you should study it anyway".  That phrase alone is enough to keep most of us disinterested in pursuing Latin.  It makes the study sound pointless and futile; "well, it's really a dead language no one speaks anymore, but it's good for you, so do it anyway."

All this time, I accepted the premise that Latin is no longer spoken anywhere in the world.  It is, however, the basis for many modern languages and therefore beneficial as a foundation for other language study.  That's all fine and good.

Then, last week, while studying something completely different, the topic of Latin sprang up in a highly unexpected place.  Let me explain. I have a fascination with health, fitness, and nutrition.  In my down time, I study books, articles, websites and podcasts related to this triad of topics.  So, last week I listened to the Rich Roll podcast as he interviewed Matt Ruscigno, a registered dietician and endurance athlete.  In the course of their conversation, longevity was mentioned as well as the title of a book I'd never read.  The Blue Zone.  Being the book addict that I am, I immediately searched for it at the library.  The author highlights regions of the world where higher percentages of the population live astoundingly long lives.  Not just longer lives, but lives full of health and vitality long into their 80s, 90s and 100s.

The basic subject matter of the book is intriguing, but what made me stop in my tracks, put the book down and laugh "AHA!" aloud in an empty room was what I read on page 34.

     "The original Sardinians, in fact, did not keep their ancient Nuraghic languages.  The Romans had subjugated them long enough that, by the time they escaped to the mountains, they had adopted Latin, which has survived the centuries remarkably intact.  In the Sardinian dialect spoken in the Blue Zone, for example, the word for house is still the Latin word domus.  Their pronunciation more closely resembles Latin too.  The English word sky is cielo in Italian but is kelu in Sardinian, preserving the hard K sound as it was pronounced in the original Latin caelum (ka-AY-lum).  The same goes for sentence structure.  A modern-day Italian says io bevo vino (I drink wine) but Sardinians would say it as an ancient Roman would have, io vino bevo (I wine drink)."

It appears that Latin is not a dead language after all.  When I read the paragraph above to my Latin students, one of them announced "I think this calls for a field trip!"  What a way to breathe new life in to the study of a not-so-dead language!

Lost and Found

I’ve been discouraged lately.  My work with Classical Conversations has been hard.  It has left me feeling that I have too little time to work with my own children in their studies.  I’ve been overwhelmed and ready to quit.  I have questioned whether this is really the model I want us to follow.  It takes so much time to study all the various parts of the curriculum.  We are rarely fully prepared for our seminar days.  I don’t like constantly feeling behind.  Even though we all study hard, it feels like there are not enough hours in the day to get it all done.  Honestly, I have been ready to build an exit plan and try something else.

The questions have rattled my brain:  Why am I, why are we - doing this? Why are we doing this, this way?  I don’t want to spend eight hours a day studying.  I don’t want my children parked at a table all day studying.  Where is the creativity? The inspiration?  The love of learning?  This has been the running dialogue in my head for weeks.

My children are all very artistic and creative, but a couple struggle with mild to moderate dyslexia.  I’ve read a lot about learning styles and individualized plans to help work with the strengths of divergent learners.  I recently even explored a local educational option that works specifically with teens who “don’t fit the mold of standard school”. I was looking for something different, maybe even "easier", because what we are doing is very hard - for all of us.  We have never used “standard school” but the past three semesters of Classical Conversations have felt more school-ish than anything else we've ever done.  I joined primarily to find community and accountability for my oldest son.  We were planning for his senior year, and while he wanted to continue homeschooling, he also wanted something different for this final year.  It was a good experience.  He learned.  We all learned.

This year, however, I am also tutoring a Challenge II class - the equivalent of 10^th grade.  I have had to put in so much study time to support my tutoring that it leaves little time for the other study I’d really like to be doing. (namely, on nutrition, fitness, entrepreneurship, gardening).  I’ve become resentful of the time required to prepare for my job as tutor.  I want more time for my own stuff.  I’ve been whining.  At first just to myself.  Lately though, I’ve whined to my family and even to my students.  Not cool.

Then I ran a marathon.  

That day stands out as significant on many points. I will write a post on the other factors later.  The part that matters here though, is that running that marathon was a huge breakthrough for me physically and mentally.  Never in my life - ever - had anyone suggested to me that I might be a runner.  For me to run my first 5K was a departure from the normal course of my adult life.  The marathon took this to an entirely different level.  It taught me that setting a high goal matters more than I realized.  If I had never set the marathon goal, I never would have accomplished all the smaller goals I met in the process of training.  By putting that marathon goal out there, I had to dedicate time and attention to preparation.  Long hours of preparation.  Changes in schedule.  In lifestyle.  In priorities.  Somewhere along the course that day and over the hours following the race, I realized how the same training model relates to our family’s educational process.  If we don’t set high, difficult academic goals - we may not even meet the shorter smaller goals that we’d rather set.  Those long hours of study actually make me crave the physical work of running and cycling.  The study also makes me crave creative outlets of music, art and cuisine.  If I take away the challenge of study, do I risk losing the impetus for the other pursuits?  A change in expectation, by changing our curriculum may prove to be more compromising in the end.

I could say, I’ve come full circle and am ready to start fresh with CC.  Really, this was more than full circle, more like climbing a winding mountain road and having my perspective shift and change through the journey.  This exploration of intent and content has taken me to a more solid platform than just a mental do-over.  I have a high regard for the wisdom of those in CC who have gone before me as parents educating their children at home.  It is right for me to be attentive to their words, and to yield to this process of being both a parent/teacher to my own children and a tutor/mentor to the students in my class.   

 Some days, I haven’t even wanted to want to do well with school.  I’ve been that disheartened.  The desire has been rekindled now.  I am ready to submit to the work it will take to finish this year well.  Kind of like my marathon goals: don’t quit, don’t get hurt, finish strong... and smiling!

November 24, 2013  Finished smiling!

  

ambivalence

When I started this blog, I thought I knew exactly how it would move forward.  It hasn’t followed the path I anticipated though.  For one thing, it’s hard for me to be consistent with posting.  Blogging takes real work.  I have a new respect for those writers who post every week.  

I also think I edit ideas so much in my head that not enough ends up on the page.  I talk myself out of some posts because I don’t think they matter enough to be made public. I am my own worst critic and not a very good team player on my private brainstorm committee. 

I’m still trying to find my voice; find what it is that motivates and inspires me enough to put in the work of writing.  

Embracing Latin

Part of my role as a Challenge II director with Classical Conversations is to tutor my
students in Latin. Up until about a year ago, I had never even browsed through a Latin
book. Over the past twelve months, I've dabbled in a bit of Latin. I completed 16 or so
exercises from Henle Latin Book I with my sons as they studied Latin for the first time. I
learned worked on the noun declensions with my Foundation level students last year.
This year however, I am responsible to lead weekly Latin discussions for my students.
Many are new to the course, like me, but several have spent two or more years studying
Latin. I am really not equipped to guide these discussions.

I've struggled with this reality. I've tried to catch up quickly in order to be prepared. Ive
discovered something; learning Latin is not to be rushed, but it should be embraced.

I've spent the past month looking for shortcuts to learning Latin so that I can get ahead
and be able to instruct my students better. Shortcuts aren't helping. During a
conversation with another tutor this week, I heard her mention the memorization she
expects from her level B students. I tucked that thought away for later. I have been
diligently memorizing vocabulary, but I really don't know my noun endings well enough
to complete my exercises without looking at a declension chart. This really slows down
the process of learning. It's not unlike having to look up your multiplication facts while
trying to work Algebra equations, or having a fingering chart nearby while you try to
learn a piece of music. I was missing a core concept; to gain fluency in any new
subject, one must submit to memorization of basic facts. The mind cannot draw from
that which has not been absorbed through memorization.

For the past five days I've put myself through drills on the noun endings - several times
a day. It's tedious. Can I say boring? It requires work to train the brain. Just like it
takes work to train the body. Immediate results are not possible, but discipline over time
yields results. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait weeks and weeks to see the fruit of my
learning labors. In Latin the endings of the words tell you the part of speech it holds.
Knowing the endings, and therefore job of each word, is the key to accurate translation.
I thought I would be able to just pick it up over time. That somehow, by looking up each
ending as I went along, I'd still accomplish the memorization. It's not working. There is
something different that happens in the brain when you are actively attempting
memorization. You are intentionally putting information in storage for the specific
purpose of retrieving it again and again. With my "look it up as I go" method, I was only
solving the immediate problem of answering a specific question in an exercise. There
was no intent to fully engage with the knowledge. To get different results, I had to
change the way I approached the subject. My first change was memorization.

Last night, once again, I sat down to work through another set of Latin I exercises. I first
drilled my noun endings. I still don't have them perfect, but I discovered something
wonderful when I moved into the next lesson. I understood. I was beginning to see the
language and to translate. I could access that noun ending chart from the image of it
stored in my brain. It was there for me to use because I put it there through
memorization. A small victory yes, but one I can continue to build on as I surrender to
the necessary components of learning Latin.

So, what's the point? To what end am I studying Latin? Some people ask me the same
question about running and cycling. Why do you run? Why would you ride 100 miles in
a day? What do you hope to achieve? Part of the answer to each of these questions is
very similar. It's about pushing myself to use my body and mind beyond what I
previously thought possible. I am testing my limits. (It's also about stewardship, which
will be the topic of a future post.)

Running and cycling have taught me the benefits of training my body. They demand the
discipline of consistent physical work over time. This training has also made me aware
of the need to harness my mind. Distance running and cycling require as much mental
effort as physical. Studying Latin is showing me how to challenge my mind in an even
deeper, yet complementary way. I am attempting to stretch the definition of crosstraining
beyond its common meaning. I am training my mind and training my body. I
believe this same mental discipline I exert in Latin will also enhance my workouts. I
know that the physical work of endurance sports sharpens my mind.

This is only a partial answer to why I am studying Latin. I'll save the rest of the answer
for another time. Suffice it to say, the benefits outweigh the work; and it is work. The
effort is like the intentional time required to grow in any other activity or to develop a
relationship. I cannot gain all there is to be gained from this study unless I respect the
work required. To this end, I embrace the Latin.