High School Greek
From the Athenaze Newsletter, Fall 1995
by John D. Towle, Ph.D. Williams School New London, Connecticut
So you want to teach Greek. Now that is a serious proposition. Although
Latin is on the rise in high schools, especially in private schools, Greek
is another question. Administrators are pressed by financial
considerations, curriculum committees, by the most efficacious program,
and students, by science, math, history, and English. No one, it would
seem, is eager for more. Yet, while Greek may be another question, it is
not out of the question, especially if you are now teaching Latin.
You must begin by persuading yourself that Classics is more important
than just Latin. For all the significance that Latin has, it is less than
half of what's possible. A student who knows both Greek and Latin has
equal access to the entire bedrock of Western Civilization. If you do
Classics at all, you know that such equal access is synergistic in its
educational results. Secondly, you must recognize that your administrators
are not going to have more money and more teachers to help you introduce
Greek. You must be content with the number of classes and teachers now at
your disposal. Curriculum committees can ask hard questions, but the
members will be more easily reconciled if they are assured that you will
not be snatching students from other programs and that you are not putting
up Classics to replace anything else. Finally, if you have students who
are willing to enter a Latin class, it should not be hard to convince them
that Greek is the other half of the subject they came to study.
There were some advantages at the Williams School (285 students) in New
London, Connecticut, when I decided to introduce a Classics program there
three years ago. Latin was well embedded in the school. It was required of
all 8th graders, and there was a three-year language requirement of all
students in grades 9 through 12. They could do French, Spanish, or Latin.
There were Latin classes in each grade level, and there were enough
students in each class to make it a working program. A Greek I class for
seniors had been introduced a few years earlier, but the results were not
good. In one year so little was done that no student graduated knowing
enough Greek to use it in college. Consequently, it seemed best to drop
Greek or to introduce it at an earlier level.
I began with the Headmaster by persuading him that Greek could be
introduced into the current Latin classes at the sophomore level without
detrimental effect upon the quality of Latin instruction. I argued that
the similarity in grammatical structures between the two languages would
reinforce each other, and as a result the Latin students would be better.
When he determined that no additional money, teachers, or sections would
be needed, he agreed to send me to the curriculum committee. He
recommended that Greek be introduced on a provisional basis. He said that
the committee would want to know how the program would begin, what each
step in its development would involve, and how it would operate when fully
in place. He suggested that some way be found to test the program which
would indicate that Latin instruction was not being hindered by the time
spent on Greek.
At the curriculum committee it was pointed out that Williams used the
three volumes of the Oxford Latin Course as texts for Latin I (8th grade),
and Latin II and Latin III. Latin IV was given to the reading of Latin
authors (usually two), and Latin V was the Vergil AP class. I recommended
the introduction of volume I of the Greek text Athenaze (Balme and Lawall,
Oxford University press, 1991) into Latin III (the sophomore section).
During this year 10 of the 16 chapters in this book would be done. In the
next year the remaining 6 chapters of this text would be finished together
with 4 chapters of volume II of Athenaze. In the senior year a new course,
Greek III, would replace the then-current Greek I class. Latin V would
continue as a Latin-only section for AP preparation. The result would be
that over three years the two volumes of Athenaze would be completed by
those students who finished Greek III. Since the senior course load was
less restrictive than the lower years, it would be possible for students
to take both Greek III and Latin V, but it would not be possible for
seniors in other languages to abandon Spanish or French to enter Greek
III, a process which had been happening with the Greek I course. The
committee was assured that the amount of Latin done in all the affected
classes would not be lessened. The Greek would be in addition to the usual
Latin requirements. To provide a check on the program, the National Latin
Examination and the Connecticut State Latin Contest would be administered
to all Classics students each year (about 140 students). At least 20% of
the Classics students should score in the top 20% of these two exams. In
addition, junior Classics students would be encouraged to take the Latin
Achievement Test (SAT II).
The matter went far better with the students than expected. I told them
that the G in Greek stood for grades and that they had better get good
ones. A test in Latin and a test in Greek were equal, and from the outset
it was shown exactly where they were going in each language. The
enthusiasm was outstanding. In that first year more Latin was read than in
the previous year, and all required Greek was completed. The grades were
good all around, and the external exams had results better than predicted
to the curriculum committee. The second year of the program went as well
as the first with all students at least completing the required materials
and some doing more than required in the Greek. The school year ending in
June 1995 completed the third year of the provisional program. The first
group of Greek III students (5 of them) graduated. So successful has the
program been that not one person (student, faculty, or administrator) has
suggested that it should not continue.
The results foreshadow more than I expected. Since lower-class students
keep a close eye on what their older fellows are doing, the standards of
achievement set by the first group have been broken each year by the class
behind them. This last year was the first opportunity for larger numbers
to show themselves at the sophomore level. As opposed to 10 sophomores, I
had 16. Next year 24 students are signed up for Classical Languages III.
To keep the class size appropriate, I have had to resort to 2 sections.
Furthermore, 19 of these students are overloaded, carrying a full list of
courses including either French or Spanish. If all carry through in
Classics into their junior year, and if a similar number sign up for
Classical Languages III next year, I will have more sections than can be
taught by the present staff. Then it will be necessary to see the
Headmaster about a third, full-time, Classics teacher.
In some ways it might be thought that teaching Latin and Greek in the
same class is a compromise, and that would certainly be true at the
college level. But in a small private school, or in a large school with a
small department, it is not the case. I have found that the best road to
success is the treatment of these languages as a serious academic study. I
tell my students that we are not here for toga parties but to become
educated human beings. To that end their job is to learn these languages
now. Since it is put up seriously, the students take it seriously. They
appear in my classes more excited, more enthusiastic, and more willing to
work than ever. So if you want to teach Greek, and you are strapped by
money, staff, sections and even dubious colleagues, don't give up. Double
the load, and make it serious.
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