Latin Inspires, Enthuses!

See Dr. Lorna Robinson's commentary in today's Independent (UK): "Dr. Lorna Robinson: 'Latin Inspires and Enthuses Children." Dr. Robinson directs the Iris Project, a British charity promoting Classics in schools, especially government-funded schools and schools in urban areas.

Edited to add: A companion article, "Haud Mea Culpa, Domina," in the same paper reports on a new initiative to bring Latin into British state primary schools and offers some conversational Latin as well. (American teachers dealing with No Child Left Behind legislation will certainly be able to sympathize with their British colleagues and find useful the translation for "Where does my school come in the league tables?")

Two Classics Programs, Different Outlooks

The Chicago Flame, which serves the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, asks in its current edition, "Will the Classics Department Survive?" According to the article, the department is in a period of "transition" and faces the loss of both the Greek and Latin major courses.

Meanwhile, The Hawk, the student newspaper of St. Joseph's University, a Catholic Jesuit school in Philadelphia, today sings the praises of their Classics department in "Keeping it Classy: Classics Majors Experience a Unique, Intimate Program."

The Saturnalia Solution

A columnist for the Bangor Daily News advises recent graduates and other job seekers to keep a positive attitude during their search for employment, explaining how "[getting] a grip on a little ancient history" can help them feel less alone and more upbeat about their plight. Read "Jobless? Party in the Spirit of Rome" (10 October 2009) by Rosemary Herbert.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief!

Fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series of books will be happy to know that the first trailer for the upcoming film The Lightning Thief has been released! (The trailer's release was apparently set to coincide with the premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which opens today!)

More on Power, Ambition, Glory, and the Benefits of a Classical Education

Tim O'Reilly, one of the foremost technology writers of the 21st century and the originator of the term "Web 2.0," was one of the individuals interviewed in a recent Forbes Magazine special report entitled "Power, Ambition, Glory." Mr. O'Reilly received his undergraduate degree in Greek and Latin Classics and is clearly not living a life of genteel poverty, despite having majored in the so-called "dead languages!"

Mr. O'Reilly clearly feels that his Classical education has had a profound effect upon his business career and his life. Since the Forbes report included only a very brief excerpt of his answers to their questions, he has published the entire interview, "The Benefits of a Classical Education," on his blog.

Power, Ambition, Glory and a Classics Degree!

So, what are you going to do with that Classics degree? Become a best-selling author? A renowned magician? A business entrepreneur? A famous politician? A Classicist?

See Forbes Magazine Business Visionaries website for a special report regarding the new book Power, Ambition, Glory: The Stunning Parallels Between Great Leaders of the Ancient World and Today...Lessons You Can Learn by Steve Forbes and John Prevas. Featured with the two videos and articles are 14 Leaders On the Classics - including Rita Mae Brown, Garrison Keillor, Teller (one-half of "Penn and Teller"), Robert Greene, and Charles M. Geschke, among others - relating how they apply the lessons they learned from their studies of the ancient world to their lives today.

The Thirteenth Labor of Hercules

It's Friday!  Enjoy this "news" article about the 13th Labor of Hercules brought to you by the Onion!

But Did They Have An Oprah's Book Club?

Classicist, author and blogger Mary Beard describes the glitzy, superficial publishing world of Ancient Rome in this weekend's New York Times Sunday Book Review. Or is she talking about London and New York City, with all the "money-­making booksellers, exploited and impoverished authors, celebrity book launches and career-making prizes." Not to mention the bookstore employees working for slave wages!

"Scrolling Down the Ages" (April 16, 2009) is a must-read!

The Books That Got Away!

Littera scripta manet, sometimes.... ("The written word endures.")

Today's Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article about the books that got away.

"Longing for Great Lost Works: From Shakespeare's 'Cardenio' to Ovid's Getic poetry, missing texts hold tantalizing possibilities." (April 18, 2009)

Renewed Promotion of the Classics at the Ivy Colleges

Boston.com reports that Harvard is encouraging the study of the Classics, astronomy, and other undersubscribed majors by increasing the number of freshman seminars taught by highly regarded professors. Other Ivy League schools are also increasing their efforts to sell the Classics, Near Eastern, and Islamic studies.

With the stratospheric cost of tuition these days, this article points out that choosing a major in an uncommon field very often comes with the benefit of small, personalized classes and more individualized attention.

Majoring in Classics doesn't necessarily lead to genteel poverty. Check out the National Committee for Latin and Greek's website out for a list of famous Classics majors who found gainful and sometimes even lucrative employment!

Diogenes and his Lamp in the NYT

An op-ed piece in today's New York Times calls to mind Diogenes, his lamp, and Greek philosophy in Cynicism We Can Believe In.

If the Romans in Britain had 31 Flavors of Ice Cream...

In fact, if the Romans in Britain had ice cream at all, they would have enjoyed apple and cinnamon, cherry and honey flavors. Modern day Britons who live near Vindolanda and Hadrian's Wall can now enjoy Roman Britain Ice Cream from the Doddington Dairy in Northumberland, UK. You can read all about it in A Taste of Roman Times (The Berwick Advertiser newspaper, 18 March 2009) as well as checking out the official Doddington Dairy Roman Britain Ice Cream webpage.

Thanks to the Association for Latin Teaching's outstanding weblog for pointing this one out!

Visit Hadrian's Wall Country to find out even more about Roman Vindolanda. Also see Oxford University's Vindolanda Tablets Online site to view images of the actual Vindolanda Tablets, which were excavated from the Romano-British fort and are referenced in the Berwick article. (Those of you who teach using Minimus will definitely find these pages interesting, as the course is set in Vindolanda.)

Happy Pi Day!

The Ides of March are coming tomorrow, but today is Pi Day! The Greek letter π is of course the symbol for the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, equivalent to 3.1415926535...

We can't let the mathematicians have all the fun. Classicists love the number π because it's also a Greek consonant letter!

Pi day is celebrated every March 14, the fourteenth day of the third month, or 3/14.

To find out more about Pi Day, visit the Official Pi Day website, where you can find out all about the history of pi, discuss the number pi, send an e-card, buy pi stuff, get ideas for your own pi party, and much more! There are also some great lesson ideas at the Teach Pi website.

You can also listen to a wonderful BBC Radio 4 program all about Pi.

A lesser known, and less-often celebrated mathematical holiday is Square Root Day.

No Escape from Pompeii

Discovery Channel News reports the reconstruction of the final hours of a prominent Pompeii family who perished following the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius, by analyzing the layers of volcanic ash and examining the DNA from skeletons found in the home. This is a perfect opportunity to show the connection between science and the study of Latin and the Classics. This article is accompanied by some excellent links to a slideshow and podcast and extension activities. Latin teachers who use the Cambridge Latin Course Unit I will find this reconstruction particularly relevant, but it will be of interest to anyone fascinated by life in Ancient Rome. A great deal of our modern understanding of the Ancient Romans comes from the archaeological evidence excavated at Pompeii and Herculaneum, in combination with accounts from historical and literary texts (see Pliny VI, 16, 20 for a Latin language account of the catastrophe.)

If you live near or will be travelling to Washington D.C. this winter, the National Gallery of Art is hosting Pompeii and the Roman Villa, a major exhibition featuring art, objects and artifacts pertaining to the disaster. Visit the NGA site for video background, exhibition guides, links to podcasts from behind the scenes, and information about related tours, lectures and talks.

Start Studying Greek and Latin Now

According to to Charlotte Higgins, a British Classicist, "to understand the next four years of American politics, you are going to need to understand something of the politics of ancient Greece and Rome." Writing for The Guardian, a major British daily, she asserts that Barack Obama is "The New Cicero," (November 26, 2008) an intellectual politician and gifted orator. Ms. Higgins gives concrete examples of the rhetorical techniques employed by the President-Elect. No matter which candidate you may have voted for, it's a fascinating article.

To learn more about Cicero and his discourse on rhetorical technique, you can read his De Oratore ("On the Orator") either in the Latin original or in English translation. An excellent resource for learning more about rhetoric and rhetorical devices is Dr. Gideon Burton's Silva Rhetorica ("the Forest of Rhetoric") at Brigham Young University.

Soap Operas and Sophocles: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Healing

Only the term "post traumatic stress disorder" is new. PTSD has been around for thousands of years. Over the centuries, this theme has become part of poetic and dramatic tradition. Ancient and modern authors have written about it and explored it in epic and tragedy.

Recently the ABC soap opera All My Children cast JR Martinez, an actual Iraq vet (and a spokesperson for the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes) in a storyline about a returning soldier who has chosen to hide his identity from his wife (whose character is also a veteran, portrayed by career actress Beth Ehlers) due to the extent of his injuries. So, what does an afternoon soap opera have to do with the Classics? Like the ancient Greeks, Americans are trying to understand what it means to have served in combat and what that does to a soldier and his family.

Soldiers, returning home from war, have always had to deal with the trauma of what they have seen and endured, often in isolation, because they cannot begin to describe the horrors of war to those who have not also experienced it. (See a recent public service announcement, Alone, from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Community of Veterans Project for a deeply moving depiction of this isolation, as well as links to support.)

On the November 25, 2008 airing of National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Elizabeth Bair relates how the tragedies of the ancient Greek Sophocles resonate with audiences of contemporary veterans and their families. Listen to In Ancient Dramas, Vital Words for Today's Warriors for a powerful story of the emotional toll of war, as well as hope and healing. There you'll also find several accompanying videos from recent productions of Ajax and Philoctetes, performed for veterans at a recent Warrior Resilience Conference.

To explore more about how the Ancient Greeks can help us understand the psychic wounds of war, also see the works of psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character and its sequel Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming. Dr. Shay does an incredible job of showing the parallels between the experiences of the Homeric warriors and those of contemporary American soldiers.

Please remember the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen still serving far from home and family during your Thanksgiving this week.

A Love of Books and Languages

Anthony Marshall, "a linguist by temperament and training" as well as a bookseller by trade, writes about how his love of languages -- particularly Latin -- has benefited him (not necessarily in monetary terms) in "Minding My Languages," the current lead article in the November/December 2008 issue of Book Source Magazine, a journal of the antiquarian book trade. Interestingly enough, although customers seem to enjoy browsing through all the foreign language books that he has stocked in his Melbourne (Australia) store, these books do not generally sell very well. Mr. Marshall says his best sellers in the foreign language category are, without a doubt, Latin and Greek.

Stephen Colbert cantat!

Stephen Colbert sang "Happy Birthday" to his mother -- in Latin -- on Comedy Central's Colbert Report TV show last night (Thursday, November 6, 2008, last segment of the show).

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Happy 88th Birthday, Mom Colbert
www.colbertnation.com
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Last April, he sang "Felicem Natalem Diem" to celebrate Pope Benedict XVI's birthday.

Nota Bene: Latin is an Elitist Language

It was bound to happen eventually. According to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, some local council governments in the UK have decided to ban the use of Latin phrases in official documents. Among the phrases no longer acceptable are et cetera (etc.), id est (ie.) and quid pro quo. Read all about it in Councils Ban 'Elitist' and 'Discriminatory' Latin phrases (Daily Telegraph, November 2, 2008). Also included in the article is a handy list of English equivalents for Latin terms considering confusing.

Latin Teachers in the News!

A very recent article in the Delta Democrat Times of Greenville, MS, showcases Simmons High School's energetic Latin teacher Austin Walker and his bright and ambitious students. Read Hollandale Students Learn Roman Empire's Language.

Students in inner-city Hackney and other disadvantaged London (UK) boroughs are learning Latin, thanks to the Iris Project and Classics students from University College London and Kings College London. You can read more about this project at the Daily Telegraph in Latin, the Language of Literacy.

Illinois Latin Teacher Brian Tibbets (Monmouth-Roseville High School), has been featured in this week's Galesburg Register-Mail (October 20, 2008) after being awarded the Illinois Classical Conference Latin Teacher of the Year award. Read Latin is Not a Dead Language at MRHS.

Rocktown Weekly has a wonderful story entitled Rident Stolidi Verba Latina ("Fools Laugh at the Latin Language") (Link no longer active) highlighting the elementary school Latin classes taught by Arthur Rogers at Redeemer Classical School in Virginia.