Announcing the Iris Festival, London (UK), June 2009

Coming this summer, the Iris Festival is a free, three-day festival celebrating the Classics and Greek drama! It will be held 17-19 June 2009 at the Scoop, City Hall, London, UK. Plays and performances will be presented by students from six inner London state-funded schools. The tentative schedule includes a double bill of Greek comedy by Aristophanes (the Birds and the Clouds), readings of classical poetry in translation and in Latin, and a Classical tragedy (possibly Euripides' Bacchae) performed by sixth form (equivalent to junior and senior level in the American high school system).

In addition, there will be activities (mosaic and mask making, storyboarding myths, etc.) for families to enjoy in the area alongside the venue.

To find out more, please visit the Iris Project to find out more about the different initiatives this wonderful organization sponsors in order to promote Classics for all students, regardless of background. The director of the Iris Project is Lorna Robinson, who has just published a new book, Cave Canem, a delightful compendium and commentary featuring Latin words and phrases.

Latin for Dyslexic and Blind Students

Do you have a Latin student who is blind or dyslexic who would benefit from having a digitally recorded textbook? Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic is a national, non-profit organization that provides educational materials to students with severe vision impairments (such as blindness or dyslexia). Subscribers to RFB&D must have a documented disability in order to use their library. Details are on their site.

You'll be happy to know that they have several popular Latin textbooks in their library, including the Cambridge Latin Course, Ecce Romani, and Jenney's Latin.

The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love!

Thinking about becoming a Latin teacher because you'll only teach brilliant, highly motivated kids in the TAG (Talented and Gifted) program?

Ginny Lindzey's insightful article It's a Lot of Work should be required reading for all Latin teacher candidates. Unless you are teaching in a highly selective prep school -- and even that's no guarantee -- you will have students with widely varying abilities. You will also have students with special needs.

It's estimated 1 in 150 children are on the autistic spectrum. Some have classic autism. Others have higher functioning forms of autism, including Asperger's Syndrome. These students are often quite academically able and may very well sign up for Latin. You will have to go to IEP meetings. Don't skip that special education course because you think you won't need it.

Latin Outreach in London, UK

The BBC News reports that inner city students in London will be learning Latin from 15 university students from Kings College and University College of London as part of a project conducted by the Iris Project, directed by Lorna Wing, and sponsored by various classical organizations in the United Kingdom. Teachers and students are responding enthusiastically to the project, which is getting a great deal of positive press coverage.

This is a initiative definitely worth following as it progresses!

Latin Teacher Retires After 30 Years

Gary LeGates, a Maryland Latin teacher, is retiring this year. Read more about his initial job search and outstanding career. (Blind Teacher Could See More Than Most, Examiner, July 14, 2007).

The Iris Project

The IRIS Project was created by Dr. Lorna Robinson, a Classics professor from the United Kingdom. The mission of the IRIS Project is to promote access to Latin, Ancient Greek and Classical Civilisation in state sector schools across Britain. Project organizers are setting up free workshops, pilot courses and theme days for schools. The IRIS Project hopes to ensure that the languages, myth, history, religion, literature of the Classical World are accessible to students from all socio-economic backgrounds. IRIS Magazine, described by the editor as a "a Classical magazine with a new and eclectic slant" is one of the major outreach initiatives of the project. The magazine is aimed at a secondary school audience and includes articles, poetry, puzzles, games, recipes and reviews. Overseas subscriptions are available.

Articles of note in the Spring '07 issue include Africanising the Classics (focusing on post-apartheid South Africa), Reinterpreting the Past in Popular Culture, and Modernising Monsters: Classics and Computer Games.

Latin, the Classics and Black History Month

In celebration of Black History Month, Bolchazy-Carducci is sharing three scholarly articles from the Classical Bulletin 76.2. Racial Ideology and the Classics in the African-American University Experience by Michele Valerie Ronnick; A Source for Ideology: The Classical Education of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Trudy Harrington Becker; and Socrates as a Model of Civil Disobedience in the Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. by William C. West.

Another outstanding resource for Black History Month is the 12 Black Classicists website, which was originally designed by Michele Valerie Ronnick as an accompaniment to the travelling photo exhibit of the same name. The photo exhibit debuted in 2004 and is currently being displayed (February 2007) at Trinity University in San Antonio. The website includes biographies of 12 prominent and historical African American Classicists as well as media, coverage, exhibit photos, and a bibliography. Michele Valerie Ronnick is an associate professor of Classics at Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan. She is the editor of The Works of William Sanders Scarborough: Black Classicist and Race Leader from the Collected Black Writings Series. She also wrote the introduction to The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship. You can visit Professor Ronnick's website here.