Can anyone link me to articles on teaching ancient languages to children, particularly OLDER ones geared to the idea of a child becoming fluent in both Latin and Greek BEFORE entering university?
There are a glut of books coming out about a classical education for children, but they are not right for our family. The focus is on LOTS of writing, outlining and reading fiction. My math orientated child is willing to do a BIT of that, but it's a real struggle for him.
We were talking a bit again this morning and he is VERY interested in being able to read logic, math and science books in the original languages, though.
I'm very interested in what a classical education was like 100, 200 and 300 years ago.
Can anyone direct me to something meatier than "The Well Trained Mind"??
articles on teaching ancient languages to children
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katb4now
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Astraea
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I am also interested in sharing the learning of Greek with my daughter, so I noted this link recently posted on this site under another topic:
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~glawall/NwGrkCrs.pdf
I'm not experienced enough to know if the dialect is Homeric.
I'm sorry that I don't have an answer to the original question about classical education and resources for teaching Greek to a Math-oriented child. While I do think it can be useful to look at the educational methods of the past, in my particular case, as a parent, I am happy with the methods of today, so I have not had any motivation to investigate alternatives.
I have noticed that often a talent for Math and a talent for (and interest in) Linguistics go together. That might be an avenue to explore. A language is based on a system of rules and patterns, and I think that appeals to Math-oriented people.
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~glawall/NwGrkCrs.pdf
I'm not experienced enough to know if the dialect is Homeric.
I'm sorry that I don't have an answer to the original question about classical education and resources for teaching Greek to a Math-oriented child. While I do think it can be useful to look at the educational methods of the past, in my particular case, as a parent, I am happy with the methods of today, so I have not had any motivation to investigate alternatives.
I have noticed that often a talent for Math and a talent for (and interest in) Linguistics go together. That might be an avenue to explore. A language is based on a system of rules and patterns, and I think that appeals to Math-oriented people.
Last edited by Astraea on Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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adz000
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I think a classical education 100, 200, and 300 years ago was full of exactly the kind of stuff your math-oriented child doesn't enjoy: sickening amounts of composition and grammatical exercise. It seemed to cause a lot of trouble for everyone, no matter what orientation, which is why it went the way of the dodo.
Of course, the flip side of that is that no one in college, including some professors, now has fluency with Latin and Greek like someone did 100, or even 50 years ago coming out of a high-performing high school.
In math maybe Newton's worth reading and maybe Euclid, if you're really a die-hard and are more interested in the history of math, rather than math itself. But nothing is worth reading in science older than about 10 years, and that's probably pushing the best-if-used-by date in most fields.
Of course, the flip side of that is that no one in college, including some professors, now has fluency with Latin and Greek like someone did 100, or even 50 years ago coming out of a high-performing high school.
In math maybe Newton's worth reading and maybe Euclid, if you're really a die-hard and are more interested in the history of math, rather than math itself. But nothing is worth reading in science older than about 10 years, and that's probably pushing the best-if-used-by date in most fields.