The paradigm shift seen in technology’s impact on education is illusory. I test the hypothesis that the entire manifold of technical innovations is merely formal against evident reality, and it holds up. The human communicative apparatus has expanded, while the fundamental purpose of communication remains the same. Teachers have always been public figures. Now we are highly public: but the basic fact of being public is unchanged. Whether your words and actions are noted in wax on a wooden tablet, or immediately posted on U-Tube: it’s essentially the same thing. The difference is merely one of degree.
What struck me most in the class discussion was the idea of authenticity, a consciousness that one’s cloistered academic work interfaces with academia itself as a larger environment and with the world at large. At first glance, this interface seems more relevant in the sciences, including the social sciences, where non-academic applications are clearly at stake.
Latin, on the other hand, is the poster child for irrelevant. German and French and Spanish have immediate relevance given the millions of living speakers of those living languages, and world language as a field has ready application in the crucial role of language itself in society and the world. But Latin is a dead language, and it is tempting to keep it a cloistered subject for initiates only.
I see the interface of academic subject and broader world as parallel to the cognitive function of relating content to the reader’s experiences outside the text: it only really makes sense once it is brought into some kind of alignment with reality. Latin writings are surprisingly sophisticated on the whole, especially those from the Classical period. And the Romans were extremely—if not quintessentially—political. So something as seemingly remote to the field as the New York Soda Ban is in point of fact very close to the heart of Roman thought.
I designed curriculum that first has students interpret raw data to figure out how sugar arrived in Italy (in the Middle Ages), and, second, to compare limits on sugar consumption to Roman limits on things as diverse as freedom, tyranny, Christianity, and paganism. Please read through my plan and give me useful feedback. Thank you! Preston
This is how I would curricularize for Latin (as a unit over a few sessions) the article on the New York Soda Ban:
I. Students individually read hard copies of the article in class (10 minutes) with the following three questions in mind: (1) What is to be limited by governmental measures? [i.e. sugar] (2) What are the reasons for limiting it? (3) What specific limits of behavior are imposed? Brief teacher-led group follow-up discussion on questions 1-3.
II. Teacher explains that sugar was unknown among the Romans, hence there is no Latin word for it. But the Italians have had the word zucchero since the Middle Ages. Teacher provides students with a set of etymological and chronological facts, and a base map of Eurasia (an outline map) with the following four areas labeled: India, Persia, Arabia, Spain, Italy. Based on the etymology and chronology, groups of three reconstruct and date the historical path of sugar [from ancient India, through Persia, and via the Arabs into Spain and the rest of Western Europe]. Here are the etymology (from Webster) and chronology:
Etymology:
Sugar: ME sugre, suger, sucre, F. sucre (cf. It. zucchero, Sp. azúcar), fr. Ar. Sukkar, assukkar, fr. Skr. çarcarā sugar, gravel; cf. Per. shak(k)ar.
Key:
Ar.: Arabic
cf.: compare
F.: French
fr.: from
It.: Italian
ME: Middle English
Per.: Persian
Skr.: Sanskrit
Sp.: Spanish
Chronology:
753 B.C.: Romulus founds the city of Rome.
510 B.C.: Death of Tarquinus Superbus, the last king of Rome. Brutus founds the Roman Republic.
59 B.C.-17 A.D.: Life of Livy (Titus Livius), author of the history of Rome entitled Ab urbe condita.
c. 1 A.D.: Sugar used in India.
303-311 A.D.: The emperor Diocletian’s persecution of the Christians.
264-340 A.D.: Life of Eusebius of Caesarea, author of De Martyribus Palastinae.
438 A.D.: Issuance of the Theodosian Code.
711 A.D.: Arab conquest of Spain.
1150-1550: Middle English spoken.
1472: Publication of Dante Alighieri’s Italian masterpiece La Divina Commedia.
1478: Publication of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Middle English masterpiece The Canturbury Tales.
III. Using the projector, teacher navigates to an on-line original Latin version of the Theodosian Code, which among many other laws bans pagan worship. The class collectively translates Cth.16.10.0. De paganis, sacrificiis et templis. Incl.: 16.10.2: “Cesset superstitio, sacrificiorum aboleatur insania.” [“Superstition must end, the insanity of sacrifices must be abolished.”] 16.10.6: “Poena capitis subiugari praecipimus eos, quos operam sacrificiis dare vel colere simulacra constiterit.” [“We command that those who perform sacrifices or worship cult statues shall be subjected to capital punishment.”] Students are directed to the Theodosian Code on-line (at http://ancientrome.ru/ius/library/codex/theod/tituli.htm) and are directed to open TITULI EX CORPORE THEODOSIANO. Working individually, students peruse the Code and find laws that ban other behaviors. They translate phrases and short passages from their chosen selection.
IV. As homework assignments, students are directed to read distributed hard copies of the following short Latin texts. For each text, students write an answer to the same three questions as posed in reference to the article on the New York Soda Ban: (1) What is to be limited by governmental measures? (2) What are the reasons for limiting it? (3) What specific limits of behavior are imposed? The texts:
a. Livy’s Ab urbe condita I..xlix. [Livy’s description of the repressive rule of archaic Rome’s last monarch, Tarquinus Superbus]. Additional questions: What does Livy mean when he writes that Tarquin governed “domesticis consiliis” (“from his basement”)? To what extent might you detect this style of governance at play in the New York Soda Ban (or not)? [In Livy, freedom is banned via tyrannical measures.]
b. Ab urbe condita I.lix. [suicide of Lucretia, Brutus’ vow to rid Rome of monarchy “by fire and sword”] and i.lx. [Brutus establishes the Republic, end of Book I]. [Here monarchy is banned.]
c. Latin excerpt from Eusebius of Caesarea’s De Martyribus Palastinae describing Diocletian’s persecution of the Christians. [Translated sample: The first of the martyrs of Palestine was Procopius, who, before he had received the trial of imprisonment, immediately on his first appearance before the governor's tribunal, having been ordered to sacrifice to the so-called gods, declared that he knew only one to whom it was proper to sacrifice, as he himself wills. But when he was commanded to offer libations to the four emperors, having quoted a sentence which displeased them, he was immediately beheaded. The quotation was from the poet: “The rule of many is not good; let there be one ruler and one king.”]
d. Theodosian Code XVI [banning paganism].
V. In class, groups of three students make continuum diagrams in response to the following questions:
a. Where would your group locate on a spectrum ranging from harmful to harmless the following banned items based on the reading selections: sugar, freedom, monarchy, and religion?
b. Where would your group locate on a spectrum ranging from tyrannical to just the following governmental actions:
i. The New York Soda Ban.
ii. Tarquin’s suppression of freedom.
iii. Brutus’ destruction of monarchy.
iv. Diocletian’s persecution of Christians.
v. Theodosius’ banning of paganism.
Explain the relative location of each item on your continuum diagram. Collective class discussion of results.
