Non oratorem, non senatorem, sed piscatorem
"Not an orator, not a senator, but a fisherman."
-St. Augustine
HABEMUS VICTRICEM!
- Memoria Press Contest
 ast
month, we offered you, our readers, Resonet in Laudibus, a charming
little Latin Christmas hymn. We said that the entrant with the
best translation of the hymn would win a million dollars. No.
Not really. We don't have a million dollars. But we do have
books, and we offered a free book from Memoria Press to the winner.
Well, we have a winner. Her name is Kira Maffett.
Kira is 12 years old and is in the seventh grade. Her studies
include Latin: First Year, by Henle, American History
for Young Catholics, Basic Greek, English, Traditional
Logic (from Memoria Press), and Math 76. She
claims to be a horrible keyboard player, but we are wondering
how someone who wins a Memoria Press contest can be horrible at
anything.
She also says she loves to read, knit, bake, cook, "and hold numerous
discussions with my Dad." We will naturally assume that
they talk about logic and that their discussions are conducted
in Latin. We would encourage the other students out there
to double up on those Latin lessons to give Kira some competition.
Kira selected, as the book of her choice, Latin: Second Year,
by Henle. By clicking here,
you will find the hymn in Latin, Kira's version, and the our official
translation with which entries were compared. Thanks for
participating!
| In Defense
of the Permanent Things
One of the great Christian thinkers
of modern times explains the importance of the unity of
knowledge.
 I
have said that all branches of knowledge are connected together,
because the subject matter of knowledge is intimately united
in itself, as being the acts and the work of the Creator.
Hence it is that the Sciences, into which our knowledge may
be said to be cast, have multiplied bearings one on another,
and an internal sympathy, and admit, or rather demand, comparison
and adjustment. They complete, correct, balance each other.
... [T]o give undue prominence to one is to be unjust to another;
to neglect or supersede these is to divert those from their
proper object. It is to unsettle the boundary lines between
science and science, to disturb their action, to destroy the
harmony which binds them together. Such a proceeding will
have a corresponding effect when introduced into a place of
education. There is no science but tells a different
tale, when viewed as a portion of a whole, from what it is likely
to suggest when taken by itself, without the safeguard, as I
may call it, of others.
Let me make use of an illustration. In the combination
of colours, very different effects are produced by a difference
in their selection and juxtaposition; red, green, and
white, change their shades, according to the contrast
with which they are submitted. And, in like manner,
a drift and meaning of a branch of knowledge varies with
the company in which it is introduced to the student.
- John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, 1853 |
Encouragement and
fortification
for the
classical educator
|
 Wisdom
is oftimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar."
-Wiliam Wordsworth
| TEACHING THE TRIVIUM
What if there were a course that integrated Latin,
logic and Christian theology and that could be taught
to young high school students? There is.
HERE
are several directions you can go in teaching Latin. One
is to teach Christian Latin as opposed to the strictly classical.
I have been interested in developing a program to do this.
And since I teach logic as well, I have always wondered if there
were a way to integrate these two trivium subjects. Well,
I am here to report that I have found what I was looking for.
I have a class this year which has a mix of third year
and fourth year Latin students who are solidly grounded
Latin grammar, using the first Henle Latin book.
This year, we are studying St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa
Theologica.
There were several things that made the Summa attractive
as a beginning Christian Latin text. First, although
many people have the misperception that the Summa
is something to be read by advanced students of theology,
it is in fact a book written for beginners. Second,
its language is simple and straightforward: Thomas strove
to present as clear and concise a presentation of Christian
thought as the language would allow, and he succeeded.
Third, Thomas writes his arguments in so straightforward
a fashion as to make the student's work of picking out
the logical syllogisms relatively easy. And, finally,
the content of the book gave me the opportunity, not only
to integrate Latin and logic, but instruction in religion
as well. With very few exceptions, there is little
in Thomas with which Catholics and protestants would disagree.
Here's what I do:
We study one article (about one single-spaced, typed page)
per week. The students are responsible for translating
from the Latin, then stating Thomas' syllogisms in proper
logical form. Since they have all taken my Traditional
Logic course, they all know the method used to identify
a syllogism with its proper Latin title (contained in
Traditional Logic, Book II). We also discuss
the ideas Thomas presents in the text.
Latin, logic and Christian theology--all in one course.
After we completed the first question, I asked them to
reflect on what they were now able to do: to take an original
Latin work, translate it, and give the name of each argument
used in it. These 10th and 11th graders are doing
something only a handful of college students would even
be able to attempt, let alone succeed at.
The parents of many of my students are wanting them to
go on to a more "practical" language, like Spanish or
French--but the students want more Latin! Whatever
they choose to do, Latin has given them a sense of achievement
that they will carry with them into whatever subject they
study.
- Martin Cothran |
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