The 5 Little Lashbrooks And How They Grew by Martin Cothran Once upon a time, in a beautiful valley in central Pennsylvania, there lived two young girls who loved animals, flowers, cooking, gardening, painting—and books. And writing. And music. Oh, and also sitting around having deep conversations with friends and going on walks in the countryside. At least […]
Category Archives: Latin
Many who are attracted to the idea of a classical education don’t know exactly why, nor do they understand the necessity for Latin, or at least so much of it. A little bit of Latin is a good thing, but every year? Spinach is a good thing, but every day? I think five decades of fads and experiments have […]
In our last catalog, I discussed how math develops the intellectual powers of the mind as no other subject can. (Read Part I here.) Now I’d like to explain how Latin is comparable to and balances the rigorous, challenging, cumulative, and formative study of math. Math is important, but it is secondary to language skills. […]
I went to my hotel after a long day at a homeschool convention. It was late, and I was hungry. So, after checking in, I decided to walk to a Subway I had seen to get a sandwich. By the time I walked out of the hotel lobby, clouds had moved in, and the rain […]
Part I: Dorothy Sayers speaks about her experience learning Latin I was born at Oxford, in the fourth year before Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. My father was at that time Headmaster of the Cathedral Choir School, where it was part of his duty to instruct small demons with angel-voices in the elements of the […]
Have you ever read Good-bye Mr. Chips or Anne of Green Gables? If so, you may have noticed that the students seemed to spend a lot of time studying Latin grammar and that this study was completed before high school. In fact, this is where the name “grammar school” came from: from the days when the most important […]
The Four Principles of Latin Study In the last issue of the Classical Teacher, I gave some principles of Latin instruction as set forth in Charles Bennett’s 1911 book, The Teaching of Latin and Greek. This book, though long out of print, contains what I believe to be very sound insights into the teaching of classical […]
One of the things that makes me smile in life is standing in front of novice Latin students and listening as they recite declension endings, their Ss slurring because of missing teeth, their eyes straining upward, and heads nodding as they grasp for the mental picture they have of those ten little endings. I also […]
By Eben Dale There are two basic Latin pronunciations used in the United States—Ecclesiastical (Italianate) and the Reformed Classical. Whether the magnificence, beauty, and power of Vergil’s poetry is best captured by the Reformed Classical pronunciation or the Ecclesiastical pronunciation is a matter of opinion. But pronunciation of Latin should not be a point of […]
Winners of the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee and the 2007 National Vocabulary Championship cite textbooks published by Memoria Press as keys to winning. Textbooks written by Cheryl Lowe and Martin Cothran were key tools used by the winners of both the 2007 National Spelling Bee and National Vocabulary Championship to prepare for the competitions. […]