Classical Languages – Gateway to Western Civilization

Dave Spotts – 2008

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Greek and Latin languages. A study of Greek and Latin has long been considered foundational to a classical liberal arts education. Mastery of the classical languages opens windows upon the literature, art, culture, politics, and history of the people from whom so much of Western culture has sprung. Not only does the classicist encounter a fascinating culture, but through the language and literature he is furnished with the tools of logic, rhetoric, and philology, the king of the liberal arts, which lovingly guides its queen, theology. The student of classical languages finds himself uniquely prepared for theological, literary, and scientific pursuits as he learns to engage in rigorous thought and reasoned analysis.

In recent years much discussion has occurred about teaching methods. Specifically, in the last century and a half, teachers have become especially interested in what makes people learn better. We can basically divide language education into two categories, which I’ll call “whole to parts” and “parts to whole.” I’ll attempt to discuss each point of view briefly and fairly before making some overall observations, then I will try to help my readers make a reasoned decision of a course of study based on the courses I currently teach.

The whole to parts approach has been in use as long as people have learned to speak. In simple terms, the learner is confronted with communication which he has not used before. By observation and repeated experience, he learns to use the language. Every toddler who begins talking has learned his language in this way. Through simple communication, explaining the unknown through what is known, we learn to move from very simple communication (“Kitty laugh me”) to complex expression (“When I saw the cat fall down and I laughed, I started wondering if my cat thinks I am funny too.”)

Clearly this method of learning language has been around throughout the ages. When used carefully, it results in an ability to use the language very fluently and to articulate the grammar and syntax of the language. It tends to take a long time to gain the ability to explain grammar when learning through a whole to parts method. It may also be that students are not urged toward this articulation, thus delaying their arrival at a point of thorough understanding. Unfortunately, many of the school texts which use this approach do a substandard job of explanation, thus giving the approach some image problems. If we wish to use a whole to parts approach, we need to be conscious of these weaknesses and take deliberate steps to overcome them.

The approach we will call “parts to whole” has existed ever since some very intelligent parent decided to have a child with an inflected language practice putting an adjective with different nouns used differently so as to talk about “big” and “little” animals of different types so as to get the adjectives right. The resulting chart would show all you could do with a particular word. While this is a useful exercise and results in a lot of grammatical clarity, it doesn’t usually make for much fluid conversation. But it does make sure the student knows how to analyze the grammar of a sentence.

Use of a parts to whole method of language education took center stage in the late nineteenth century when educators wished to use the most efficient method of language acquisition possible. They began depending primarily or even solely on a parts to whole, “scientific” approach to be sure students understood exactly what they were reading and saying.

While parts to whole methodology can be very efficient and certainly can enable a student to analyze words, phrases, clauses, and sentences well, it tends to be artificial and to distance the learner from genuine meaningful communication. I vividly remember studying under highly intelligent and well-trained classicists who could not compose a sentence in the language they were teaching without extensive research first, and who would never try to use Latin to converse with anyone. One Greek professor was unable to read simple sentences without doing an analysis of each word on paper first. While he knew all about the words, he didn’t ever make it into a language.

Now that we’ve reviewed each basic method for foreign language instruction, I trust you’ve seen what I have seen. But I’ll mention it anyway. Neither approach, used exclusively, will work for us very well in a school setting. We don’t have eight years of total immersion time to make students as good with a foreign language as they were with their native language by age eight. We can explain the grammar of a sentence by Dickens all day and fail to understand why it is a breathtakingly beautiful sentence. We have to use both approaches to some extent. Additionally, some students do better with an emphasis on one method, others will thrive with the other. Most students do well with either a parts to whole or a whole to parts methodology as the primary framework, as long as it is not handled in a rigid way, without blending methods.

Because different methods work better for different students, I’ve chosen to use different approaches for Greek and for Latin. Many Latin programs use parts to whole texts. I didn’t want to be just like all the others, so I have chosen an excellent whole to parts text, with supplemental exercises which assist in analysis and articulation. Because Latin grammar is a little more oblique than Greek grammar, and most people find Latin ultimately to be more difficult than Greek, we spend the first two high school years on Latin grammar and vocabulary acquisition, then in the third year we make a transition into reading ancient Roman authors. By the fourth year, students are reading fairly advanced ancient Romans with no editorial assistance.

Greek, on the other hand, is a course for which I have searched in vain for a genuinely good and well balanced whole to parts text. In the absence of one, and wishing to provide for various learning styles, we have gone with a parts to whole text for Greek. Since Greek grammar is relatively more regular than Latin grammar, we complete our survey of the grammar partway through the second semester of the second year. In Greek 2, along with our study of grammar through our textbook, we read and translate John’s Gospel. Greek 3 is a class with rotating New Testament readings, so students can take the class multiple times.

In addition to chosing a classical language class based on methodology, an important factor to consider is the long-term goal of studying the language. Some students take classical languages simply as “grist for the mill” to give them exercise in careful thinking and logical operations. Some students have a long-standing interest in literature and the English language or other European languages. Some students have a particular interest in theological and biblical studies. Some students simply want to be well trained in a variety of languages. All four groups will act differently.

For the student who wishes to strengthen logical operations but does not have a preference about a future area of study, either language will be helpful. A student who needs to strengthen the ability to organize information given in a less apparently organized manner would probably benefit more from the Latin courses I teach, though he would probably naturally do better in the Greek courses. For a student who needs to strengthen the ability to take patterns of information and relate them in a broader context, the Greek courses would tend to accomplish this well, though the student would probably naturally do better in the Latin courses.

A student who has a long-standing interest in literature, English, and the general liberal arts will find Latin to be of relatively more use than Greek. English has a stronger influence from the Latin language, as do the Romance languages. The Romans were so fond of Greek culture that many cultural patterns we see in Western culture came from Greece through Rome.

A student who is intensely interested in biblical, theological, and the very early Christian period will find the Greek courses to be of superior value. Although we will be studying from a textbook which initially teaches the Attic dialect of Greek, students will find the New Testament and early patristic authors to be quite straightforward, as well as finding they have the grammatical tools to read the more difficult secular authors of the earlier Athenian period.

The student who wishes to know a variety of languages may wish to take both Greek and Latin. If this is the plan, I highly recommend starting early, with Junior High Latin 1 and 2, which are followed by High School Latin 2. Assuming the student completes High School Latin 2 in ninth grade, there are three years for Greek and whatever additional Latin courses are desired. Students who are not beginning both languages at the same time generally do not have confusion between the languages.

Finally, my encouragement is to press on with the classical languages! Whatever your desires, whatever your primary learning styles, we have a program that should fit you. Our desire is to enable all our students to master the languages they are studying. In addition to our weekly videoconference, we have bulletin-board type student discussion forums, a commitment to timely and helpful responses to e-mail questions, and an ever-growing selection of Web-based exercises and other helpful pages. If you wish to learn these languages, if you want your windows to the roots of Western civilization opened, we’re here to help you.