Learning Latin in Later Life #1

Can you teach Latin without knowing much of it yourself? Can you learn Latin in later life?

I thought I would share my experience on that for what it is worth.

I had a semester of Latin in middle school, and about 3 weeks of it in college in my freshman year (I dropped out of the class because it was way more work than I had expected, and I was already having troubles with time management). So basically, I knew a few verb forms and some vocabulary and that was about it.

Every year from the time my oldest son was in about 4th grade (that was when we first enrolled in Kolbe Academy) I would try to teach Latin. First, we used Latin is Fun. That was the only Latin book I knew about back then, because Kolbe used it. It is a rather nice, appealing book but I found it difficult to teach from without knowing much Latin. (I think now Kolbe uses the New Missal Latin but I don't have those books so I don't know what they are like)

Later on, I tried Canon Press's Latin Primers. That was even more difficult for me to teach from; the kids did not retain much, and honestly, it was boring for me to teach this way. Whereas Latin is Fun uses the inductive approach -- immersing the kids right away in vocabulary and introducing grammar as it is used -- Canon Press uses a pretty strict deductive approach -- memorizing verb and noun forms by chanting, and vocabulary lists. This approach seems to floor my kids and myself with boredom, while the inductive approach seems to confuse us thoroughly. Consequently, we would do Latin for a few weeks and then drop it when other things took priority. Even Latina Christiana, which seems to work well for lots of people, seems to work better for us when we depart from strictly using the book and instead, just work on the vocabulary a bit at a time using memory games).

When my older kids were in 8th, 9th and 11th grade I found Henle First Year Latin. Wow! Finally, a book that approached Latin carefully, methodically but not purely by "rote drill". It is definitely a high school level book but can be modified for a middle schooler or an adult. I haven't had much success using it with any child much younger than that. I taught it all year and we made it through the first two units. I really like the teaching method for its analysis and explanation. I don't think it is quite as fun as some of the more inductive approaches but it respects the learner's mind and that is important to me. So what I have been doing recently with younger children is approach Latin very gently, for a few minutes a day, using Latina Christiana as a basic spine. The goal then is familiarity and a positive attitude, and the translation and composition work can come in middle school when the child is a bit more focused.

In the second year, I let Henle drop because of a new baby and a special needs youngster who were both having significant medical issues. My oldest, then in his senior year, continued on through Henle on his own and made it basically through the first book. He is now in college where they use Wheelock's. Henle was a good way into Wheelock's, which is solid and thorough and interesting, but can be a bit patchwork and rapid-paced and overwhelming if you haven't done Latin much in the past. My daughter, who is a junior in high school and aspires to continue Latin in college, is using Henle's now. If you go to the link above, it provides some links to some Henle support resources -- there is a yahoo group and online classes.

I tried to go through Wheelock's using the self-study group but got stuck at the demonstrative pronouns. My brain went on overload. That was a couple of years ago. My next post is going to be about recent history: how I picked up Latin again recently and what I'm doing. I am a homeschooling mom in my early forties and have 7 children -- 6 still at home. Even though I neglect my housework shamefully in order to blog and continue my self-education for the sake of my kids, you can realistically suppose I do NOT have a whole lot of serene, focused time to educate myself. Plus, I've always had some ADD traits, and peri-menopause and multi-parity have not helped with that. So what I am saying is that ANYONE can learn Latin, you don't have to be a genius or a person with loads of time and energy. But I think it helps if you really like the language (I DO -- I just love Latin, I love the way it sounds, the way it expresses things, the way it's woven into our Western civilization; I loved it as a young Protestant and I love it as a middle-aged Catholic now) and feel that learning it is a worthwhile use of your time (ditto).

I do think that right now, but I didn't think so when I had a sick child with a g-tube who had to be fed in increments of two ounces every hour (otherwise he would throw up everything he had eaten, and more). Or when I had an infant and was trying to relactate because the doctors had put him on formula, and he wasn't tolerating it, so he was crying constantly and having lots of gas. During times like that, or the semester I was working hard trying to help my oldest son get his transcripts and test scores and financial aid applications ready for college entrance, I definitely did not feel that Latin was tops on my priority list. But now I do think it's manageable and makes a nice fill-in to the spots in my day that used to be filled by medications or doctor's appointments or vigils at the hospital. At this point, even if I did have to spend hours at the hospital, I think the Latin would be a nice resource to fill in the hours. But back in those days, it would have stressed me. So there's a lot of imponderables there. But the bottom line is, I don't think it would be easy to learn Latin under a lot of stress.