Someone shared this with me and I thought I would pass it along.
http://www.classicalcurriculum.com/ModelCurriculum.htm
I have heard the fairy stories in the early years are to get the kids used to reading in that style, but some parents don’t love them. It’s a matter of personal preference.
I have not yet read the whole article but what called my attention is the recomendation on the languages that are best.
They say:
If a student were to study only two foreign languages, Latin and German would be best, as these two languages most influenced English. A typical third language is French or Classical Greek. (In order to maintain a highbrow curriculum, we strongly advise against Spanish.)
I could not found the reason behind this espression. Do you know why wouldn’t they recomend spanish?
I printed off the preschool book list without delving much deeper. I will have to go back and reread it, but we would never give up our beloved Spanish in this house!
…After a brief search, this is what I came up with-
http://www.classicalcurriculum.com/WhyNotToStudySpanish.htm
If the end goal is ONLY a classical education, I can see part of their point but to me it is a very limited view. Latin is considered a dead language anyway. Yes, we can learn from the past and classical literature, but there is a real value in being able to communicate using a language today. Whether it be for business or brain stimulating purposes or otherwise. Not to mention, I just love the Spanish language, think it’s beautiful, and find a lot of joy in using it (even though it’s hard for me). So to say someone shouldn’t learn it just because it’s not “classical” is a bit extreme in my view, but we take a much more eclectic approach to education, taking the best of all worlds we encounter.
Oh come now. Latin is not dead. It permeates the English language. Oh heck it permates Spanish too. Did you know the Latin word for house is Casa? What do you think the Spanish word for house is? Thtat’s right, casa.
Latin helps you learn any of the romance lanugages, such as Spanish, Italian , French, Portuguese and Romanian. Spanish is the closest to Latin you will get.
Latin permeates the English language. If you learn Latin you can easily learn the meaning of English words.
So granted the Latin language isn’t spoken anymore but its still alive in many languages.
Well, dead in the sense that no one speaks it natively anymore. From the opposing view point: http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/moore/03/latin.html
I don’t think I expressed myself very well. I am PRO-Spanish, but I am ALSO Pro-Latin. They are apples and oranges.
I DO find value in Latin, lots of it, or I would not be seeking out a classical curriculum in some form. I am looking to teach my kids at least basic Latin at a minimum and learn alongside them. I respect the curriculum’s anti-Spanish opinion as their own, but I disagree with it. Having experienced the beauty and wonder of Spain while we lived there for three years, the culture is just…rich, colorful, fragrant, words could never do it justice. The language is a reflection of that. Maybe that’s the difference, the curriculum makes the recommendation from a purely academic standpoint (which is expected) while I look at it from a cultural point of view. And I do love all of the Moorish influence and history, something they consider to be a negative because it’s not classical, but I think it only adds to the distinction of the architecture and culture.
Anyway, I understand their academic perspective which is well cited. But in the same token, there is so much in this life to be appreciated and not limited because of supposed academic “rules.” Learning a language is just one way to understand a culture more deeply, and I would love nothing more than for my kids to learn any many as possible as they are willing, ASL, Latin, Spanish, Russian, and maybe one day German included. In my personal opinion, for brain building purposes and communication, learn whatever language your heart leads you to, but yes, Latin will be very useful as well and it would be best to include if possible.
I guess some languages would have certain benefits, but I would never be anti any one language as they are. Maybe that’s all I’m getting at.
I respect their opinion but totally disagree with their expressions especially about spanish speaking people having lower IQ.
I learn Latin in highschool and know that it is usufull for learning other languages but i would not choose it for my grandsons before english, french or chinese.
Looking through Romanian primary school official curricula (Ministery of Education), the children can opt to study as a foreign language one (or more, I don’t know for sure) of the following languages:
Latin is studied, as I understand, only in the eighth grade, for a year, and for four years in the highschools with the phylology profile and in the vocational ones.
The old Greek is studied only at vocational highschools.
I think I still have the Latin manual from he sixth or seventh grade. I kept it to learn Latin better later, as I wanted to understand and be able to use better the old Latin sayings :rolleyes: to show how much I know and how litterate I am lol
At that time we did and, mostly, we didn’t see the need for learning such a language. We did, as it’s the root of our modern language, and we didn’t, because we didn’t use it daily and on the long run we were asking ourselves: “Where the hack will I use that language so that I need to learn it from now?” I think I would have liked it more if we were taught in a more pleasant way, with stories to show us what can we use it for etc. We were taught much grammar and sayings - not much, but a class a week with a tough lady-teacher was enough to make us pray for its end…
I liked it, but I wanted to learn it… in my own way.
Latin, compared to romance languages is not so musical, and not so soft. Take this word, the English immortal, and hear it in those languages, spoken by a native:
immortalis - Latin
nemuritor - Romanian
immortel - French
immortale - Italian
inmortal - Spanish
imortal - Portuguese
In my opinion, the Latin words are spoken like rising a column to the sky (a wonderful picture, that’s what the Romans did, right, built something durable, stable, high?), while the others are like ups and downs, hills and plains, waves etc.
Sorry for being so poetic, I’m more influenced by the musicality of a language, by how it sounds like, how it tickles my year, how it touches my heart. That’s why I prefer to learn some languages and not others. It’s just my opinion.
Andrea
As far as teaching other languages I believe it has to do with the child’s ability, and the geographical area that you live in. We here in KY look around to our community and see what languages are being spoken and which ones are rising. That is how we determine which language to teach or offer. kat the companies and jobs that are avalialbe in your are and see what the owners, board, and staff are mostly speaking. I took latin just because I was going into the medical field. My homeschoolers take Spanish and Mandarin chinese, and Japanese, however, we have alot of Spanish speaking people here in KY. Remember even though someone else suggested a form of teaching it is really up to the child’s ability. If your child is having trouble with one language then try another. Don’t allow a curriculum to bind or set boundaries for your child’s education when the curriculum may not be working for that individual child. Remember it is about the child aand not about setting a curriculum based on suggestions or requests.
This is a very interesting link. I really need to work on introducing some more classical studies into our day. Wesley will be starting Classical Conversations as soon as I get the guide that I ordered. I’ll be interested to see how these compare.
I have to mention though, I dont agree with this websites points why you should not teach Spanish. It came off to me slightly ignorant.