This is probably the highlight of my first year teaching – last year. Not only were we able to start our very own archaeology club, which was hugely successful in its first ever campaign, but we were also able to get to Italy and see the real thing for ourselves.

These are two of my students, Isaac Mendieta and Julien Jacquelin. I adore both of them. Isaac was practically on fire with curiosity, every turn and every nook of every place we went in Italy offered something he hadn’t seen before. It was hard to keep up with him as he was always in front of everyone, trying to take in as much as he could. And Julien was, well, Julien. His mohawk made him quite the celebrity and ambassador to the Italians. He was an easy going, laid back traveling companion always interested in making new friends and learning more about what he was seeing and experiencing. He understood the value of what he was seeing and greatly respected the history surrounding him.

It was truly inspiring and fun to watch these two come to life in another country. I will never forget it, and I was glad we kept such a small group as it allowed us to kind of stew together in all the history and richness that was our trip.

Just reading a book right now that is explaining why a classical education is crucial and why the classical tradition is still relevant. It inspired me to come up with this quote (take that for what you will!):

Those who seek to liberate you will have you study the past; those who seek to control you will remove it.

I can’t help but think of when the Nazis were burning books. The bonfire of the vanities, if you will. Look at the action, and look at the intention. The Inquisition. Any time in history that we have seen massive social change followed by a period of darkness, it has begun, ironically, with a burning up of the past. To remove the past from our grasp is to give us no guide for the future but also no foundation for it as well.

And if we agree upon such a concept, then what would the removal of those past languages be akin to? It seems to be a more subtle way of burning books because to burn up the languages, we burn up the connections to those thoughts that are so influential yet so universal. How can we truly understand what is meant by Homer in his great works if we cannot read them? How can we understand Marcus Aurelius’ meditations if indeed we don’t know the words he is speaking? Virgil? Euripides? Plato? Aristotle? Ovid?

The past becomes mute. Just like during those dark epochs of history I mentioned earlier. The climate of those times usually is great arrogance – after all, what more than hubris could give birth to an idea that we no longer need the past? We do indeed live in arrogant times. Cavere, mi amice.

Just another reason why schools need to adopt Latin in the curriculum again. Latin, since it is an inflected language, is a tough subject because nouns decline and verbs conjugate and there are a lot of forms that must be known in order to use the language. This also gives the students a firm grasp of grammatical concepts while also familiarizing them with root words that form over 60% of the English language. Not to mention, if you can lick Latin, you can lick any language because by comparison, they are much easier to learn than Latin. Even better still, Latin forms the basis of Romance languages like Spanish, French, Italian, even Romanian. Here is an excerpt from the article:

A.L. Brown High School is bursting with great news these days. Our students and staff have worked hard this semester, evidently with solid results.

On Jan. 22, Principal Debra Morris was named Southwest Regional Principal of the Year by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. The honor was a surprise, even though last month Morris was honored as North Carolina’s High School Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Morris receives $1,500 as the award winner, and the school receives another $1,500. Characteristically, she knows exactly where that money should go: scholarships for the seniors.

She gives others credit for her success.

“I’ve got the best staff in the world. It’s a team effort, and this is a great team,” Morris said. “Someone once told me that to be successful, you have to surround yourself with wonderful people, and I am surrounded by the best.”

Kannapolis City Schools Superintendent Jo Ann Byerly has praised Morris as “one of the most effective and charismatic leaders I have ever seen.”

The administrative staff and teachers at A.L. Brown can attest to her work ethic. Ellen Boyd, director of communications, said Morris works “80 or 90 hours a week,” providing leadership, making personal connections with staff and students and paying attention to details that can make or break a school each day.

SAT scores rise

Kannapolis City Schools also announced that SAT test results released recently show that the average SAT score in Kannapolis rose by 60 points last year, from 1388 to 1448. That strong increase came during a year when the state average dropped by seven points, to 1486.Brown’s average math score rose by 15 points, its writing score by 19 and its verbal score by a whopping 26 points.

Morris has emphasized verbal and writing skills every day at Brown, with words of the day and a practice SAT exercise an integral part of each student’s daily routine. Morris has also added more Advanced Placement and Honors courses to the curriculum, and three Latin courses as well.

(As the Latin teacher at Brown, I am convinced that language study plays a significant role in this increase. Statistics prove that the study of any world language will increase verbal skills tremendously.)

Read more.