Greek, Too: The Recovery of Greek in American Schools

Greek, Too: The Recovery of Greek in American Schools

Richard L.S. Evans, St. Thomas’ Episcopal School, Houston, Texas
© 2001 Richard L.S. Evans

For the most part, I see Greek being of interest to students already hooked on Latin, but sometimes there can be a surprising response to Greek from less interested students. A refreshing, positive change of attitude developed just this past academic year in one of my less fired-up Latin classes:

“… in a Latin 3 class in which the students were frankly bored and displeased about their Latin requirement. I had tried various approaches to foster more interest in Latin, but with little success. As we worked our way into the First Catilinarian, I determined to demonstrate to the students the Greek background of Roman rhetoric. I suggested that extra-credit would be given for writing the names of rhetorical figures in the original Greek; students perked up and learned the Greek alphabet, learned to recognize and write in Greek the names of figures such as anaphora, hyperbaton, anadiplosis, kokophonia, euphonia, polyptoton, klimax, paronomasia, polysyndeton, asydeton and metaphora. These students acquired enough Greek within a three-week period to read, with teacher assistance, some verses from the New Testament illustrating rhetorical figures under consideration in class. The class attitude became more positive about reading Cicero and more appreciative of the concepts of ancient rhetoric. One student reported that she had found the excursion into Greek “the most interesting part of Latin this year”.

Many areas of Classical Studies offer similar pathways into Greek: grammar, poetics, mythology, history, geography and topography, theology and art and archaeology. In these settings where Greek language is not the focus of the course, learning just the alphabet and a few terms or proper names will foster further interest among the bright and dedicated students and leave the average student with, at least, some appreciation for the formative impact the Greek language on our contemporary intellectual world of thought.” (Evans, “Greek, Too”)

Latin teachers, by a re-vision of their own disciplinary limits, can recover the educational heritage of the Renaissance (not to forget of the Romans themselves) where students enjoy the benefits of both great classical languages. The driving force for more Greek in schools is really up to us, Latin teachers, just as the pedagogical re-introduction of Greek in the West was up to Petrarch, Boccaccio and Coluccio Salutati in Renaissance Florence.

References Cited

ACL/NJCL National Greek Examination. “2001 ACL/NJCL National Greek Exam-List of Prizes.”

ACL/NJCL National Latin Exam. National Latin Exam Newsletter, Vol. xvii, No.2, Spring 2001.

Barclay, Nina. Eucleides’ World. CANE Publications, forthcoming.

Evans, Richard. “A Call for Greek in School: Recovery of a Renaissance Tradition.” Texas Classics in Action, Winter 2000: 12-16.

Evans, Richard. “Greek, Too.” Keynote Address to the California Classical Association-South, Pepperdine University, 21 April 2001.

Palmer, L.R. The Latin Language. Norman: U. of Oklahoma Press, 1988.

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