(Front Cover) BULLETIN OF THE FIRST DISTRICT NORMAL SCHOOL KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI Volume XVI Number 11 and 12 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1916 Publisht Monthly LATIN SERIES No. 2 (Page i) (Page ii) BULLETIN OF THE FIRST DISTRICT NORMAL SCHOOL KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI FOUNDED BY JOSEPH BALDWIN As the North Missouri Normal School, September 2, 1867 Adopted as the First District Normal School, December 29, 1870 Under Act of the General Assembly, Approved March 19, 1870 Opend as the First District Normal School, January 1, 1871 Volume XVI Number 11-12 November-December 1916 Publisht Monthly by the First District Normal School Ancient Language Series No. 2 Division of Latin JOHN R. KIRK, PRESIDENT T. JENNIE GREEN, A. B., A. M., Professor of Latin Enterd as second class mail matter April 29, 1915, at the post office at Kirksville, Missouri, under the Act of Congress of August 24, 1912. (Page iii) A pose from the Vestal Virgin drill given by students of the Latin department of the Kirksville Normal School. (Page 3) LATIN BELOW THE NINTH GRADE Because of the widespread interest in the reorganization of the public school and in the resultant changes in the course of study, it seems timely to call the attention of the teachers of Latin of the First District to their opportunities to advance the cause of the classics. This service may best be rendered thru appeals to school boards and superintendents who have in charge the making of the course of study. If these superintendents and members of the board can be led to see that Latin is worthy of a place in the curriculum, that it is a suitable study for a child of twelve years, and that it is practical even for the child who does not finish the high school, Latin will have a place in the new system that will make it a much more effectual means of education than it has been under the old. The Latin teachers of America have long felt that the study of foreign language should be begun several years earlier in the school course than the practice of our country sanctioned. The fact that the study of Latin has been begun so generally at about the age of fourteen, has not been due to the Latin teachers idea that that was the best time for beginnihg.it, but to the fact that our schools were so organized that the break came between the eighth and ninth grades, and that new subjects were introduced with the first year of the high school course. Physiology and psychology have long told us that the course of study should change at the end of the sixth rather than of the eighth grade, but it is only recently that we have become cognizant of such teaching and have begun to reorganize our public school systems. There is much talk and some work being done in reorganizing our schools on some basis other than the 8+4 system, and the Latinist sees an advantage in any of the changes proposed, whether it be the 6+6, the 6+3+3, or the 7+4 system. Any of them gives an opportunity for the beginning of a foreign language before the ninth grade. If we are willing to look to the educational systems of Germany, England or France we will find that they begin Latin at least two years earlier than we do, and with better results in acquiring a knowledge of the subject. There has been much dissatisfaction with the seventh and eighth grades under the old system, and the criticism has been -3- (Page 4) made that the work is largely a repetition in subject matter without much progress. With the reorganization of the schools and the placing of these two grades with the ninth in a Lower High School, there is opportunity for a change in the content of the curriculum and for the introduction of Latin or German two years earlier than was formerly feasible. Any one who has had experience knows the advantage a child of twelve has over one of fourteen in learning forms and vocabulary and in acquiring a correct pronunciation. From an experience of only a few months in teaching Latin to children of the eighth grade I learned that at that age a child seems almost to possess a sixth sense which I call a language sense which I had not found him to possess a year later. I think his advantage at the younger age is largely due to his ear and his ability to imitate and to remember what he hears. Later we depend too much on the eye in our teaching of elementary Latin, and I think our work would be improved by the introduction of more oral work in the first year in whatever grade the work is done. Some who have had much more experience in teaching Latin to children below the ninth grade, think that the feeling for word order that is gotten at this age, is a stronger plea for its early introduction than that of the ease of memorizing. Many of the schools that have introduced Latin below the ninth grade have found it best to allow the Latin to displace wholly or in part the teaching of formal English grammar, and no detriment to the English has resulted. It has been the opinion of all teachers whose articles on the subject I have read, that the English has been greatly benefited by the early introduction of Latin. One teacher reports that the Latin section of her eighth grade made an average of 85% in English grammar, and the section which had no Latin failed to make 70%, tho there was no such disparity in the ability of the two sections as shown in the work of other subjects. California is the pioneer in Latin in the grades and has carried on the work more extensively than any other state, and therefore is more able to speak from experience. California superintendents, principals and Latin teachers have been quoted from time to time, in various educational journals, and a bibliography of the more recent publications on the -4- (Page 5) subject is appended to this article. For those who have not read the reports I think I may say that the California teachers together with those from Lincoln, Minneapolis, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Indianapolis and other cities where it has been tried for several years agree in favoring the beginning of Latin before the ninth grade, and most of them prefer the seventh. They claim that it aids work in grammar, spelling, and literature; that it puts a new interest into the child s school life at a time when he has more enthusiasm for it than is possible at the period of adolescence; that his ability to memorize forms and imitate sounds and to get a feeling for order and the uknack of reading Latin is far greater than at a later age. Three years ago, at its annual meeting at Iowa City the Classical Association of the Middle West and South appointed a permanent committee to investigate and to report from time to time on the work being done in Latin in American schools below the ninth grade. The fact that this is probably the largest association of classical teachers in the world, with about two thousand members shows how wide spread is the interest of Latin teachers im introducing their subject at an earlier stage in the course of study. The association chose as its committee three teachers who had had experience in teaching Latin to children and who are heartily in favor of it. They are Miss Anna S, Jones of Grand Rapids, Miss Olivia Pound of Lincoln, and Mr. Wilbur G. Carr of the High School of the University of Chicago. The chairman, Mr. Carr, made a report to the association at its meeting at Nashville in 1915, and again in Chicago in 1916, and from the latter report I take the following: there are 23 cities with a population ranging from 20,000 to 560,000 that begin Latin in their public schools in the seventh grade, and all are organized op some other basis than the 8+4; there are 28 cities with population from 22,000 to 285,000 that begin Latin in the eighth grade of their public schools, and of these 28 cities only nine have the 8+4 system exclusively. These figures go to prove what Mr. Carr has maintained from the first, that the earlier introduction of Latin is closely connected with the reorganization of the school system. I am sorry the report does not give information on the work in smaller cities, for there are doubtless many smaller towns that give Latin before the ninth grade. For example, Kansas City is -5- (Page 6) the only place in Missouri that is mentioned in the report as beginning Latin in the grades; yet I know the public schools of Kirksville have offered it in the eighth grade the past two years. The superintendent told me he thought the children of this grade did the work quite as well as those of the next higher grade. The report as made by Mr. Carr to the association will doubtless be published in one of the autumn issues of the Classical Journal. Among the best articles that have appeared in the last two years on the subject are the following: University of Pittsburg Bulletin June 15, 1916: University of Illinois Bulletin Jan. 24, 1916. Classical Journal, June, 1914. Classical Weekly, Mar. 21, 1914. Classical Weekly, Feb. 13,1915. Classical Weekly, Feb. 20, 1915. Classical Weekly, April 10, 1915. Journal of Education, Dec. 9, 1915. The article last mentioned, the one in the Journal of Education, is of especial interest. It is a symposium by teachers from many kinds of schools, from the grammar schools to the universities, and is worthy of consideration by any teacher or superintendent who has in charge the making of the course of study. Since the article is not in a journal published exclusively for and by classical teachers and since the views are not wholly those of teachers of the subject it seems worth while to quote an editorial by Mr. Winship which appeared in the same issue, regarding the symposium. One would think, judging by the striking unanimity of the answers in the symposium in the Journal this week, that the questions had been so framed that only one answer was possible; but the questions show that this cannot be the explanation of the fact that nearly all those who answered college, normal school, high school or grammar school teachers found many reasons for thinking that Latin should be taught in the eighth grade. Some think that Latin can wisely be taught to children of the seventh grade. Only one suggests that Latin is dead and that it should give way to subjects which have been called more purely utilitarian. -6- (Page 7) "The preponderance of opinion is that the subject is to be made more alive than it has been since the 'Dark Ages' when children were taught the language so vitally that their teachers withheld their food until they could ask for it in Latin words. "It is to be taught not for Latin's sake, nor for 'discipline' but for the sake of English. It is to be taught so that children will not come into the high school grades with little understanding of syntax and construction. "And with this changing opinion as to the place to begin Latin instruction comes the logical corollary of the re-arrangement of the grades, and the proper location of the eighth or seventh and eighth grades. "The contributions to the symposium reflect not the opinion of one group of educators, but, we think, the feeling of the majority of the profession." Those who contemplate the change of first year Latin from the ninth to the seventh or eighth grade, should bear in mind that the work must be simplified, and be vitalized with much oral work. Only a skillful teacher can successfully use the texts now in general use in the ninth grade, with children two years younger. When the second year of Latin is done in the eighth grade, the goal should not be four books of Caesar. Professor Nutting of the University of California seems to have met the difficulty for his state by preparing new texts for the Latin in the Lower High School, a Latin Primer and a Latin Reader. Other teachers who have the cause of the classics at heart, can adapt the material at hand to the needs of the school, and render a service, as we think, to the cause of education by giving the child an opportunity to lay the foundation for language study at a time when that foundation is most easily laid. -- T. JENNIE GREEN. -7- (Page 8) BOOKS AND ILLUSTRATICE MATERIAL FOR HIGH SCHOOL LATIN The Latin department of the Kirksville State Normal School receives more letters of inquiry regarding books, maps, illustrative materials and plays than any other phases of Latin teaching. The following list of the most essential books and materials makes no claim to being exhaustive, but is meant to be an answer to the inquiries that come from teachers in secondary schools. More extended lists may be found in a catalogue issued by the Macmillan Co., called "List of Books for High School Classical Library," edited by Clarence L. Meader. The bulletin on Accredited Schools issued by the University of Missouri gives good lists of books for all departments. See also the lists for classical equipment in the, Classical Journal of November and December, 1915, and Bulletin Not 13 of the University of Illinois School of Education. BOOKS ON THE AUTHORS READ IN HIGH SCHOOL Dodge--Caesar; A history of the Art of War among the Romans. Houghton, Mifflin, Boston...$5.00 Froude--Caesar, A Sketch. Chas. Scribners, N.Y....$1.50 Judson--Caesar's Army. Ginn & Co., Chicago...$1.00 Long--Translation of Caesar's Gallic War. Henry Frowde, N.Y....$1.00 Boissier--Cicero and his Friends, in translation. Putnam, N.Y....$1.75 Strachan-Davidson--Cicero and the Fall of the Republic. Putnam, N.Y....$1.50 Church--Stories from Vergil. Dodd, N.Y....$1.25 Conington--Prose Translation of the Aeneid. McClurg, Chicago...$1.25 Sellar--Roman Poets of the Augustan Age, Vergil. Clarendon Press, London...$2.25 DICTIONARIES Lewis--Harper's Latin Dictionary. American, Chicago...$6.00 -8- (Page 9) Peck--Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquity. American, Chicago...$6.00 Smith & Hall--English-Latin Dictionary. American, Chicago...$4.00 MYTHOLOGIES Gayley--Classic Myths. Ginn, Chicago...$1.50 Guerber--Myths of Greece and Rome. American, Chicago...$1.50 Bulfinch--The Age of Fable. Lee & Shepherd, N. Y....$1.25 HISTORIES Any standard histories that a school may have for the teaching of Roman history will serve the Latin department, but the following are suggested as especially helpful: How and Leigh--History of Rome to the Death of Caesar. Longsmans, N.Y....$2.00 Botsford--History of Rome. Macmillan, Chicago...$1.10 Gibbon--The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 6 vol. Macmillan, Chicago...$14.00 Ihne--Early Rome. Scribners, N.Y....$1.00 Beesley-The Gracchi, Marius and Sulla. Scribners, N.Y....$1.00 Merivale--The Roman Triumvirates. Scribners, N. Y....$1.00 Merivale--History of Rome under the Empire. 8 vol. Scribners, N.Y....$10.00 Mommsen--History of Rome. Revised edition. 5 vol. Scribners, N.Y....$10.00 Capes--The Age of the Antonines. Scribners, N.Y....$1.00 Pelham--Outlines of Roman History. Putnam, N.Y....$1.75 GENERAL REFERENCE BOOKS. (For Latin and History) Gow--Companion to School Classics. Macmillan, N.Y....$1.75 Guhl and Koner-Life of the Greeks and Romans. Appleton, N.Y....$2.50 Johnston--Private Life of the Romans. Scott, Foresman, Chicago...$1.50 Platner--Ancient Rome. Allyn, Chicago...$3.00 -9- (Page 10) Inge--Society in Rome under the Caesars. Scribners, N.Y....$1.25 Fowler--Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero. Macmillan, N.Y....$2.25 Sandys--A Companion to Latin Studies. Cambridge University Press...$6.00 Mackail--Latin Literature. Scribners, N. Y....$1.25 Mau--Pompeii, Its Life and Art. Tr. by Kelsey. Macmillan, N. Y....$6.00 Kiepert--Atlas Antiques. Sanborn, Chicago...$1.25 Thomas--Roman Life under the Caesars. Putnam, N. Y. Pellison--Roman Life in Pliny's Time....$1.00 G. W. Jacobs, Philadelphia...$1.00 HELPS FOR THE TEACHER OF LATIN Hecker--The Teaching of Latin. Schoenhof, Boston...$1.00 Harrington--Live Issues in the Teaching of Latin. Ginn, Chicago...$0.75 Kelsey--Latin and Greek in American Literature. Macmillan, N.Y....$2.00 Byrne--Syntax in High School Latin. University of Chicago...$0.83 Sabin--Relation of Latin to Practical Life. Contains directions for making five or six dozen charts illustrative of the value of Latin. Miss Frances E. Sabin, Madison, Wis....$1.55 Paxson--Handbook for Latin Clubs. Heath, Chicago...$.60 This book is just from the press, and contains 36 programs for Latin Clubs with references for the material. Besides being useful for the work of clubs, the book will be found very useful to the teacher in making assignments for readings bearing on the classroom work. Pamphlets--The publishers of D'Ooge's and of Collar & Daniel's first year text will send free of charge pamphlets containing valuable help for the young teacher. Also, Scott, Foresman will send articles on how to teach first, second, and fourth year Latin. The University of Colorado has a helpful bulletin on Latin and Greek in Education, which will be sent for five cents. The Classical Association of the Atlantic State issues a 40 page pamphlet on the Practical Value of Latin which sells at the rate of 12 for fifty cents. Address Chas. Knapp, Barnard College, Columbia, Un. N.Y. Our own association of the Middle West and South last year issued two pamphlets, "Arguing with Bob" and "Bob goes to College" which may be obtained for one cent each from the Publicity Committee, Liberal Arts Hall, Iowa City, Iowa. -10- (Page 11) MAGAZINES The Classical Journal. University of Chicago Press... $2.00 The Classical Weekly. Chas. Knapp, Barnard College, N.Y.... $1.00 Art and Archeology. Archeological Institute of America, Washington, D. C.... $2.00 MAPS Johnston's Classical Wall Maps--Caesar de Bello Gallico, Asia Minor Antiqua, Italia Antiqua, Orbis Romanus, Graecia Antiqua. Mounted on board, with spring roller.... $3.80 In wooden case, with spring roller.... $4.40 A. J. Nystrom, Chicago. Kiepert Classical Wall maps cost about $7.00 each, and may be ordered thru G. E. Stechert & Co., N. Y. PLAYS Miller, F. J.--Two Dramatizations from Virgil. I. Dido, The Phoenician Queen. II. The fall of Troy. In English verse. University of Chicago Press... $1.00 Code, Grant H.--When the Fates Decree. A play based on the Aeneid. In English, Address the author at 1318 Sheridan Ave., Pittsburg, Pa... $.50 Paxson, Susan--Two Latin Plays. I. A Roman School. II. A Roman Wedding. Ginn, Chicago... $.45 Schlicher--Latin Plays-Seven plays in easy Latin. Ginn, Chicago... $.75 Paine, Manswaring, Ryle--Decern Fabulae. Ten easy plays in Latin. Ox. Un. Press, 35 West 32 St., N.Y.... $.50 The Vestal Virgin Drill, Ceres, Endymion, Comus, Pandora. Five plays in English. Eldridge Entertainment House, Franklin, Ohio. Each... $.15 Southland, Olive--A Schoolboy's Dream. Classical Journal, Jail. 1912... $.25 Lincoln, Jennette--The Festival Book, Contains two Roman dances or processionsl. Barnes & Co., N.Y.... $1.50 Bates & Orr--Pageants and Pageantry. Ginn, Chicago... $1.25 GAMES Five Games with Latin verbs, played somewhat like "authors," dealing with principal parts, conjugations, and conjugational endings. The Latin Game Co., Appleton, Wis. Each.... $.29 Miss Olivia Pound, in the Classical Journal for May 1914, in an article entitled "Hints for the Teaching of Beginning Latin," describes several games. -11- (Page 12) PICTURES Perry Pictures. Select from catalogue which costs 10 cents. The Perry Pictures Co., Malden, Mass............. 1/2 to 7c. Brown Pictures--Thom. Charles & Co., 207 N. Mich. Ave., Chicago. Pictures cost 1/2c to 15c. University Prints--Size 5 1/2 x 8 in, 1 cent each. Bureau of University Travel, 136 Stuart St., Boston. Postal Cards on Classical subjects from Library of Congress. Mrs. Josephine B. Ketcham, Wash., D. C., 2 1/2c to 5c. SLIDES About 400 slides for Caesar, 40 cts. each with a 10% discount on an order for 50. George R. Swain, 1230 Woodlawn Ave., Ann Arbor, Mich. For Beginning Latin For the Aeneid Ancient Rome Three sets, 40 to 50 slides in each set, prices $14 to $17.50 per set. Records of the Past Photographic Dept., Washington, D.C. The Latin Department of the Kirksville Normal School has the following sets of slides that it will loan to schools. There are no charges except for transportation. 1. Art of War at Caesar s Time. 2. The Gallic War. 3. Stories from Ovid. 4. Vergil. 5. A Roman School. 6. Dress, Games, Theatres. 7. Views in Rome. 8. Views in Pompeii. 9. Writing Materials. Address: MISS T. JENNIE GREEN. -12- (Page 13) (Back Cover)