tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39783355820083590832024-03-18T02:03:20.113-04:00PedagogishnessMichael Broder on teaching and learning in the humanitiesMike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-18896016704397526262012-12-20T18:32:00.000-05:002012-12-20T18:34:10.035-05:00Joe Strummer, ten years gone<b>In a nutshell: December 22 will mark the tenth anniversary of the untimely death of Joe Strummer, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and leading force of the punk-rock band, The Clash. Here are links to some appreciations of Strummer, and to my own April 2012 post on Strummer as Critical Pedagogue. </b><br />
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<b> </b>Joe Strummer, singer, songwriter, guitarist, leader of The Clash, and provocateur of critical pedagogy through punk rock, died of a quite unexpected heart attack as the result of an undiagnosed congenital condition at the age of 50 on December 22, 2002. There was a nice <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/12/20/167651279/joe-strummers-life-after-death" target="_blank">piece</a> on NPR about him this morning, and I also found this <a href="http://www.spin.com/articles/clash-joe-strummer-10th-anniversary-death" target="_blank">article</a> in SPIN magazine. If readers of Pedagogishness want to send me links to other appreciations of Strummer, I will add them. <br />
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Back on April 24, I posted an <a href="http://pedagogishness.mbroder.com/2012/04/post-punk-pedagogy.html" target="_blank">entry</a> on Pedagogishness about Joe Strummer's influence on my own "post-punk pedagogy," which turned out to be more about the many Joe Strummer stand-ins and lookalikes in my life, but may still be worth a read. Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-12205702896158952362012-12-20T09:49:00.001-05:002012-12-20T10:15:20.406-05:00Fascinating Chapter on Critical Race and Classics<b>In a nutshell: I'm reading a fabulous essay on critical race theory in classical studies by Shelley P. Haley of Hamilton College, and you should read it, too.</b><br />
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In 2009, <a href="http://fortresspress.com/" target="_blank">Fortress Press</a> published <a href="http://store.fortresspress.com/store/product/3934/Prejudice-and-Christian-Beginnings" target="_blank">Prejudice and Christian Beginnings</a>: Investigating Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies, a collection of essays edited
by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Laura Nasralla. Chapter 1 is a wonderful essay entitled "Be Not Afraid of the Dark: Critical Race Theory and Classical Studies," by Shelley P. Haley of Hamilton College.<br />
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Haley confronts the same issue with critical race theory and classics that I confront in my use of queer theory and classics. Namely, widespread resistance to the idea that the theoretical perspective is relevant to the object of study, and the suspicion, bordering on accusation, that scholarship done in this vein is "anachronistic" or in some other way invalid or inappropriate.<br />
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Haley dispenses with this charge concisely and effectively in the brief abstract that begins the chapter:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The justification for using a theory focused on modern phenomena like “race” and “racism” to analyze ancient Greek and Roman society is that modern interpreters of those ancient societies have internalized the modern values, structures, and behaviors that are the object of critical race theory.</blockquote>
After an overview of critical race theory, Haley proceeds to discuss definitions of race and color in the ancient Mediterranean world and to a reconsideration of race in an understanding the Vergil's Dido before proceeding to a consideration of race and gender in Pseudo-Vergil’s <i>Moretum</i>. Haley concludes that "the Romans were acute observers of color, gender, and class difference" and that "critical race theory can help to unlayer the intersectionality of the constructs [of race, class, and gender] of ancient Roman society."<br />
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The simple summary above does not begin to do justice to the nuance and insight of Haley's reading of individual ancient texts, or her analysis of how modern social and cultural constructs of race, class, and gender have shaped the scholarly response to these texts, particularly to the representation of race, gender, and cultural difference in these texts.<br />
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I'm not sure the full text PDF I found of Dr. Haley's chapter is really intended for public consumption, or if it is only accidentally downloadable from the Fortress Press servers. Therefore, I am not going to include a direct link to the chapter here. But it's quite easy to find if you search for the title and author of the essay. Oh, and of course, you can also borrow the book from your local public or campus library, or purchase the book on Amazon or directly from the press.Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-48647264712390314172012-12-17T11:09:00.000-05:002012-12-17T11:13:13.751-05:00Ban on Mexican-American Studies headed for repeal?<b>In a nutshell: A newly enacted plan to desegregate the Tucson Unified School District may provide a path for the return of Mexican-American Studies.</b><br />
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As <a href="http://www.kvoa.com/news/could-mas-studies-return-tusd-passes-unitary-status-plan/" target="_blank">reported</a> on the News 4 Tucson website, the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) on December 11 passed a plan designed to satisfy a 1978 federal
desegregation order and ending the district's dual system for white and minority students, giving supporters of the banned Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program new hope for a return of the outlawed ethnic studies program. A federal court still has to approve the plan. If it is implemented, a revived MAS program could return in fall 2013.<br />
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For background on this story, see my long, detailed, multimedia <a href="http://pedagogishness.mbroder.com/2012/02/banned-in-tucson.html" target="_blank">post</a> on the plight of MAS in Tucson. Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-13153330384341814432012-12-14T11:24:00.000-05:002012-12-15T08:27:43.889-05:00Government picking winners and losers in college?<b>In a nutshell: We need to shift the debate on STEM vs. liberal arts from an either/or to a both/and
discussion.
</b><br />
<br />
As <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/education/florida-may-reduce-tuition-for-select-majors.html?smid=pl-share" target="_blank">reported</a> in <i>The New York Times</i>, Governor Rick Scott of Florida is now proposing that Florida's 12 state universities charge lower tuition for students majoring in "business-friendly" science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects and higher tuition for students majoring in humanities or social science fields. <br />
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This is wrong and bad on so many levels, and ironically, perhaps, represents precisely the kind of government regulation of the economy to pick winners and losers that conservatives generally oppose. But I don't want to spend a lot of time dwelling on that now. Instead, I want to propose that we humanists (and our allies) consider supporting a higher education model that encourages all students to have a humanities/social science major and a STEM minor. As callers to Brian Lehrer's show on WNYC are repeatedly affirming right now, we need both: we need students to learn the STEM subjects so they can be prepared for jobs in the post-industrial economy; and we need students to learn the humanities and social sciences so they can think critically, be culturally literate, and be prepared to participate fully as informed citizens in a democratic society.<br />
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Right now, this debate seems to be very polarized: Should we support STEM or liberal arts, period. This is ridiculous; typical, but ridiculous. We need to start shifting the debate from an either/or to a both/and discussion. How can we restructure our curricula, at public and private institutions alike, across the entire country, in both K-12 and in higher education, so that we can educate our children holistically and not partially.<br />
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The discussion should not be driven by anxiety on the part of liberal arts programs. This paragraph in the NY Times article reveals the disturbing tendency of so-called "liberal arts devotees" to focus on funding concerns rather than social or economic justice:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
At the University of Florida, the state’s most prestigious campus, a
group of history professors criticized the recommendation for tiered
tuition and organized a protest petition.
Liberal arts devotees across the state are signing it. The professors
said the move would inevitably reduce the number of students who take
humanities classes, which would further diminish financing for those
departments. In the end, Florida universities with nationally prominent
programs, like the one for Latin American history at the University of
Florida, will lose coveted professors and their overall luster. </blockquote>
At a policy level, the flight from humanities classes is not to be lamented for the toll it will take on departmental budgets, but rather for the impact it will have on students' ability to think critically and perform their civic duty, including serving as energetic, innovative leaders of business and government. Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-45985848454607836812012-12-12T08:18:00.003-05:002012-12-12T12:38:06.965-05:00The End of Western Civilization<b>In a nutshell: My classroom full of black, brown, East Asian, South Asian,
orthodox Jewish, Muslim, female, and gay male students, very few of
whom are well spoken for by the White Male Christian Subject of Culture, have a very hard time accepting the idea that they
themselves have supplanted him.</b> <br />
<br />
This semester I have been teaching a class at Brooklyn College called The Idea of Character in the Western Literary Tradition. The course description, not of my own design, is very broad, and allows the instructor to cobble together any kind of survey of Western literary texts that suits his or her fancy.<br />
<br />
I decided to go broad and teach the class as a survey of the entire Western literary tradition from Homer to Toni Morrison. I wanted to explore the emergence of the idea of Western Civilization itself and its eventual run in with the crises of multiculturalism and globalization. In the course of the semester I came up with the idea of a White Male Christian Subject of Culture who imagined himself to have roots in twin Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions. We looked at the Greek male heroic subject of culture in the Homeric epics and how he was joined on the literary landscape by a range of alternative "heroes" (in the later sense of protagonist or central figure), including the idealized shepherd of bucolic poetry, the parodic antihero of Hellenistic mime, and the indignant scowl of Roman satire. We also looked at representations of women's voices (albeit in poems by men), with examples including the Briseis and Penelope of Ovid's <i>Heroides</i> and the gossipy housewives of Herodas's sixth mime. I took particular pleasure in regaling my students with ancient literary examples of pimps, prostitutes, hustlers, and sex-toy mongers. They enjoyed reading these texts and, more importantly from a pedagogical perspective, they were surprised by them, and learned some new things about the Western literary tradition.<br />
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By the end of the semester (this week), I was trying to convince them that Western Civilization was over, a historical construct that now exists only as a relic of the past, not the dominant form of culture (to use Raymond Williams' term) or the discourse (to go Foucaultian) in which we currently live. One last, great, impotent tirade of the White Male Christian Subject of Western Culture, I have argued to them, can be heard in Dostoyevksy's Underground Man (<i>Notes from Underground</i>), and his last pitiful gasps can be heard in T.S. Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock." Toni Morrison's <i>Sula</i> represents a radically different form of cultural existence, with its defiant assertion of black female subjectivity that is not only aware of its historical marginalization but determined to assert both its own dignity and its right to speak.<br />
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I was shocked, but not surprised, and in fact perversely pleased, to find in class yesterday that The End of Western Civilization was a very hard sell in my classroom full of black, brown, East Asian, South Asian, orthodox Jewish, Muslim, female, and gay male students, very few of whom are well spoken for by the White Male Christian Subject of Culture, but all of whom had a very hard time accepting the idea that they themselves had supplanted him.<br />
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That is the exciting discovery I wanted to share with you in this post. As old friends of Pedagogishness might be aware, this post marks an emergence from a four-month silence on my part. The academic year 2011-2012 was exhausting, somewhat traumatizing, and left me voiceless. It's been a rough fall semester, but also exciting, and my voice is starting to come back. This semester has given me a lot to think about and write about, and as it runs its course in final exams and the posting of grades, I believe readers of Pedagogishness will have more to demand their attention. <br />
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<br />Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-1764658259306222372012-08-20T10:25:00.002-04:002012-08-20T10:25:49.427-04:00Summer Latin Institute - Day 50Today is Day 50. The 49 instructional days are past. The day of celebration is past. It's final exam day. A passage from Vergil's <i>Aeneid </i>to translate at sight (glossed), with questions about syntax, scansion, and poetic interpretation. An Ode of Horace to translate at sight (glossed), with a similar range of questions to answer. A passage from each student's elective to translate, something they've seen before, with a prompt for writing an essay about the language and meaning of the passage.<br />
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Once exams are completed and handed in, the faculty will grade them as a team. That will be the first step in assigning course grades and honors.<br />
<br />
Tomorrow, student will come back in the morning to
get their final grades, course grades, commemorative tee-shirts (of
their own design), and to bid their teachers farewell—in whatever spirit of fondness or recrimination they feel is suitable!<br />
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<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i></div>
Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-960286434759655562012-08-18T08:43:00.000-04:002012-08-18T08:48:01.352-04:00Summer Latin Institute - Day 49Day 49 was yesterday, August 17, 2012. The last instructional day of the Summer Latin Institute. At last, the end is nearly here. <br />
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For morning drill, we read Horace's <i>Odes </i>1.37 (<i>Nunc est bibendum</i>), 3.25 (<i>Quo me rapis</i>), and 3.30 (<i>Exegi monumentum</i>).<br />
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After morning drill, we went straight into electives: Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, or Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i>.<br />
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The elective session was limited to one hour, after which we left the premises to celebrate our students' accomplishments offsite—Latin and Greek students alike. We like to keep the
details of that celebration under wraps, so as not to spoil any surprises that may
be in store for students in subsequent summers. Let me just say there may have been some singing and reciting of poetry in Latin and Greek, some drinking of Bacchic beverages, and some eating of delicious food. And perhaps a laurel wreath or two.<br />
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This is the first weekend since their "summer vacation" in July that they have no homework. They do, however, have to study for the final exam on Monday. On Tuesday, students will come in for a few minutes to get their final grades, course grades, commemorative tee-shirts (of their own design), and to bid their teachers farewell, hopefully with minimal recriminations for the rigors to which we have subjected them these past ten weeks.<br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i></div>
Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-32614754930344117822012-08-16T06:58:00.001-04:002012-08-16T06:58:55.255-04:00 Summer Latin Institute - Day 48Today is DAY 48. <br />
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For morning drill, we switch from Horace's <i>Odes </i>to his <i>Epistles</i> 1.2. <br />
<br />
More lunchtime optional sight reading from Vergil's <i>Aeneid</i>. <br />
<br />
After lunch, students continue reading Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, or Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i> in their respective elective. <br />
<br />
Afternoon sight: A passage from Hobbes' <i>De Homine</i>. <br />
<br />
The end is truly near. The final exam is made up. Students will translate passages of Vergil (<i>Aeneid</i>) and Horace (<i>Odes</i>) that they have not seen before, with glosses, and they will answer questions about syntax and scansion and write brief interpretive essays. Each faculty member has prepared a section of the final addressing the electives we taught—one for students who studied Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, another for those who studied Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, and one for those who read Vergil's <i>Eclogues.</i><br />
<br />
In another important development, students have designed a tee shirt to commemorate their experience at the Latin Institute this summer, bearing the words of Seneca: <span class="st"><i>quod acerbum fuit ferre, tulisse iucundum est</i> ("what was bitter to bear is pleasant to have born"). Those will be delivered next Tuesday, when students come to get their final grades and bid their faculty a fond (?) farewell. </span> <br />
<br />
Some celebration may be in store for Day 49, but we like to keep the details of that in the family, so as not to spoil any surprises that may be in store for students in subsequent summers. <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-45034690165400125062012-08-15T12:46:00.003-04:002012-08-15T12:46:47.334-04:00Summer Latin Institute - Day 47Today is Day 47.<br />
<br />
In morning drill today we read Horace <i>Odes </i>2.9 and 4.2.<br />
<br />
Our lunchtime optional sight reading is from our old friend, Vergil's <i>Aeneid</i>. <br />
<br />
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, or Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i> in their respective elective. <br />
<br />
Afternoon sight: Selection from Descartes.<br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-36472575186049914702012-08-15T10:24:00.000-04:002012-08-16T09:34:17.466-04:00Summer Latin Institute - Day 46Day 46 was Tuesday, August 14.<br />
<br />
I taught both hours of morning drill today, in which we read Horace <i>Odes </i>2.3, 2.13, 2.14, and 3.13.<br />
<br />
<i>Odes </i>3.13 is the famous celebration of Horace's Spring of Bandusia (<i>fons Bandusiae</i>). Here are pics of an inscription containing the Latin text, and a little waterfall on Horace's estate thought perhaps to be the very fountain addressed in the poem.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN86HaRBAMNe0lg5MEV6Nae6a_fXR2YfgJFxCpmQSei58rk1Ip-3jiA20OxhT9nB-F7m0Rta-5rPOA28EroY3t2B0orto9DIZuSv0CjWpWMlGjG0ZMJm9yEhdgAtdJ509GT9skUaggzzY/s1600/bandusia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN86HaRBAMNe0lg5MEV6Nae6a_fXR2YfgJFxCpmQSei58rk1Ip-3jiA20OxhT9nB-F7m0Rta-5rPOA28EroY3t2B0orto9DIZuSv0CjWpWMlGjG0ZMJm9yEhdgAtdJ509GT9skUaggzzY/s320/bandusia.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
All this week, our lunchtime optional sight reading is from our old friend, Vergil's <i>Aeneid</i>. <br />
<br />
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, or Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i> in their respective elective. <br />
<br />
I led the afternoon optional sight reading from Aquinas' <i>De Ente et Essentia</i>. Fun, fun, fun: it's technical terminology makes about as much sense as that of the Aristotle from which it derives (okay, okay, so I'd never seen the word <i>quiddity </i>before!). <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-88807228826101121302012-08-15T10:17:00.004-04:002012-08-16T09:26:00.493-04:00Summer Latin Institute - Day 45Day 45 was Monday, August 13.<br />
<br />
And yes, once again, I led the 8:30 a.m. optional review of the previous night's reading, which was our students' first foray into the <i>Odes </i>of Horace.<br />
<br />
Morning drill: Horace <i>Odes </i>1.5, 1.6, 1.9, and 4.7.<br />
<br />
Lunchtime optional sight reading from our old friend, Vergil's <i>Aeneid</i>. <br />
<br />
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, or Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i> in their respective elective. <br />
<br />
Afternoon optional sight reading from the <i>Lives </i>of Suetonius. <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-65169515544525426082012-08-15T10:12:00.003-04:002012-08-15T10:19:07.962-04:00Summer Latin Institute - Day 44Day 44 was Friday, August 10. <br />
<br />
I led the 8:30 a.m. optional review of the previous night's reading.<br />
<br />
TODAY IN <i>AENEID </i>BOOK 4 (642-705): That nothing may interrupt her plan, Dido sends away her late husband's old nurse Barce and kills herself with Aeneas' sword on top of the pyre. <br />
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—Summary courtesy of <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Vergil_s_Aeneid.html?id=2nGhhJMdCtkC" target="_blank">Clyde Pharr</a>.</div>
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</div>
<br />
And that was that. <i>Aeneid </i>Book 4 notched into our students' belts right next to Caesar, Cicero, Sallust, Catullus, and all the other prose and poetry they have read.<br />
<br />
Lunchtime optional sight reading from St. Augustine.<br />
<br />
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, or Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i> in their respective elective. <br />
<br />
Afternoon optional sight reading from Jerome's letters. <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-40131931492508091162012-08-13T16:47:00.001-04:002012-08-13T16:47:16.057-04:00Summer Latin Institute - Day 43Day 43 was Thursday, August 9. <br />
<br />
<i>Mirablile visu</i>, the final couple of students recited their passages of <i>Aeneid </i>4 from memory, complete with elisions, pauses, and coincidence of ictus and accent after the
caesura. <br />
<br />
TODAY IN <i>AENEID </i>BOOK 4 (553-641): Again urged by Mercury to hasten his departure, Aeneas arouses his sleeping comrades and hurriedly sails away by night. Dido's frenzy increases as from her palace window she sees the Trojan fleet depart. She again calls down curses on Aeneas and his followers and prays that some avenger may rise from her ashes to punish such perfidy.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
—Summary courtesy of <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Vergil_s_Aeneid.html?id=2nGhhJMdCtkC" target="_blank">Clyde Pharr</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
I led students in a lunchtime optional sight reading of Tibullus 1.1. After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, or Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i> in their respective electives. We rounded off the afternoon with an optional sight reading of a selection from Bede. <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-15749436219443450262012-08-08T13:46:00.001-04:002012-08-08T13:46:24.629-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 42TODAY IS DAY 42.<br />
<br />
<i>Mirablile visu</i>, students continued reciting passages of <i>Aeneid </i>4 from memory, complete with elisions, pauses, and coincidence of ictus and accent after the
caesura. <br />
<br />
TODAY IN <i>AENEID </i>BOOK 4 (474-552): Concealing her plans from her sister, Dido builds a great funeral pyre in the palace court, pretending that she is preparing a magic rite which will bring back Aeneas or else free her of her love for him. Dido offers prayers and sacrifices to gods of the lower world. Dido bewails her fate and strengthens her resolve to die.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
—Summary courtesy of <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Vergil_s_Aeneid.html?id=2nGhhJMdCtkC" target="_blank">Clyde Pharr</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
After lunch, we took a visual tour through the <i>Aeneid </i>in Western art and sculpture, and Patrick presented a fascinating lecture on textual criticism and the manuscript tradition of Vergil. <br />
<br />
Later in the afternoon, students continued reading Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, or Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i> in their respective electives.<br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-75896699709041811102012-08-08T13:35:00.000-04:002012-08-08T13:39:06.671-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 41Day 41 was yesterday, August 7, 2012.<br />
<br />
Students have begun reciting passages of <i>Aeneid </i>4 from memory, taking careful pains with their elision, pausing at their principal caesurae, and showcasing the coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura. <i>Mirablile visu.</i><br />
<br />
TODAY IN <i>AENEID </i>BOOK 4 (388-473): After cursing Aeneas and all his race, Dido hurries from his presence and falls fainting into the arms of her attendants. Her own efforts proving unavailing, Dido sends her sister Anna, hoping that she may persuade Aeneas; but he is deaf to all entreaties. Terrified by omens and disturbed by dreams, Dido determines to die.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
—Summary courtesy of <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Vergil_s_Aeneid.html?id=2nGhhJMdCtkC" target="_blank">Clyde Pharr</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
After lunch, we had our final poetry survey reading of the summer, the description of Pygmalion and the statue from Ovid's <i>Metamorphoses</i>. <br />
<br />
Later in the afternoon, we resumed our electives, with some students reading Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, others reading Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, and still others reading Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i>. <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-81517608775487368482012-08-07T06:55:00.000-04:002012-08-07T06:57:45.134-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 40Day 40 was yesterday, August 6, 2012.<br />
<br />
Eight weeks down, two weeks to go!<br />
<br />
This was our second week with Book 4 of Vergil's <i>Aeneid</i>. The morning was devoted to the reading that students prepared over the weekend...<br />
<br />
TODAY IN <i>AENEID </i>BOOK 4 (296-387): Dido, learning that the fleet was being equipped and suspecting the truth, bitterly reproaches Aeneas and with tears and prayers attempts to prevail on him to remain. Aeneas replies that he is not following his own desires but the plans of the gods and the stern decrees of fate. Carried away by her furious passion, Dido curses Aeneas and all his race, promises to reproach him even after death, and insists that he will pay the penalty for his cruelty.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
—Summary courtesy of <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Vergil_s_Aeneid.html?id=2nGhhJMdCtkC" target="_blank">Clyde Pharr</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
After lunch, we began our two-week electives: Akiva and his students began reading Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, Patrick and his students began reading Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, and my students and I began reading Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i>. <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-29050966603843357172012-08-07T06:41:00.000-04:002012-08-07T06:44:49.568-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 39Day 39 was Friday, August 3, 2012.<br />
<br />
Vergil in the morning...<br />
<br />
TODAY IN <i>AENEID </i>BOOK 4 (219-295): Moved by the prayer of Iarbas, Jupiter sends Mercury to Aeneas to remind him of his high destiny and of his duty to his son Ascanius. Mercury hastens from Olympus to Carthage. Mercury finds Aeneas busily engaged in furthering Dido's plans; he delivers his message and disappears. Obeying the divine commands, Aeneas instructs his followers to prepare secretly for the voyage, and seeks a favorable opportunity for informing Dido of his plan to depart.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
—Summary courtesy of <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Vergil_s_Aeneid.html?id=2nGhhJMdCtkC" target="_blank">Clyde Pharr</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
Vergil's phrase <i>in tenuem auram</i> ("into thin air"), with which he describes the sudden disappearance of Mercury (4.278) may have inspired Shakepeare to write: "These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits and / Are melted into air, into thin air." (<i>Tempest</i>, IV.1.148-50)<br />
<br />
After lunch, Patrick led students in reading some poems of Catullus and Horace in a variety of lyric meters. I closed out the instructional day with an optional sight reading of the opening passage of Lucretius' <i>De Rerum Natura.</i><br />
<br />
The end of the day brought us to the end of Week 8. Next week, our electives begin, with different students choosing to study Vergil's <i>Eclogues</i>, Tacitus' <i>Annals</i>, or Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>.<br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-86398706560606107412012-08-02T13:05:00.000-04:002012-08-02T13:05:07.707-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 38Day 38 is TODAY, August 2, 2012.<br />
<br />
The morning started off with some Vergil...<br />
<br />
TODAY IN <i>AENEID </i>BOOK 4 (129-218): Aeneas and Dido go on a hunting party. While all are intent on the chase, Juno sends a sudden tempest, scattering the party and driving Aeneas and Dido to the same lonely cave, where they go through a form of marriage under unlucky omens. Rumor (a goddess) spreads exaggerated reports of the love affair, finally carrying the news to Iarbas, an African chieftain and spurned suitor of Dido. Iarbas prays to his father, Jupiter Ammon, for help, reproaching him that he had allowed Aeneas, a mere adventurer, to be preferred to himself.
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
—Summary courtesy of <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Vergil_s_Aeneid.html?id=2nGhhJMdCtkC" target="_blank">Clyde Pharr</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
Then Patrick gave a lecture on lyric meters, followed by the afternoon poetry survey reading of passages from Lucretius, and an optional afternoon sight reading of excerpts from Petrarch. <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-38343986877308664892012-08-01T15:01:00.002-04:002012-08-01T15:01:50.395-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 37Day 37 is TODAY, August 1, 2012.<br />
<br />
The morning started off with some Vergil...<br />
<br />
TODAY IN <i>AENEID </i>BOOK 4 (54-128): Love drives Dido to frenzy. Juno favors the marriage of Dido and Aeneas, in order that she may turn Aeneas aside from Italy, and so agrees to help Venus consummate the affair, promising to devise a suitable situation.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
—Summary courtesy of <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Vergil_s_Aeneid.html?id=2nGhhJMdCtkC" target="_blank">Clyde Pharr</a>.</div>
<br />
Lunchtime optional sight reading from the works of Ovid. After lunch, one hour of the poetic fragments of Ennius, another hour of Plautus (currently in progress). My colleague Patrick just did a beautiful job of presenting the zany iambic senararius meter of Roman comedy. Take an essentially iambic rhythm, allow all shorts to be substituted for with longs, and then allow any and all longs (whether long originally or by substitution) to be resolved into two shorts, and you get a dizzying array of possibilities, which Patrick explained brilliantly.<br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-615046439220591402012-08-01T08:47:00.000-04:002012-08-01T09:16:06.636-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 36Day 36 was yesterday, July 31, 2012.<br />
<br />
Book 4 of Vergil's <i>Aeneid </i>in the morning, optional sight reading from Vergil's <i>Eclogues </i>at lunch, a lecture on lexicography in the early afternoon, followed by an 80-minute romp through fragments of Livius Andronicus and Naevius.<br />
<br />
That's right--in 10 weeks of Latin class, our students are not only getting a complete grounding in first-year college Latin grammar, and an in-depth exposure to Cicero, Sallust, and Vergil, but also a rich survey of Roman poetry and prose going back to archaic inscriptions and the Arval Hymn and continuing through the beginnings of Rome's cultural engagement with Greece, Rome's own Golden and Silver Ages, and the Latin of late antiquity and the Middle Ages.<br />
<br />
TODAY IN <i>AENEID </i>BOOK 4 (1-53): Dido, madly in love with Aeneas, discloses her feelings to her sister Anna. Anna encourages Dido to look forward to marriage to Aeneas.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
—Summary courtesy of <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Vergil_s_Aeneid.html?id=2nGhhJMdCtkC" target="_blank">Clyde Pharr</a>. </div>
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-13809234763523374852012-08-01T08:36:00.000-04:002012-08-01T08:38:18.275-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 35Day 35 was Monday, July 30.<br />
<br />
Eventful start of an eventful week!<br />
<br />
Students took a prose final exam in the morning, and I presented introductory lectures on Vergil, the <i>Aeneid</i>, and dactylic hexameter in the afternoon. By 3:30, students were scanning, eliding, identifying their principal caesurae, and singing their verse--they got the moves like Vergil, they got the moves like Vergil. <br />
<br />
After the instructional day, students got right down to reading <i>Aeneid</i>, Book 4, lines 1-53. We'll be reading all of Book 4 in the next two weeks, plus a poetry survey in the afternoons, and ongoing optional sight readings of poets and prose authors. Still doing about a week of traditional Latin class every day. <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon... </b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-46601298860585476342012-07-30T06:41:00.004-04:002012-07-30T08:35:04.467-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 34Day 34 was Friday, July 27.<br />
<br />
The last day of the prose survey section of the second half of the course. It's all over except for the prose final exam on Monday.<br />
<br />
It was a lighter day for me. 8:30 a.m. optional review and 3:40 p.m. optional sight reading of a passage from Boethius' <i>Consolation of Philosophy.</i><br />
<br />
In between, Patrick and Akiva led our students through the end of Sallust's <i>Bellum Catalinae</i>, some Latin prose composition, and the afternoon prose survey, a story from the medieval <i>Gesta Romanorum</i>. I remember reading that passage as a student in the program in 1982!<br />
<br />
Starting Monday, it's time to begin the poetry portion of the program. Book 4 of Vergil's <i>Aeneid</i> in the mornings; poetry survey beginning with Livius Andronicus in the afternoons. <br />
<br />
<i>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</i><br />
<br />
<b>More soon... </b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-71892004086346452182012-07-28T08:38:00.004-04:002012-11-02T13:35:49.357-04:00Thomas Eagleton, the Summer of 1972, and Me<b>In a Nutshell: A story about Thomas Eagleton on NPR reminds me of what I was doing in the summer of 1972, a bittersweet and melancholy summer that in some ways set the tone for the rest of my life.</b><br />
<br />
I was just listening to a story on NPR's <i>On the Media</i> about the Thomas Eagleton affair, during the presidential election campaign of 1972, when democratic candidate George McGovern chose Eagleton, a senator from Missouri, as his running mate without knowing that Eagleton had undergone electroshock therapy for depression on several occasions in the 1960s. When a tipster alerted both the media and the campaign, the campaign went public with the story; Eagleton of course withdrew from the race, and he was replaced on the ticket by Sargent Shriver. And, of course, the McGovern-Shriver ticket went down in a landslide reelection victory for President Richard M. Nixon and Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew. Reminiscences about the affair have been in the media this week as Mitt Romney prepares to announce his choice of vice-presidential running mate, and the media consensus seems to be that his main concern is to avoid any potential surprises in the current hyperactive media environment.<br />
<br />
But what the story made me think about, perhaps not surprisingly, was myself, forty years ago, in the summer of 1972, when I was eleven years old. My father had just died, on July 7, 1972, at the age of 52, of colon cancer. I lived in a middle-income co-op apartment building in the Luna Park housing complex, in Coney Island, just across the street from the New York Aquarium and the Cyclone Roller Coaster, and of course the boardwalk and the beach. And about a 20-minute walk from the Brighton Beach Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. I was an avid reader in those days, but not a particularly precocious one—that is, I enjoyed juvenile literature, including fantasy and science fiction for young readers. That summer I remember reading books in the Mushroom Planet <a href="http://www.loganberrybooks.com/most-cameron-E.html" target="_blank">series</a>, by Eleanor Cameron (1912-1996), including the first book in the series, <i>The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, </i>written in 1954. Other titles in the series included <i>Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet</i> (1956), <i>Mr. Bass's Planetoid</i> (1958), <i>A Mystery for Mr. Bass</i> (1960), and <i>Time and Mr. Bass </i>(1967). I can't honestly tell you which or how many of the sequels I read, but I know it was at least one or two, and I enjoyed their escapist fantasy adventure very much, especially under the terrible circumstances of that summer.<br />
<br />
I believe that was also the summer that I found the Famous Writers Course books at Nostrand Books, the used bookstore on Brighton Beach Avenue (apparently it had been on Nostrand Avenue in a previous incarnation). In seeking to confirm the title of the series just now, I was surprised to find that the course is <a href="http://www.famous-writers-school.com/fws.html/" target="_blank">still in business</a>. I believe I found only the first four volumes of the six-volume series, <i>Principles of Good Writing</i> (Volumes I and II) and <i>Fiction Writing</i> (Volumes III and IV). I devoured those books. I started writing short stories. I wish I could say that my stories were fabulous and I kept on writing and before long I was publishing in literary journals and beginning a successful fiction writing career. But that's not what happened. I was unfocused. I mostly wrote journal entries rather than stories. I had trouble finishing things that I started. I didn't know what to do with any work that I did happen to finish. I had no connection with other burgeoning writers, of my own age or any age. And even though I went on to have some fabulous English teachers (see my post on <a href="http://pedagogishness.mbroder.com/2012/04/post-punk-pedagogy.html" target="_blank">Post-Punk Pedagogy</a> for a tribute to some of them), none really encouraged me or nurtured me or mentored me with a view towards publishing my work—in their eyes, I think I was just a sensitive, creative, precocious, very bright little boy who would probably go on to very successful careers in high school and college, go on to study law or medicine, and have a brilliant professional career. I always had difficulty getting the kind of mentorship and support I needed for what I really wanted to do and what I really wanted to be. <br />
<br />
Well, I want to go for a run now, so I'm going to put this post aside. I'm not really sure what the point of writing this was, but it was nice to write about something other than the Summer Latin Institute.Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-3458245370140876072012-07-27T08:20:00.002-04:002012-07-27T08:20:36.027-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 33Day 33 was yesterday, July 26, 2012.<br />
<br />
Not that it's all about me, but I had a FABULOUS day. I was on for second hour of morning drill, Sallust's <i>Bellum Catilinae</i>, section 20, which is the speech of Catiline. My students did a wonderful job and we even took about three minutes at the end to discuss Sallust's characterization of Catiline compared with that of Cicero in the <i>First Oration Against Catiline</i>.Three minutes of Latin Institute time is about 30 minutes of traditional class time, so it was quite an in-depth discussion!<br />
<br />
Then in the afternoon I led prose survey reading, selections from Einhard's <i>Life of Charlemagne</i>, where we got a taste of early medieval Latin as well as of the bathing practices of the Frankish nobility. In fact, what with my Petronius passage about Seleucus and his reluctance to bathe daily, bathing seems to be emerging as a major theme of the CUNY Summer Latin Institute. Let's just hope our very busy students are finding time to attend to their own daily hygiene needs! From what I can determine, they have managed it well.<br />
<br />
The rest of the day I prepped: for next week's reading of Book 4 of Vergil's <i>Aeneid</i>, for today's afternoon optional sight reading of a passage from Boethius'<i> Consolation of Philosophy</i>.<br />
<br />
In the evening I answered questions from students, both in person here at the Grad Center, and on the phone once I got home, where I did manage to watch three episodes of the old <i>Dark Shadows</i> daytime soap opera while my husband Jason fed me a very nice dinner. <br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3978335582008359083.post-7004164961015160112012-07-26T08:59:00.002-04:002012-07-26T08:59:25.846-04:00Summer Latin Institute - DAY 32Day 32 was yesterday, July 25, 2012.<br />
<br />
Akiva, 8:30 a.m. optional. Questions about the previous night's
Sallust assignment. Michael (me), first hour of morning
drill, Sallust's <i>Bellum Catalinae</i>, from where we left off in section 5 on the previous day to the beginning of section 7. Patrick, second hour of morning drill, Sallust's <i>Bellum Catalinae</i>,
from where I left off in section seven to the end of section 12 (skipping 8, 9, and 10—we're intense, but even <i>we </i>are not THAT intense). Michael, lunchtime
optional sight reading, another stab at Vergil's first <i>Eclogue</i>. Afternoon prose comp, Patrick, focusing on a comparative analysis of the style and rhetoric of Cicero and Sallust. Tricolon vs. antithesis; concinnitas vs. inconcinnitas; Cicero's emphasis on oratorical structure; Sallust's use of archaism. Afternoon optional sight reading, a special treat, Rita Fleischer teaching further (and perhaps even more salacious) excerpts from Petronius' <i>Satyricon</i>. <br />
<br />
The prose survey portion of the second half of the program is winding down. We on the faculty side of things are beginning to focus our preparations for the poetry survey that begins next week.<br />
<br />
<u>Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell
your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!</u><br />
<br />
<b>More soon...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the
blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek
Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.</i>Mike in Bed-Stuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02153442014395568268noreply@blogger.com0