Greetings
my name is Jason (call me jay for short) and i'm posting from Mississippi, USA.
It is my intentions to get involved in classical studies for self improvement. Therefore i would like to participate here since i am using the Latin centered curriculum.
I was following a latin centered group at yahoo but the effort has dissolved. I'm not posting for help in educating a child but rather myself.
i am experimenting by following the memoria press curriculum and currently studying prima latina. i feel that since the study is in a classical language that the text is not too elementary.
i have posted on the memoria website but decided try moving more effort to this community for more flexibilty and also memoria press is more centered on supporting thier products.
my ultimate goal is a daily pursuit of classical studies from ancient leading up to the renaissance period with a focus on the medieval period because, my interest in that historical period what brought me to search out a classical self education in the first place. Hopefully this effort will translate into
1. a better understanding of the development of society as a whole
2. a strong command of the English language
3. command of grammar
4. easier transition in learning spanish or french language (which is an exellent skill in today's job market )
5. reaching a stage of advanced rhetorical writing that i don't currently possess from my "public school" education
about 2 weeks ago from this posting i finished reading the "Latin-Centered Curriculum" by Mr. Cambell, and was enlightened on "Multum non Multa". This approach is ideal for a busy adult who wants self-improvement in literacy. From the instructions this book i hope to develop a synergistic approach to classical studies by a daily regemen of Latin coupled with mathematics. Since i am an electronics tech, this scheme works well for me.
Well anyway i hope to become an interesting participant that would like to join this community for and to give new ideas, feedback, and correspondance .
-Jay
thanks for the welcome. -Jay
thanks for the welcome.
-Jay
Hi
The Latin-Math combo is really intense.
I'm "involuntarily" learning Latin as my oldest is learning it and I'm nearly done with a one semester Greek text. Meanwhile, I've been reading a lot of the classics in translation and just finished Plato's Theaetetus in which Theaetetus discusses the very recent discovery of irrationals as a class of numbers. Also, I just finished Sophocle's Electra and found some unexpected nuggets concerning the Greek view of the "slavish mind", freedom, and justice.
I also have recently found a "classic" Russian geometry text in translation (Kiselev's Geometry) which is closely harmonized with Euclid's Elements, but designed for 7 - 9th graders which I'm really excited about.
Myrtle
Wow! Where did you find the geometry text? Sounds intriguing.
-Drew
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"I wonder how far I shall carry any opinion with me when I plead for active effort to revive the general use of Latin?" - Hilaire Belloc
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Drew, Here is my long-winded
Drew,
Here is my long-winded answer.
The Russian mathematicians (Ph.Ds)created something called "Math Circles" in which they took talented students and taught them how to prove theorems. I think, but I'm not sure, that it is from these math circles that the Math Olympiads had their origins. Also Gelfand wrote his textbooks for a correspondence school for kids who didn't have access to this math circles which and when he came to Rutgers he had the books translated. It's my impression that in general Russian K-12 math heavily stressed geometry in a way that no other country really does. And so it was by thinking through all of this that I came all the way back to geometry again.
There are four math circles for children that I know of in the United States, one in Berkeley, one in San Diego, one I forget, and one in Austin, TX. They are not the same thing as the more popular Math Olympiad groups. The difference is that the objective of the math circles is simply to learn math and not just to score high in a competition. The curriculum is arranged according to topic and they work Socratically with their students to teach them how to prove theorems. The Russian that translated Kiselev is at Berkeley (along with H Wu) and I think there might be some connection in all this. At any rate, the folks at the Singaporemath site work with mathematicians to make recommendations to the public about textbooks and they sell Kiselev. Here is found a review of it at the Mathematical Association of America website:
http://www.maa.org/reviews/KiselevGeomI.html
and at http://www.sumizdat.org/ there is a copy of it for sale for $10 less in cost than it's being sold for at Singaporemath and $5 less in shipping. They also have multiple sample pages that you can view.
Thank you!
Sounds great - thanks for the lead.
-Drew
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"I wonder how far I shall carry any opinion with me when I plead for active effort to revive the general use of Latin?" - Hilaire Belloc
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Welcome, Jay!
Glad to see you here! The Examined Life board is the place for self-ed questions. I'd be delighted to see it more active, so please feel encouraged to post questions and progress reports there.
Best wishes,
Drew Campbell (Mungo over at the MP forums)
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"I wonder how far I shall carry any opinion with me when I plead for active effort to revive the general use of Latin?" - Hilaire Belloc
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