The Latin-Centered Curriculum

Homeschoolers rightly rejoice at the increasing options for home Latin instruction. We have excellent programs for elementary-age students. Parents looking for Christian Latin materials no longer have to haunt the stacks of university libraries searching out 19th-century textbooks. Online academies are breathing new life into tried-and-true methods, with a range of offerings that puts some colleges to shame. For many busy homeschooling parents, these opportunities are real blessings, enabling us to pass on to the next generation a rich inheritance that we ourselves may not have shared in fully.

I am regularly asked by parents of young children what they can do to prepare their little ones for a classical education - the sort of deep, rich, and liberating education I describe in The Latin-Centered Curriculum. Some of the answers I give are just what you'd expect: read excellent books to your children every day; keep them away from television and other junk media; let them explore the natural world freely; instill good discipline; share the treasures of your faith. But one answer seems to floor some parents. I tell them that, in the years before a child begins his formal education, the very best use of the parents' time is to learn Latin themselves. Why do I say this?

I say it because every day, several times a day, I see questions online from parents who desperately want their children to learn Latin. They do beautifully with Latina Christiana and can easily keep pace with their oldest child as she works through the program. But once the oldest reaches Henle, the parent falters. There are so many exercises! How can I keep up? Can't I just give her the book and let her teach herself?

Imagine you had never taken calculus. (For some of us, that doesn't take much imagining!) Would you buy a standard high school textbook and give it to your child to figure out on his own? No matter how clear the explanations, you would have to assume that, at some point, he might need a little help. As a homeschooler, there are two ways to get that help: buy it or be it. You can outsource the course to a tutor or class - no shame or regret required - or you can learn the material so that you can teach it effectively.

It's the same with Latin. Henle's explanations are models of clarity, but it is not a self-teaching text. In fact, I have yet to see any high-school level Latin curriculum that I would consider truly self-teaching. Checking the answer key isn't enough. You need to be able to explain why one doesn't say apud domino or laudite. And if you don't know Latin yourself, you simply can't do that.

We have become so used to the romantic notion of teachers as "facilitators of learning" that we forget that teachers should actually know more than their students. If they don't, they have no business teaching that subject. In his classic book, The Seven Laws of Teaching, John M. Gregory states this unequivocally: "A teacher must be one who KNOWS the lesson or truth to be taught."

If you want your child to learn Latin, there are many avenues available today, and for that we can be grateful. But if you want to teach your child Latin, there is only one way to do it: learn it yourself. In the new edition of The Latin-Centered Curriculum, I offer some suggestions for parents who want to put together a classical self-education plan; some parents are already doing just that. Here I will give you three simple steps to start you on your own road to Rome:

1. Get the Henle I set and a copy of English Grammar for Students of Latin.
2. Devote 30 minutes a day to Latin. (That's one sitcom or half of a reality show.)
3. When you reach the end of Unit Seven in Henle, pick up a Lingua Latina as a supplement and use it to increase your reading fluency. Jeanne Neumman's Lingua Latina: A College Companion will guide you through any unfamiliar grammar or vocabulary.

I can't promise you that you will be reading Vergil after two weeks, but with steady effort over a period of years, you will make progress. Best of all, you will be able to share with your children something of immense value: not just the correct conjugation of Latin verbs, but the treasures of Latin literature.

At its best, classical homeschooling is not just a great education for your children. It's a great education for you, too.