Teaching Latin

Extract

‘You know, sir—you're absolutely right!’ This heartening remark, accompanied by the ingenuous smile of intellectual discovery (or was it just kindly encouragement?) came from a member of the Classical Sixth in response to a five-minute impromptu discourse of mine in which I had said something like this:

In the Fourth Form we show you, two or three times a week, how to set about translating a complex Latin period. We ask you, ‘What verb is introduced by ut?’ You say, ‘Esset’. We say, ‘Look again’; and you say, ‘Oh, no, esset is introduced by quod; ut goes with perciperent’. ‘Right; then what clause comes before the ut-clause?’ ‘An Ablative Absolute.’