In order to meet publication deadlines, this editorial has to be written at New Year, even though I know that it will not be published several months later. A New Year brings new resolutions, and this edition of the Journal of Classics Teaching – number 45 – is the first in which all the articles and book reviews are gathered together in one place that have already been released on First View. Not so much a resolution, then, as another small revolution in the long history of the Journal and its predecessors Hesperiam, and Didaskalos. The advantages of a digital production are becoming clear: online access direct to cited articles and references, links to authors’ other works, the ability to include supplementary appendices and extracts, and a more streamlined and straightforward online publication process.
Some statistics for 2021Footnote 1:
813 registrants for the Journal of Classics Teaching (up 10.46% from 2020)
47,590 page views
Top downloading countries:
USA: c17,000
UK: c. 13,000
Germany: c. 4,000
Australia: c. 2,000
Netherlands: c. 2,000
On Facebook, the Journal has 1,198 members.
A quick round-up of news and events in Classics Teaching in the UK and elsewhere. The English Department for Education (DfE) announced that it would seek an organization or organizations to deliver a ‘Latin Excellence Programme’, starting in September 2022Footnote 2. With a timescale of 4 years and a budget of £4million, the Latin Excellence Programme has been heavily modelled on the Mandarin Excellence Programme – a model which a number of people, including this author, find peculiarly unsuitable for Latin, but which was the preference of one of the education ministers who approved it. It aims to embed Latin teaching to GCSE in 40 non-selective state schools in areas of deprivation. The announcement met mixed reviews in the newspapers, which lined up largely on political lines: the association of Latin with a conservative Johnson-led government was always likely to excite strong opinions. For teachers and educationists, the project seems to have some merit: a recognition that after years of neglect something to support Latin in schools has to be a good idea. However, the tender documents appear to subject potential bidders to multiple stringent financial, legal and practical requirements and tests. At the time of writing, it is none too clear which organizations would have the capacity or skills to be able to deliver what the DfE seems to want in the way it wants it. Perhaps when this editorial is published later in the year, we will know who will deliver the Latin Excellence Programme and how.
Meanwhile, on the European continent, it appeared that Latin and ancient Greek were to be extended across schools as part of a venture to strengthen ties across the EU and to counter what was referred to by Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French Minister of Education, as ‘American wokeism’. According to The Times newspaperFootnote 3 Latin and Greek would be introduced in professional lycées, where sixth-formers study vocational courses to train them for jobs in places such as restaurants, factories, beauty parlours and garages. The Minister is said to want these pupils to ‘develop their culture’ by reading authors such as Sophocles and to strengthen Latin and Greek at a time when they were under attack from American leftwingers denouncing them as the fount of racism. It is difficult to disentangle the political rhetoric from the reality. The Editor of the Journal of Classics Teaching would appreciate any information following up any of the Minister's plans.
Finally, I learnt with sorrow that Dr Emily Matters passed away just before Christmas on 23rd December 2021. Emily received her doctorate from the University of Sydney in 2005 and had taught Latin and ancient Greek for many years at a number of schools in New South Wales (NSW), ending her teaching career at Pymble Ladies’ College. I first came into contact with Emily when she visited Cambridge UK for the Classics in Communities Conference in 2015 on a fact-finding mission for the Classical Association of NSW about the teaching of classical languages in UK primary schools. This resulted in her own contribution of a chapter entitled ‘Classics in Australia: on surer ground?’ to the conference volume Forward with Classics Footnote 4. In her chapter, she shared her hopes for a stronger place for classics education in schools for all Australians, across the country, starting with students in primary schools, and, bearing in mind the fact that many young Australians study and travel abroad, wrote that for her fellow countrymen and women the study of Classics had a distinct purpose: ‘My hope is from this time forward the general population of young Australians will have a deeper appreciation of the cultural and linguistic debt to the Greek and Roman world which, in turn, will enable them to understand, share in and contribute more generously to the global community.’ I met Emily again in 2017 when I was on holiday in Australia with my daughter Olivia and staying briefly in Sydney. Emily found out I was there (she must have had spies at the airport!) and hurriedly arranged a mini conference for me to speak at in the rooms at the top of the Grace Hotel where I was staying. As compensation for my daughter, who had perhaps expected a beach rather than a conference room, she thoughtfully took us out for supper at the Athenian Greek Restaurant on Barrack Street. Emily's book Eureka: an introduction to Classical Greek for young AustraliansFootnote 5 was published in 2017. It follows the adventures of four young modern, multi-ethnic Australians as they rediscover their own and each other's roots in ancient Greece and learn the rudiments of ancient Greek along the way. Emily wrote about the book's development in the Journal of Classics Teaching 38 Footnote 6. Forward to 2019 and we met again at the American Classical League Annual Institute in New York. Always a good companion, we chomped our way through the talks, demonstrations and lectures and a fair few lunches in a local Italian restaurant and compared teaching notes for our respective countries – and those, of course, for the USA. Emily had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge – language, literature, civilisation and also pedagogy - and she was adept at putting people together or seeking people out if she thought that something good would come of the discussion. One afternoon we met up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, had tea and drank in as much art as we could cope with in the time available before we had to head back to our own countries. I had a plan for her to contribute a chapter on teaching Classics in Australia for a forthcoming book and she had agreed. That will now never happen. And it is sad, perhaps, that the last thing she wrote for the Journal of Classics Teaching is coincidentally an obituary for Jim Adams, published in this edition – a touching and heartfelt piece from one teacher to another. Although I cannot say that I knew Emily especially well, on the occasions when we met, I was always impressed by her physical energy, her classical erudition, and her admirable skill in making things happen. She was unforgettable for all of the right reasons. She was thoughtful, courteous, helpful and, above all else, truly kind. The Classics community has lost one of its greats. requiescat in pace.
Articles
Law, E. A critical study into the extent that co-operative learning promotes a greater confidence and a more accurate rendering of syntax in unseen translations for Year 12 IB Higher Latinists.
Canfarotta, D., Tosto, C., and Casado-Muñoz, R. Development of key competences through Latin and Greek in secondary school in Italy and Spain.
Cannatella, P. Student and teacher perceptions of the value of Total War: Saga in motivating KS3 students in an all-boys state school.
Moran, J. The Composition and Transmission of the Homeric Poems: A Summary.
Liddel, P. The Attic Inscriptions: Education Project.
Chung, A., and Irwin, C. Petrarch and the Significance of Dialogue.
Markoglou, A. Structuring cooperative learning methods in Ancient Greek classrooms.
Coniam, D., Poupounaki-Lappa, P., and Peristeri, T. Validating Communicative Tests of Reading and Language Use of Classical Greek.
Zagkotas, V., and Fykaris, I. Approaching the ‘Death of Socrates’ through art education. A teaching proposal and the introduction of a new typology for teaching with similar artworks.
Merali-Smith, S., and Nongbri, A. The East London Classics Summer School.
Baglio, K. Student Motivation in the Latin Classroom.
Le Hur, C. A New Classical Greek Qualification.
Matters, E. James Adams 1943–2021.
Book Reviews
Anspach (M.) The Oedipus Casebook, Reading Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Chloe Barnett.
Barrett (A.) Rome is Burning: Nero and the Fire that Ended a Dynasty. Leslie Ivings.
Bett (R.) Sextus Empiricus: How to Keep an Open Mind. An Ancient Guide to Thinking Like a Skeptic. Alexander Carroll.
Carter (A.) Selections from Virgil's Aeneid Books 1–6. A Student Reader. James Watson.
Collins (R.) et al. Living on the Edge of Empire, The Objects and People of Hadrian's Wall. Andie Allman.
Fontaine (M.) Cicero: How to tell a joke. Leslie Ivings.
Garland (M.) How to Survive in Ancient Greece. Hilary Meyrick-Long.
Goff (B.) Euripides: Trojan Women. Lucy Angel.
Hemelrijk (E.) Women and Society in the Roman World. A Sourcebook of Inscriptions from the Roman West. Lucy Benson.
Keeline (T.) Cicero: Pro Milone. Evan Dutmer.
LaFleur (R.) The Secret Lives of Words from Rome to Apalachicola. Sarah Hindocha.
McGill (S.) Virgil: Aeneid Book XI. Gary Vos.
Morgan (J.) quare id faciam. Alan Clague.
Neils (J.) and Rogers (D.) The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Athens. Charlotte Goddard.
Ogden (D.) The Werewolf in the Ancient World. Joanna Lashly.
Pulleyn (S.) Homer: Odyssey 1. Edited with an Introduction, Translation, Commentary, and Glossary. Gary Vos.
Rhem (R.) Euripides: Electra. Peter Olive.
Richardson (E.) Alexandria: The Quest for The Lost City. Chloe Barnett.
Rothe (U.) The Toga and Roman Identity. Edmund Gazeley.
Saint (J.) Ariadne. Lauren Bright.
Sakosh Curtis (V.) and Stewart (S.) Birth of the Persian Empire. Leslie Ivings.
Sidebottom (H.) The Return. Hilary Meyrick-Long.
Smith (L.) Themistocles. The Powerbroker of Athens. Danny Pucknell.
Trafford (L.) How to Survive in Ancient Rome. Danny Pucknell.
Yarrow (L.) The Roman Republic to 49 BCE. Using Coins as Sources. Tom Johnson.
Many articles for the Journal of Classics Teaching start up as conference pieces or teach-meet talks or presentations at staff meetings. The Editor always welcomes interesting or novel pieces, as well as articles which simply describe good teaching practice or events or things of interest to other teachers. Readers should feel confident to submit articles in the usual way to the Classical Association.
Submitting an article to JCT
The Journal of Classics Teaching is the leading journal for teachers of Latin, Ancient Greek, Classical Civilisation and Ancient History in the UK. It originated as the voice of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers in 1963 under the title Didaskalos, being renamed Hesperiam over the years, and finally JCT. It has a broadly-based membership including teachers in the primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors. JCT welcomes articles, news and reports about Classics teaching and items of interest to teachers of Classics both from the UK and abroad. If you wish to submit an article, it should be sent to the JCT Editor, c/o the Classical Association [email protected].
Articles are welcome on classroom teaching practice or on studies about the teaching and learning of Classics in the UK and abroad should be up to 7,000 words. There should be clear pedagogical or academic content. News and reports of events of general interest to teachers of Classics should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words.
All articles should be submitted in Arial 12 point, 1.5 line-spaced and with non-justified margins, and should include the author's name, email address and some biographical details, including affiliation where appropriate. Images, graphs, diagrams and tables should be submitted separately as jpgs or pdfs as appropriate, with an indication in the text where they should be included. If necessary, endnotes are preferred rather than footnotes. In general, JCT prefers references to conform to the author-date referencing style of the American Psychological Association (APA). The Editor can supply further details of this referencing style if desired. Please ensure that you have permission to reproduce photographs of pupils or the relevant copyright for images, or give details of the origin of the image used. Recent editions of the journal give a guide to the layout of articles.
After submission by the author, the article may be submitted to peer review. The Editor reserves the right to suggest any changes that are felt are needed to be made and makes minor corrections. If major changes are thought to be needed, the author will be asked to rewrite the section which needs changing. Once accepted, the author is assumed to have assigned the right to JCT to distribute the publication electronically. Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors, but if published after electronic appearance, JCT will be acknowledged as the initial place of publication.
For 50 years JCT and its predecessors were published in hard copy and made available to members of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers. From 2015 JCT has been available freely online, generously supported by the Classical Association. Back issues of hard copies of JCT are sometimes available from the CA Shop and as downloadable pdfs of individual articles freely online via the Association for Latin Teaching website www.arlt.co.uk.
Open access
