Caveat Emptor - Beware of Social Media Latin Resources
Lately, I have been perusing more than usual Facebook’s Latin teacher groups in which materials and ideas for improving the Latin classroom are exchanged and circulated. Many of the resources provided in these groups are created by the members themselves, Latin teachers looking to share with others what they have found useful in their own classrooms. As much as I applaud the generosity of these teachers who post on Social Media in an attempt to alleviate the burden of teaching for others, a burden that is all too real, the purpose of today’s post is not to commend these resources. In fact, my purpose is the opposite – to advise caution and perhaps even complete abstinence from such materials.
As the proponentes of so-called “active” Latin pedagogy grow in number, so too grows the number of resources catered to this kind of didactic approach. One of the most common of these is the Latin “short story” written to teach students a particular idea or to reinforce vocabulary already encountered under the guise of a compelling story.
In theory, I am an advocate of these kinds of resources, as, in my opinion, nothing is quite as efficient at reinforcing vocabulary and grammar than repetition materialized and contextualized in interesting ways. (See our articles: Speaking Latin, The Power of Perception, Gaining Rapport with your Latin Students, Memorize. Repeat. Teaching Familia Romana Part I, part II, part III). However, these Free Latin stories found on social media are often of such poor quality that I felt I should give a word of warning, lest someone be tempted to actually use them.
The problem with these stories is not that their subject matter is usually overly simplified and their style bleached of color – issues that I would still quibble with. No. The biggest problem is that many if not most of them contain patent grammatical errors. It might be one thing if there were grammatical errors hidden in an attempt to produce a higher-level text, but the sentences contained in these Facebook stories hardly exceed eight words and almost never approach complexity in the grammatical sense of the word. What particularly troubles me about this fact is not that these materials are being posted. It is a public forum after all. What troubles me is the almost universal approbation of these stories, assuming likes and positive comments are good indicators of the public’s opinion, and the deafening disregard for materials I would actually consider good and useful. Facebook’s judgement seems almost completely backwards with respect to the quality of Latin stories, and I fear that novice teachers may be leading their students into error by relying on them.
Now, I don’t think that a single story containing a couple of errors will hopelessly muddle a student’s understanding of Latin to the point of being unrecoverable should they have been subject to reading them. These mistakes highlight a larger pitfall in this “active Latin” methodology that we as teachers would do well to avoid. The pitfall as I see it, is the fact that in the absence of native speakers, we can easily be deluded into thinking we have within ourselves the power to produce good-quality Latin having learned only Latin’s basics and with very little or no experience of Latin literature. With this overconfidence comes not just one or two mistakes in a reading, but a potentially constant string of errors with which the students may be inundated in their everyday classroom experience.
Latin teachers who have suffered the challenges of teaching Latin exclusively the “old-fashioned” way and who are attempting to implement active communication in their classroom can easily misstep and extend themselves beyond their abilities. Knowledge of Latin’s grammar and vocabulary does not translate well into one’s ability to speak in a live setting, and well-intentioned attempts to communicate in Latin could easily cause more harm than good, if the teacher is not prepared to lead a class in this way.
Below you will find two example texts that I have sewn together myself based on some of the stories not only popping up in these groups, but even in “published” material that can be purchased. I am not going to point out the errors, but leave them to you to spot to emulate how these materials are presented on social media:
1. Maria est femina quae habitiat in Roma. Julius est vir qui habitat in Roma quoque. Julius rogat Mariam esse sua coniunx. Maria non ‘ita’ respondet sed capitem movet et dixit ‘non’. Julius tristis est quia uxorem futuram non habet. Maria quoque tristis est. Pro dolor!
2. Ecce aqua. Aqua ab hominibus utitur. Aqua bona est pro hominibus quia salutifera est! Non est mala aqua, sed bona quia ea ab hominibus utitur et vitam hominibus dat. Placet mihi aquam bibere. Placetne tibi aquam bibere quoque?
First, I would say that if you read these two short paragraphs and did not spot any errors or even only a couple, you need to work on your Latin before you start adjudicating the quality of resources you share with your students. Almost every sentence contains either an explicit grammatical error, or at the very least a stylistic element that I would probably quibble with. A teacher who missed the errors should, rather than scrounge for resources in these public forums and risk presenting students with inaccurate language, first and foremost take steps to improve their own knowledge of the language. It is the teacher’s duty to know the subject that they teach.
While these teachers continue to improve their understanding, if they feel that they would greatly benefit from having the kinds of resources that Facebook provides, I would suggest that they find instead a single solid and trustworthy source that they can generally rely upon while they build up their own ability to communicate in Latin effectively themselves. There are good resources out there, and, though they are not free, I would recommend Hans Orberg’s Familia Romana and Colloquia Familiaria as good beginning resources. If a teacher has decided to use this active approach in Latin, it should be implemented slowly while they build up their ability to speak properly. Whether an active Latin classroom is successful hinges not primarily on the readings you give your students, but on the quality of vocal communication with which you present your students every day.
In short, my advice to teachers is that they push themselves to strengthen their grasp of the subject they teach. If you are new to teaching Latin, the truth is, your Latin probably stinks. This is ok, as long as you nor not content, and you are committed to constant improvement. My intention is not to discourage teachers who want to enjoy the liberty that this didactic approach allows, but to caution them against diving headlong into it before they are ready and presenting their students with whatever “active” resources they stumble upon online. The “active Latin” method should not be used primarily as an escape from the difficulties of teaching. It can make teaching easier, but that is because it also demands that the teacher be much more knowledgable than the grammar-translate teacher has to be. A more knowledgeable teacher can essentially become his own resource for interesting Latin conversations with which he instructs his students, thus largely removing the need for any external resources at all.
No free online resource is going to replace the need for our teachers to be knowledgable. We should be reading Latin literature before we are authors of it. Good luck!
– Rogerius
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Images – By Quintilian – 2d copy, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47230574
By Scanned by Aristeas (Roman Eisele). Copper engraving by F. Bleyswyk. – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8888519