Last semester, I taught a group of Advanced Year 8s Latin at a local secondary school. There were about 30 students in total, all with varying degrees of enthusiasm for what I was teaching them. I’ve been out of the normal school system so long I forgot what it was like to be a rambunctious, carefree thirteen-year-old. Even though I am only seven or eight years older than them, they insisted upon calling me ‘miss’ which felt very weird and formal considering I’m not a teacher but I suppose it is hard to break the habit when school social customs dictate respect for superiors.
I think my favourite part of teaching last year was when students asked me questions about Latin. They constantly tried to find links to what they were learning: one girl said she did Latin dancing, and I had a hard time explaining to how that came about. One boy (consistently) kept asking if I could speak Latin, to which I had to tell him that no, I could not; I can only read and translate it; to which he replied something along the lines of “what’s the point?” which sparked useful discussions.
It was great to be able to share my enthusiasm for Latin with the children and introduce them into something new and completely different to what they’re used to. Hopefully I was able to inspire some of them, if not with the Latin language or Romans, with the possibility they have to further their education through A-levels and University one day.
Written by Silke Davison
I think my favourite part of teaching last year was when students asked me questions about Latin. They constantly tried to find links to what they were learning: one girl said she did Latin dancing, and I had a hard time explaining to how that came about. One boy (consistently) kept asking if I could speak Latin, to which I had to tell him that no, I could not; I can only read and translate it; to which he replied something along the lines of “what’s the point?” which sparked useful discussions.
It was great to be able to share my enthusiasm for Latin with the children and introduce them into something new and completely different to what they’re used to. Hopefully I was able to inspire some of them, if not with the Latin language or Romans, with the possibility they have to further their education through A-levels and University one day.
Written by Silke Davison