The Man w/o a Face and LCC....

[Rhondabee]

DH and I re-watched "The Man Without a Face" over the weekend. In 1968/69, Mel Gibson tutors a kid who looks younger than my 6th grader in translating Cicero and Geometry so he can get into a boarding school and escape his mother.

 

So...I'm pinching myself thinking - everyone who *knows* we're doing Latin thinks it's crazy or a waste of time. And this kid is translating Cicero in what I would guess is the 8th grade. (He graduates 4 years later.) He's reading Shakespeare and the Aeneid like it's no big deal. And doing Geometry.

 

Now, my 9th grader is doing those things with some attitude thrown in. And, I realize it's just a movie. But I am suddenly left feeling like I was born a Southern hick, raised a Southern hick, and no matter how hard I try to improve myself, my kids and I will just always be Southern hicks. I feel so ignorant, so I just have to ask:

 

So...Did *all* kids in the 60's study at that level? Or, just the ones going to private school? Or, just the ones who didn't live in the South?

 

Do all kids going to private school study at that level now?

 

And, as reluctant as I am to look at LCC - would we be studying at that level if we had followed LCC instead of WTM?

[i.love.lucy]

I wasn't born and raised a hick, just a regular ol' public school kid from California, and I NEVER studied at that level.

 

:confused:But I'm confused, if your 9th grader is doing those things (even with attitude), and the kid in the movie is 8th grade, that's close enough isn't it? Why do you question if LCC would have gotten you farther than WTM when it sounds like you are there? Not being snarky at all, genuinely curious!

[kalanamak]

DH and I re-watched "The Man Without a Face" over the weekend. In 1968/69, Mel Gibson tutors a kid who looks younger than my 6th grader in translating Cicero and Geometry so he can get into a boarding school and escape his mother.

 

 

 

I think they made it high falutin' just to appear bigger than real life. I read the book when it first came out, and it more regular prep school stuff. He wanted to get away from home and had futzed around and was going to ruin his change to get into a certain school. But not Cicero.

[Hillary in KS]

My parents went to school in Oregon and California in the 1960's. They studied Latin in school. As did my grandparents.

 

I'm not certain when it stopped being taught, but for a time Latin in American schools was common.

[SonshineLearner]

My parents would have been in Highschool around 1965 in TX(dad) and OR(Mom) weren't taught Latin. Course... my dad taught himself Greek for fun!! He really did <unknowingly> try for a "Classical Education" without realizing... He read Classics... Greek... crazy boy!!

 

:-)

[littlebug42]

When I was in high school, Latin was an elective foreign language. I did not take it though.

[stripe]

I don't think that's typical. Prep school is not equal to everyone's experience. I never got the impression that my parents were translating anything.

 

I don't really understand why you are having so many doubts about being a Southern hick. First of all, there is nothing wrong with being Southern; don't let others define you negatively! Secondly, it sounds like your son is learning a lot. Walk tall.

[Rhondabee]

I wasn't born and raised a hick, just a regular ol' public school kid from California, and I NEVER studied at that level.

 

:confused:But I'm confused, if your 9th grader is doing those things (even with attitude), and the kid in the movie is 8th grade, that's close enough isn't it? Why do you question if LCC would have gotten you farther than WTM when it sounds like you are there? Not being snarky at all, genuinely curious!

 

Well, I did mis-speak somewhat. My DS is *not* translating Cicero, though he is working through the last half of Henle I this year (with Memoria Press - I simply couldn't keep up). I guess the movie presented as "normal" that kids would have *mastered* Latin and Geometry and really deep literature by the end of 8th grade - though I will consider us successful if we master them by the end of high school.

 

I probably thought of LCC because I also just signed my ds up for the 2nd semester of Henle with Memoria Press - and I read through the LCC info there just to sneak a peak. I really don't have the where-withal to change what we're doing now - a statement which would qualify for a LOL smily if it weren't so sadly true!

 

I'm certain the level of the tutoring in the movie went right over my dh's head, and none of my friends would have considered that level "normal". But, we are *all* products of a the deep South - and Southerners are *forever* being derided as ignorant - so the thought is always in the back of my mind that maybe we really are!

 

Thanks for letting me vent!

[Rhondabee]

My grandmother studied Latin in school but she was from an upper-middle class family and emigrated from Europe as a child so that may have affected her family's ideas about a proper eduction. My grandfather never studied Latin but he also left home at the age of 12.

 

My parents certainly never studied it. They think it is a little nuts but since my sister put her kids into a classical school all of their grandchildren are learning Latin so they have come to be proud of it.

 

:lol:

 

My parents came to pick up my DD one Friday last year for the weekend, and I was doing Latin with my oldest one when they arrived. My Dad actually did pretty well translating what was on the board. (I think he had two years of Latin - he keeps a real tight lid on his life.) Anyway - he then proceeded to tell me Latin was a waste of time and we should study a "real" language....:glare:

 

(Guess that Russian he took in high school came in *real* handy - LOL!)

[Rhondabee]

I think they made it high falutin' just to appear bigger than real life. I read the book when it first came out, and it more regular prep school stuff. He wanted to get away from home and had futzed around and was going to ruin his change to get into a certain school. But not Cicero.

 

Ah - good to know. Thanks for posting!

[Guest Katia]

The high school in my hometown offered Latin through my Junior year. I was then taking Latin 3, and they let us take the text books home if we wanted at the end of the year, because they were dropping Latin from their curriculum. Sad. That was in 1977. The school had only had one Latin class for several years, and from my 9th grade up, we only had 10-12 kids in the class......so I'm sure they just couldn't afford a teacher for such low numbers in an elective class.

 

Where I live currently, several of the older ladies in our church are very schooled in Latin. They took 4 years in high school, and were very upset when the local schools dropped Latin from their curriculum. So, even here in a different state I know Latin was a regular offering in the high school up through the 60's at least.

 

Now....all that to say......it wasn't a required class that I am aware of. It was an elective. And.....I taught my kids Latin for their 1st year.....and found that what I had learned in 3 years in the public school system was the same content in a Latin 1 course from Memoria Press. Yep. After that, my one dd dropped Latin and my dd that loved Latin had to learn it herself from the wonderful materials available through Memoria Press.

 

So.....even though my ps transcript says I took 3 years of Latin....yeah, right.