CAMWS
Committee for the Promotion of Latin
Provo, Utah
2001 Annual
Report
The committee
identified the following goals for 2000-2001: identifying Latin programs in each
state and anticipating openings; developing contacts between CAMWS members and
state foreign language coordinators; creating a list of expert high school
teachers willing to speak to college students about careers in high school Latin
teaching, sponsoring such events, putting testimonials on the CPL website (http://department.monm.edu/Classics/cpl);
identifying the Latin teacher programs and their coordinators in CAMWS territory
and obtaining statistical information about their graduates; and developing and
distributing information about Latin to high school administrators and
counselors.
CPL worked with regional and state vice-presidents during the 2000-2001 academic year to identify high school Latin programs, anticipated openings, Latin teacher training programs, and expert teachers in each state. This has proven to be a tedious and time-consuming effort and information is currently available only from a few states. The importance of having this information suggests that CPL should continue these efforts until such information is available for all of CAMWS territory.
At the meeting of CAMWS Southern Section in Athens, Georgia, in October, CPL sponsored a pedagogy panel on teaching Latin to elementary and middle schools students. Participants included Alice Mulberry of the Ray Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois, Patrice Reaves of Murphey Elementary School in Greesboro, North Carolina; Barbara Bell, author of MINIMUS and head of the Classics Department, Clifton High School, in Bristol, England, and Elizabeth Kann of the University of Georgia. The committee hopes to produce a publication based upon this panel. Another CPL panel, entitled "Latin Outreach: Working with Administrators, Counselors and Parents" is scheduled for CAMWS 2001 in Provo, Utah. The committee is also pleased that the first recipient of the Kraft Award for Excellence in Teaching, Michaela Samson of Martin Luther King High School in Detroit, Michigan, will give a presentation at the beginning of this CPL Pedagogy Session in Provo.
This
has been a year marked by relatively few troubled programs. In the spring and
summer of 2000 CPL responded to the elimination of the Latin program at
Talawanda High School, in Oxford, Ohio, the home of the American Classical
League, with a letter-writing campaign. These efforts have led to some hope for
the reinstitution of the program in the academic year 01-02 and CPL has been
brainstorming with supporters of Latin in that community to insure that these
hopes become a reality. On the university level, the decision of Loyola
University to eliminate its Classics Dept. was met with such indignation by many
CAMWS members and by the general public that
the administration has had to reconsider its decision.
The primary activity of CPL continues to be the awarding of small seed grants to encourage the promotion of Latin at the local level in CAMWS territory. So far this year the committee has allocated c.$2500.00 of its $4000.00 budget for projects like promotional mailings and special guest speakers and presentations at high schools.
The committee continues to develop a library of print promotional materials which can be sent upon request (in bulk to CAMWS members). The most recent of these is an offprint of "The Latin Teacher Shortage: A Call to Action," a collection of five papers read at the 2000 annual meeting of CAMWS in Knoxville, Tennessee, and edited by Prof. Kenneth Kitchell of the University of Massachusetts of publication in The Classical Outlook 78 (2000) 1-19. In particular, however, CPL is pleased with “Consider….Teaching Latin in the 21st Century,” an attractive color brochure, designed for CPL by Prof. Richard A. LaFleur of the University of Georgia. This brochure contains sections entitled “Why Teach…Latin?”, “Career Opportunities,” “Certification,” “Scholarships,” and “Finding a Job.” The same information is also available in poster form. The committee hopes to circulate this material widely in high schools and colleges, to students, teachers, parents, counselors, and administrators. A list of other materials available from CPL can be found at http://department.monm.edu/Classics/cpl/PromotionalMaterials.htm. During the academic year 01-02 CPL mailed c.1536 brochures to approximately 25 people, not including those distributed through CAMWS vice presidents.
Respectfully
submitted,
Tom Sienkewicz
Chair of CPL
This material was posted on the web by CPL Chair, Tom Sienkewicz, at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois. If you have any questions, you can contact him at toms@monm.edu.