How teaching literacy can learn from Classics.
In 2014, the reading agency stated 1 in 5 people in the UK cannot “read well” by age 11. It is a familiar story in America, with only 37% of schools being “Proficient or above” (See here to see what criteria is assessed here). Furthermore, the difference between the better funded private, fee paying schools (who typically have score advantages across the years) and the public non-fee paying state schools is only a single percent. Thus, the typical idea that those who can pay achieve an advantage is, at this stage, untrue. Part of the reason why is systemic within teaching, as a recent opinion piece in the New York Times suggests.
As Ms. Hanford’s says. there is a systemic problem with how teachers are taught to teach. As I read the article, which emphasises the necessity of a science-led phonic based teaching model, I was reminded of my own struggles learning ancient Greek. Before eulogizing about articular infinitives and the so-called ‘sandwich’ construction (Wait, come back, where are you going?!), I feel the need to offer a brief description of the phonic teaching method. It is, as the name suggests, a method of teaching children how to read (and write) by incorporating the sounds of letters and letter combinations into teaching thus allowing children to learn how to break-down words phonetically. More can be read here. As a child grows up, you can use the phonic method to break down complex words into syllables and complex phrases into grammatical chunks which are easier to manage.
The link with the classics is, I hope, self-evident to anyone who has spent time learning an ancient language. The idea of breaking sentences up into chunks (whether grammatical or phonetic) is how much modern-style language teaching in Classics is done today. Gone are the days of cult-like classes reciting ‘amo, amas, amat’ in a turgid, yet petrified choir as the master of Latin — or whatever suitably archaic title one’s school gave the Latin teacher — stalked the room with a ruler. Nowadays Classics is taught in a much more modern and scientific sense. One is taught to recognize forms of words and understand how they fit together into words, sentences, and paragraphs; it is not easy, say, for me — in my second year of Greek — to pick up Thucydides, for example, and read it in the original. It is, however, manageable and even when I come across words I do not understand I find myself trying to piece them together from what I know. Whether this is because this teaching method really works (it does) or because I really dislike having to sift through ‘Liddell and Scott’ for a word, is — well — another matter.
All joking aside, it is an important thought to consider in thinking about how classics is relevant today as much as ever. A teacher, in the NYT article, claimed to be ‘philosophically opposed’ to this phonic system, because presumably because of the (albeit laughable) notion that science has no place in the teaching of arts or humanities. Perhaps, we can point to the Classics for an example of using this system in an art, and, hopefully, we can use the example of Classics — the first interdisciplinary subject — to lead a revolution in the teaching of literacy.
Do you have a suggestion for a future topic? Do you have an idea to share with your friends? Send us a message and follow the Durham University Classics Society on Twitter (@DUClassSoc) and Facebook (@DUClassics Society) to keep up with this blog and our other adventures!
