Evan Judge Armacost (The Fessenden School)
The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a light on inequalities deepening throughout the United States to such an extent that continuing to ignore them has become an impossibility. These inequalities extend to education at large and independent education specifically. Having witnessed thriving students at an independent school outside of Boston make continued gains in the Latin (and Spanish) classroom under unsteady conditions while struggling students suffer compounding difficulties; I have sought pedagogical practices that reinforce rather than diminish the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I submit that during these most unequal times the use of Comprehensible Input (in whole or in part) together with a special emphasis on social issues within the Roman Empire represents the most ethical and effective pedagogy for a pandemic where so many run the risk of falling behind.
The accusations of gatekeeping and far-reaching ineffectiveness against the predominant Grammar-Translation method have received sufficient documentation elsewhere that I need not repeat them here. At a time when so many students are learning remotely or under hybrid conditions (hardly suitable for peak academic performance), persisting in a practice that can exacerbate student frustration or failure rapidly loses its justifiability when more inclusive practices lie at the ready. While fear of CI may present the greatest obstacle to Latin teachers for the reason that few themselves learned by this method, recognizing the practice’s core simplicity through the work of Patrick (2016) and others dispels one of the illusion that the educator must match Reginald Foster to employ CI properly. Even small steps toward a more active use of Latin in the classroom can engage at-risk students and high flyers alike at a time when they most need academic care.
While advocacy for CI and equitable teaching methods may not in themselves seem novel, global conditions today reveal the necessity of repeating and expanding best practices for success both in the field of public health and in the classroom. As Latin cohort sizes continue to diminish, programs cannot afford to lose more students for lack of support during a particularly trying academic year. Decentering grammar and translation as the primary indicators of a student's facility with Latin and replacing them with aural/visual comprehension can build on students’ innate language skills - even if a pupil cannot comprehensively articulate English grammar, she can still use English - and broaden the accessibility of Latin to students lacking either the resources or the learning style to thrive under GT instruction. To be sure, a teacher need not dispense with the study of grammar entirely or abandon translation as a tool for use in explicating a sentence or passage. Nevertheless, I maintain that opening the door to more students and their unique backgrounds can fulfill justice’s demands during the reckoning currently before the United States and the world while simultaneously increasing participation in Latin classrooms sorely in need of students.