Inventory of Classical Greek Teaching in the Schools:
Appendix

2000/2001

California - Connecticut - Washington, D.C. - Florida - Idaho - Illinois - Kansas - Kentucky - Louisiana -Massachusetts -Maryland - Maine - Michigan - Missouri - Montana - North Carolina - New Hampshire - New Jersey - New York - Ohio - Oklahoma - Pennsylvania - Rhode Island - Tennessee - Texas - Virginia - West Virginia

Questionnaire


Gonzaga College High School - Roxbury Latin School Greek Program - Greek to Me, by Dr. Henry A. Strater, Foreward - Greek to Me, by Dr. Henry A. Strater, Table of Contents

Dr. John Warman
Gonzaga College High School
19 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Recent enrollments:
Greek I
Greek II
Greek III
2001-2002 ? 9 0
2000-2001 16 1 0
1999-2000 4 3 0
1998-1999 11 3 0
1997-1998 3 3 0
1996-1997 6 0 0
1995-1996 2 2 1
1994-1995 2 1 0
1993-1994 2 2 0
1992-1993 3 4 0

Recent Introductory Texbooks:

Greek has been taught at our school every year since its founding in 1821, and was required until some point in the 1920s or 1930s.

Latin was required until 1972.


Gonzaga College High School header

The Classics Department of Gonzaga College High School continues in the Jesuit tradition of giving a special position to the study of Latin and Greek. The department consists of two experienced professionals who teach courses in four years of Latin and three years of Greek. Both teachers demonstrate an enthusiasm and pride in their art and seem to instill this same quality in their students.

Evaluation Report of the Commission on Secondaty Schools
Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
October 28, 1994


Courses

Latin head
Greek head
LATIN I

    The basics.

GREEK I

    The basics.

LATIN II

    More basics.
    Featured author: C. Julius Caesar,
    Commentarii de Bello Gallico
    Students may qualify for an Honors Class.

GREEK II

    More basics.
    Featured author: Xenophon, Anabasis.

LATIN III

    Featured author: Vergil, Aeneid.
    Qualified students may prepare for the
    Advanced Placement Examination in Vergil.

GREEK III

Featured author: Homer, Odyssey.

LATIN IV

    Featured authors: Catullus, Horace.
    Students prepare for the Advanced Placement
    Examination in Catullus-Horace.

... Latin and Greek are worth any time
one spends on them and can be put to
specific use.

Garry Wills
NYT magazine logo
Februaty 16, 1997


  • Gonzaga students annually win numerous gold (summa cum laude) and silver (maxima cum laude) medals as well as numerous magna cum laude and cum laude certificates in the National Latin Examination. In the 2000 examination Gonzaga had seven perfect scores!
  • Gonzaga students regularly win ribbons in the National Greek Examination.
  • Gonzaga students regularly win numerous trophies and ribbons at the annual convention of the District of Columbia Junior Classical League, the local arm of the National Junior Classical League.
  • Gonzaga students have accounted, over the past three-and-a-half decades, for nearly one-half of one percent of all successful Advanced Placement Latin Examination grades earned during that period in the entire United States, and approximately a full one percent of those earned by boys.

Classics Faculty

Syllabus 2000-2001

Department: Classics Teacher: Dr. John C. Warman
Course number: 811
Course title: Greek I

Brief description

    The function of this course is to give the student a firm foundation in the structure and vocabulary of Attic Greek, the language of the Golden Age of Athens. The course aims to enable the student to read in Greek from the masterworks of that period and, with little adjustment, from the earlier Greek of the Homeric epics and the later Greek of the New Testament. Open to approved students with a year’s background in Latin or equivalent preparation.

Text

    Balme and Lawall, Athenaze Athenaze (in Greek): An Introduction to Ancient Greek

Requirements of the course, including type of homework assigned

    First semester: Lessons 1-6
    Second semester: Lessons 7-12

    Nightly study assignment
    Nightly written assignment
    Daily recitation
    Quizzes, mid-quarter and quarter tests
    First semester in-class examination; second semester in-class final examination

Grading scale

    A= outstanding achievement (Approximately 90% +)
    B= clearly above average achievement (Approximately 80% +)
    C= average achievement (Approximately 70% +)
    D= passing but clearly unsatisfactory achievement (Approximately 60% +)
    F= failure (Approximately 59% -)


Syllabus 2000-2001

Department: Classics Teacher: Dr. John C. Warman
Course number: 822
Course title: Greek II

Brief description

Texts

Requirements of the course, including type of homework assigned

Grading scale

    A= outstanding achievement (Approximately 90% +)
    B= clearly above average achievement (Approximately 80% +)
    C= average achievement (Approximately 70% +)
    D= passing but clearly unsatisfactory achievement (Approximately 60% +)
    F= failure (Approximately 59% -)

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Ned Ligon
Classics
The Roxhiry Latin School
101 St. Theresa Ave.
West Roxburv, MA 02132

In Class III students may elect Greek; those who elect Greek must make at least a two-year commitment to the language. Boys who elect both Greek and Latin in Class III may drop the last year of required French if they desire.
10th Grade: First year Greek aims not only at gaining control of the language but also at comprehending some of the ideas of the Hellenistic world which have decisively contributed to Western Civilization. The text is Balme and Lawall, Athenaze. Mastery of form recognition, vocabulary (including English derivations), and grammar is stressed, with major emphasis placed on reading narrative Greek.
11th Grade: Class II Greek completes Athenaze during the fall term, with continued
emphasis on reading prose. The winter term is spent reading from the works of Aesop, Herodotus, and Lysias’ On the Murder of Eratosthenes (edited by Domingo-Forasté). Socrates (man, teacher, philosopher), as depicted in Aristophanes’ Clouds, Xenophon’s Memorabilia, and Plato’s Lysis, is the focus of the spring term; Plato’s Apology (edited by J.J. Helm) is closely read and discussed.
12th Grade: In Class I Greek the fall semester is devoted to a study of Homer’s Iliad. Emphasis is placed on understanding the history of the epic, the heroic image in literature, and the values of Mycenaean society. The text is Benner’s Selections from the Iliad. In the spring semester, the ever expressive lyric poets (Sappho, Simonides, Tyrtaeus, et al.; materials prepared by the Department) serve as the basis for a study of the broad range of human emotions and motivations. In response to student interest, this spring’s course also includes readings from the Greek New Testament, with exegesis of the text and comparisons to published translations.

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Dr. Henry A. Strater
University School
2785 Som Center Road
Hunting Valley, OH 44022

GREEK TO ME

Introduction

Foreword to the Teacher

The genesis of Greek to Me came some twenty-five years ago because of what I perceived to be the inadequacy of available texts for teaching Classical Attic Greek to high school youngsters. I turned out two chapters a week onto ditto sheets from a manual Greek typewriter: Greek examples and vocabulary in the left half of the page, English equivalents on the right half, then a page of sentences in Greek to be translated into English. Explanations and discussions were done in class.

Now, thanks to the amazing powers of computer-age word processing, the materials have been re-arranged, honed, and refined to reflect students’ suggestions and my own observations of what worked and what didn’t. To replace our class discussions and oral explanations, I have added numerous catechisms (OBSERVE — DISCOVER — LEARN) which should lead the students through a process of induction to some conclusion about inflection, grammar, or syntax. I have also added new exercises and connected readings as well as instructional material on translating English into Greek.

Through the talent and generosity of Ms. Diane Heller, a professional animator and an alumna of my wife’s Latin classes, we have been able to introduce a little Socrates character as a sort of mascot throughout the book.

Nonetheless, the materials, sequence, and methods of presentation remain pretty much the same as those on the blotchy ditto sheets of a quarter century ago. They reflect some principles of teaching classical languages which I still doggedly follow after a career of almost forty years teaching in high school and junior high classes in both public and independent schools:

  1. Languages are best learned INDUCTIVELY. If a student has figured out for himself through observation and comparison of multiple examples what, for instance, an augment adds to the meaning of a Greek verb, the ideas which may be expressed by a genitive absolute, or how to recognize an aorist passive, he is much likelier to remember a principle which he himself has discovered. Even for students who learn best by having a given to them need examples, examples, and more examples in order to understand.
  2. The primary objective in learning Greek is for the student to be able to READ and to UNDERSTAND GREEK TEXTS in the original language. Accordingly, I have included real Greek aphorisms and proverbs as early as possible in the practice materials. After a dozen or so chapters, texts adapted only slightly from Aesop, Herodotus, Plato, Xenophon, Apollodorus’ library of mythology, and epigrams from the Greek Anthology begin to appear. In the second semester students may begin to read one of the best prose tales in all of ancient literature: the amazing story of King Rhampsinitus and the Thief from book two of Herodotus’ Histories in an unabridged and unexpurgated (though Atticized) version.

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Greek to Me

TABLE of CONTENTS

page
Foreword to the Student................................................................. 3
Foreword to the Teacher.................................................................
5
Introductory Chapter: The Greek Alphabet............................................
10
Chapter 1: Verbs in Present Tense......................................................
22
Chapter 2: Nouns in Nominative Case.................................................
30
Chapter 3: Nouns in Accusative Case.........................................................
38
Chapter 4: Capital Letters, Pronunciation of Greek Names................................
50
Chapter 5: Verbs in Future Tense; Particles..................................................
56
Chapter 6: Adjectives...........................................................................
68
Chapter 7: Verbs in Imperfect Tense; Forms of the Verb to be............................
78
Chapter 8: Nouns in Dative Case..............................................................
88
Chapter 9: Verbs in First Aorist; uses of .......................................
102
Chapter 10: Nouns in Genitive Case; .................................
109
Chapter 11: Verbs in Second Aorist; elision.................................
118
Chapter 12: Some Prepositions................................................................
127
Chapter 13: Present Active Participles........................................................
130
Chapter 14: Comparatives; and ..................................................
142
Chapter 14,1: Future and Second Aorist Active Participles................................
150
Chapter 15: Numbers 1-10; Time phrases; ............................
158
Chapter 16: First Aorist Participles, ..........................................
168
reading: THE WIND AND THE SUN - Aesop..................
174
Chapter 17: Neuters.............................................................................
176
reading: THALES THE PHILOSOPHER........................
185
Chapter 18: Middle-Passives in Present......................................................
186
reading: THE HARSHEST LAWS...............................
193
Chapter 19: Personal Pronouns I-we-you; Genitive Absolute.............................
194
reading: A CHILDREN’S PLAY SONG.........................
202
reading: THE ROOSTER AND THE ROBBERS - Aesop.....
203
Chapter 20: Middles in Past tenses; Compound Verbs.....................................
204
reading: THE ASS AND THE GRASSHOPPERS - Aesop...
216
Chapter 21: Capitals, Transliteration, Pronunciation of Greek Names...................
217
reading: PROMETHEUS..........................................
223
reading: OSTRAKA................................................
224
Chapter 22: Deponent Verbs...................................................................
226
reading: A DRINKING SONG - Anacreon...................
231
Chapter 23: Relative Pronouns; Superlative Adjectives.....................................
234
reading: NIOBE....................................................
244
Chapter 24: Infinitives..........................................................................
250
Chapter 25: E-Contract Verbs, Adverbs......................................................
260
reading: THE BLIND MAN’S DOG - Aesop...................
269
Chapter 26: Missing-Sigma Nouns (“king-city-mountain”)................................
270
Chapter 27: Liquid Futures and Aorists......................................................
276
Chapter 28: Commands, Vocatives...........................................................
reading: THE BOY AND THE WOLF - Aesop..................
Chapter 29: Indirect Discourse after Present or Future Verbs..............................
288
Chapter 30: Perfect Active Verbs..............................................................
Chapter 31: Perfect Middle-Passive Verbs; Comparison of Adverbs.....................
300
reading: EGYPTIAN BANQUETS - Herodotus................
Chapter 32: Numerals, Duals..................................................................
320
reading: AN OPPORTUNIST - Xenophon’s ANABASIS.....
reading: A V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W RUNNER - Nicharchus........
Chapter 33: = I go.....................................................................
320
Chapter 34: Aorist Passives....................................................................
324
Chapter 35: Six Principle Parts................................................................
329
Chapter 36: - verbs in Present and Imperfect.............................................
334
Chapter 37: A- and 0- Contract Verbs........................................................
340
Chapter 38: Supplementary Participles; Adjs. in- commands.........
359
Chapter 39: - verbs in Aorist...............................................................
357
Chapter 40: Subjunctives.......................................................................
365
Chapter 41: Optatives...........................................................................
384
Chapter 42: Indirect Discourse after Past verbs; ...................................
402
Chapter 43 Pluperfects; Nouns of Odd Declensions; ...........................
415
Chapter 44 Future Passives; Contrary-to-fact Conditions; Reviews......................
422
Reading Unit: Rhampsinitus and the Thief
- from Herodotus’ Histories Book Two........................
429

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