the news from France about Ancient Greek and Latin isn't so hot either
Gregory Crane
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May 2015
Just as I had finished off a blog about bad news on enrollments for
Greek and Latin in the US (and Germany), I came saw a story on Al
Jazeera about big cuts being planned for Latin and Ancient Greek in
France. The BBC news reports that "the government wants to reduce
teaching of Latin and ancient Greek, scrap an intensive language scheme
and change the history curriculum."
(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32792564)
There does seem to have been some good news on this, with Greek and
Latin reemerging in at least one proposal)
(http://www.connexionfrance.com/latin-greek-teaching-languages-secondary-school-france-16951-view-article.html),
but the fact that Greek and Latin are so vulnerable is the issue -- if
not now, when will they be hit?
I don't know the details of what is happening in France (and I would
welcome pointers to blog coverage) but, whatever the details, I don't
see how "business-as-usual" is going to help us. The time for change was
ten years ago. Let's not go down without a fight -- but a fight must
mean fighting to use the new tools at our disposal to reimagine and
redesign what our students -- and what society as a whole -- can get
from the study of Ancient Greek and Latin.
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