January 13, 2024

25th CCIR Meeting

Location: Zoom

Present: Joyce, Paula, and Susan

Retirees are busy! Allen, Nina, Gerry, and Ginger all had previous plans before this impromptu “Happy New Year!” Zoom meeting on the January Ides. Paula, Joyce, and Susan met and discussed many things including the concern of Latin being dropped from curricula nationwide. Susan reported that she has had difficulty finding recent Latin enrollment numbers in CT. We all know of schools that no longer offer Latin and wonder how many programs have been cut. However, Joyce reported that she receives notifications of the need for Latin and other world language teachers statewide. Susan spoke of her continued volunteer teaching of Latin to adults in Branford. She is thrilled with her advanced group which is currently doing passages of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. That topic led us to look at and discuss the draft document for the proposed revisions of the AP Latin Exam. Our opinions varied on the extensive list of “free choice” options, and we questioned how students would be tested on those items. Joyce recounted the challenges for a young teacher whom she knows who is teaching Latin without structure. It seems today’s newer methods focus on spoken Latin and readers which puts the onus on the teacher to create and integrate grammar lessons into unstructured materials. The next meeting of ClassConnected in Retirement will precede CANE’s annual meeting. We will meet in person on March 15. CANE will be March 22-23 at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH.  

 Meet next: March 15, 2024 at Ginger’s