Lord Adonis on Latin for gifted children

The Guardian reported on 21st November a speech by Lord Adonis, the schools minister, demanding that schools identify their gifted children and make provision for them. He picked out examples of good practice, including this:

The minister wanted other schools to follow the example of those like Selwyn primary school, in Newham, east London, where gifted 11-year-olds have learned Latin and applied their knowledge from other lessons on ancient Greece to give a presentation on the influence of Greek civilisation on the Romans.

Will Griffiths, director of the Cambridge Schools Classics Project, directed my attention to this speech (which can be read in full here) and commented:

Lord A. is picking up on one of the dozen or so Newham schools which have
introduced Latin using the CLC and e-learning materials. It's good news that
the drive to get Latin back in to schools is cited in government examples of
best practice.

Will added a bit of news:

By the way, am off to Gravesham tomorrow where a secondary wants to
introduce Latin, and to Tower Hamlets on Thursday, where a few more schools
are interested. All excellent news.

A couple of good blog entries from Mary Beard

How did I miss Mary Beard's entry on November 30th under the title 'Let them learn Latin'? It is not only worth reading itself, but has drawn a number of very interesting comments. Read it here.

I'll reproduce here just one short paragraph which mentions That Book.

Indeed our success on this score is evident by the fact that Harry Mount’s little Christmas guide to learning Latin is selling at the rate of 1000 copies a week. (Many of us are green with envy . . . if all it took was re-writing Kennedy’s Latin Primer interspersed with some blokeish humour, why didn’t we get there first?)

The other piece is about the chance now given to victims of crime to tell the court of the effect the crime has had on their lives. Whether you agree with her or not (I'm not sure that I do), Mary combines full sympathy and understanding for victims with her argument that they should not be given a place in the court proceedings. She compares Greek and Roman court practice with this latest development. I guess that Socrates would be on Mary's side. He refused to parade his children in rags at his own trial, and would surely not have made similar appeals to the jury if he had ever been a prosecutor.

News from Boston

Two items relating to Boston, Mass. came this morning.

The first was a contact from the British School in Boston. Google led me to information about British Schools in several American cities, teaching the UK National Curriculum but going on th the IB instead of A levels. Two of these 'for profit' schools teach Latin. One school teaches it to every pupil. Perhaps Boston is going to join these two.

The other item was a further Latin Mass story:

Parish may be home for Latin Mass

By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | December 3, 2006

Thanksgiving 2004 was not a happy one for the parishioners at Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Parish in Newton Upper Falls. Their church was on a list of those being closed by the Archdiocese of Boston and in danger of being sold as excess real estate.

Less than a month later, though, the archdiocese said it was reconsidering its decision and put the closure on hold. Now it appears that not only will the parish survive, but that it will likely become the archdiocesan home of the traditional Latin Mass.

Terrence Donilon , a spokesman for Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley , said that church officials had “open and candid” discussions last Sunday with parishioners at Mary Immaculate and at St. Philip Neri in Waban .

While no “final decision” has been made by O'Malley, Donilon confirmed that a key church body, the Archdiocesan Presbyteral Council , has recommended that Philip Neri be merged into Mary Immaculate. No decision has been made on the fate of the St. Philip Neri church building, he said, although normally in the case of a parish merger, the assets of the two parishes are combined.

“There is going to be some more reflection by the cardinal,” Donilon said. “We should get back to them sometime in early 2007.”

The release of the church closings list three years ago sent shockwaves of anger and disappointment through the archdiocese. Parishioners at more than half a dozen churches, including St. Bernard in West Newton, began holding around-the-clock vigils, bringing in sleeping bags and food — even holding community barbecues — and holding their own lay-led prayer services.

This summer, St. Bernard and Corpus Christi Parish in Auburndale were merged, which also marked a reversal for O'Malley. Both church buildings remain open, but the parishes combined assets and resources, including the creation of a single finance council as well as one religious education office.

The archdiocese relented on other closings as well, including St. Anselm Church in Sudbury , where, after parishioners conducted a 21-month vigil and sit-in, O'Malley issued an edict that the parish would become a rectorate, a term used for a church that is staffed by a priest but which does not serve a defined geographical area.

One church that did not survive reconsideration was Holy Trinity in Boston's South End.

Holy Trinity is the current home of the Latin Mass for the archdiocese, Donilon said, and O'Malley is leaning toward moving the traditional Mass, which is popular with conservative Catholics across the archdiocese, to Mary Immaculate.

Moving the Latin Mass makes sense, Donilon said, because people come to it from all over and, because local Catholics have migrated in large numbers from the city to the suburbs, Newton is closer to being a geographical center for the archdiocese. The Rev. Charles Higgins , who oversees services in Latin for the archdiocese, is expected to become Mary Immaculate's new pastor.

Mary Immaculate would continue to offer Mass in English as well. Still undecided is what will become of the archdiocese's Korean Catholic community, which calls St. Philip Neri its spiritual home.

Donilon said the community will have at least a year at Philip Neri while discussions continue, and that O'Malley has concerns about making sure that the Korean community is not alienated by the decision to merge the parishes.