Anonymous
6/25/2025, 4:42:08 PM
No.24495368
I came across an interesting figure from the 19th century, Lambert Sauver, who says he was at that time a professor at the Normal School at Amherst. He wrote at least three related books.
- Introduction to the Teaching of Ancient Languages
- Talks with Caesar De Bello Gallico
- The Vade Mecum of the Latinist: Thirty Chapters of Caesar to be Learned by Heart and Recited Every Day
In the first book, he gives his opinions (from 1878) about Latin instruction. He laments that students are only taught a "smattering" of Latin and criticizes the grammar-translation method, proposing instead the "natural method" (sound familiar?). He also proposes that Latin should be learned by studying the actual language of authors first (particularly Caesar) and only beginning explicit study of grammar "ex professo" after the students have attained a certain ease in reading Latin (sound familiar?). But what's really interesting is the method he proposed in the book.
The main part of his method for beginning students was to memorize thirty chapters of De Bello Gallico. The in-class instruction seems to consist of reciting these passages from Caesar, and drilling the class with questions following the text as closely as possible, and which can be answered by text verbatim from the passages. Students prime their understanding of the passage by reading an English translation.
>How long will it take to learn the thirty chapters? From _sixty to seventy days_ will be ample time. You may even go faster, if your pupils desire, but I do not recommend that. There is so much to be done and to be learned in those thirty chapters.
He recommends Epitome Historiae Sacrae as supplementary reading as soon as students are ready for it, and gives this schedule for progress:
>At the close of four or five months, we shall find that our pupils know by heart thirty chapters from Caesar, understand them as well as English, talk them, if I may say so, in Latin; and besides have read and understood the remainder of "De Bello Gallico," and also the "Epitome Historiae Sacrae."
His syllabus sounds ambitious, but it also sounds like he thought it worked for him in his experience. Bear in mind that he says he is assuming Latin classes are held five days per week. It would be difficult to summarize everything he says in the character limit here, so read it for yourself if you're interested in this sort of thing. IttToAL is only 57 pages. PDFs for these can all be found on Google Books.
https://www.google.com/search?udm=36&q=inauthor%3A%22Lambert%2BSauveur%22
Another thing that explains his method is that he views Latin through a purist lens. He dismisses mundane Latin colloquia as "Ollendorfism," saying "it does not lead us to the great works [of extant classical literature] which alone interest us..."
- Introduction to the Teaching of Ancient Languages
- Talks with Caesar De Bello Gallico
- The Vade Mecum of the Latinist: Thirty Chapters of Caesar to be Learned by Heart and Recited Every Day
In the first book, he gives his opinions (from 1878) about Latin instruction. He laments that students are only taught a "smattering" of Latin and criticizes the grammar-translation method, proposing instead the "natural method" (sound familiar?). He also proposes that Latin should be learned by studying the actual language of authors first (particularly Caesar) and only beginning explicit study of grammar "ex professo" after the students have attained a certain ease in reading Latin (sound familiar?). But what's really interesting is the method he proposed in the book.
The main part of his method for beginning students was to memorize thirty chapters of De Bello Gallico. The in-class instruction seems to consist of reciting these passages from Caesar, and drilling the class with questions following the text as closely as possible, and which can be answered by text verbatim from the passages. Students prime their understanding of the passage by reading an English translation.
>How long will it take to learn the thirty chapters? From _sixty to seventy days_ will be ample time. You may even go faster, if your pupils desire, but I do not recommend that. There is so much to be done and to be learned in those thirty chapters.
He recommends Epitome Historiae Sacrae as supplementary reading as soon as students are ready for it, and gives this schedule for progress:
>At the close of four or five months, we shall find that our pupils know by heart thirty chapters from Caesar, understand them as well as English, talk them, if I may say so, in Latin; and besides have read and understood the remainder of "De Bello Gallico," and also the "Epitome Historiae Sacrae."
His syllabus sounds ambitious, but it also sounds like he thought it worked for him in his experience. Bear in mind that he says he is assuming Latin classes are held five days per week. It would be difficult to summarize everything he says in the character limit here, so read it for yourself if you're interested in this sort of thing. IttToAL is only 57 pages. PDFs for these can all be found on Google Books.
https://www.google.com/search?udm=36&q=inauthor%3A%22Lambert%2BSauveur%22
Another thing that explains his method is that he views Latin through a purist lens. He dismisses mundane Latin colloquia as "Ollendorfism," saying "it does not lead us to the great works [of extant classical literature] which alone interest us..."