19 + 21 = Unforgettable

One of my best students used his phone in class.  I know.  We are supposed to embrace technology in education, but I found tears springing to my eyes.  This was one of my top students.  I have always loved how his mind worked, but for him to use his phone like this....  Perhaps I should explain.

It was the A.P. Latin class, and we were reading a section from Book 6 of Vergil's Aeneid in English.  The students had their Latin texts open, but each one had a different English translation from one of our bookshelves, and they were taking turns reading aloud.  

After Katie finished reading Frederick Ahl's 2007 translation of lines 562-586 in which Tisiphone explains to Aeneas what he is looking at in the underworld, Nicholas asked if he could share the rendering by Christopher Pearse Cranch that he had been following.  He was visibly excited, so I encouraged him to do so.  At the end of his reading, he talked about how much he loved Cranch's language, even stating that this was the most vivid and creative bit of writing he had read in the past couple of years.

And it was at that point that he took out his phone to photograph the pages, and I nearly cried.

Here was a young man so deeply moved by words that he had to share them.  Here, in one of the largest public high schools in Indiana, was a class with students that could share his joy and enthusiasm over the power and beauty of the written word.  But did you notice the most important part of this story?  It was the student who was moved and wanted to savor these words in the community of peers.  It was not the teacher forcing him to look at something and demanding, "Don't you think that's wonderful?"

It reminded me of the scene in Dead Poets Society in which Mr. Keating's (Robin Williams) students confront him with his old yearbook and ask what the society was all about.

KNOX
You mean it was a bunch of guys sitting
around reading poetry?

KEATING
No Mr. Overstreet, it wasn't just "guys",
we weren't a Greek organization, we were
romantics. We didn't just read poetry,
we let it drip from our tongues like honey.
Spirits soared, women swooned, and gods
were created, gentlemen, not a bad way to
spend an evening eh? 

So, yes, I became emotional when a 19th century translation elicited from my 21st century student a response that was unforgettable for us both.

Reading the War on Poverty

Six years ago our Latin students began a project called Reading the War on Poverty.  One Saturday each April they go to Kids Ink Children's Bookstore in Indianapolis where they read aloud the entirety of Homer's Iliad or Odyssey or Vergil's Aeneid.  The students take turns reading in fifteen minute shifts from one of Stanley Lombardo's translations of the great Greco-Romany epics, rotating through all the epics every three years.

Those reading get donations, which are then combined with donations from customers at the bookstore that day and 10% of the sales from the Kids Ink store itself.  The entire amount is then given to Shepherd Community Center, whose mission is to break the cycle of poverty in Indianapolis.  Our students have raised more than $5,000.00 so far.

This coming Saturday, April 19, will see us reading the Aeneid.  Yes, it is prom that evening.  Yes, it is the day before Easter and many families will have plans.  And yes, our students will make the sacrifice of their time to serve others.  They have taken to heart the words of Cicero, ceteros pudeat, si qui se ita litteris abdiderunt ut nihil possint ex eis neque ad communem adferre fructum, neque in aspectum lucemque proferre.  (Pro Archia, 12)  "Let others be ashamed if they have so hidden themselves in literature that they can bring forth nothing from it for the common benefit or into the light to be seen."

This project has gone on to inspire our students to think of new ways to help others, such as our Fabrica Ursam, or Build-a-Bear project, now in its third year, and this year's literacy garden, for which our students obtained a $1600.00 grant from United Way of Central Indiana to build a garden and stock it with books at a local elementary school.

But let's go back to Reading the War on Poverty for a moment.  Depending on which epic they are reading, this event run for twelve hours.  Imagine it...twelve hours on a Saturday during which high school students read aloud an entire ancient epic, promoting their love of Classics and using that enjoyment to raise money to fight poverty.  As I spend that day with them, I never cease to be humbled and amazed.  If this project touches you, then consider a donation.  You may make out checks to North Central Latin Club and send them to the address below.

Mr. Steven R. Perkins
North Central High School
1801 E. 86th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46240