3 posts from February 2009

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Roman End Year

Feb 26, 2009
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Monday was a good day. I mean the whole having to wake up at 5:15 after a week off and having to really leave the house by 6:00 to walk to the lot since Northampton called a "snow emergency" for a flurry of snow and having to teach again and actually grade those quizzes and all that. Surprisingly, the teaching day even went pretty well on account it would seem of the students being even more sleepy than I was, but the real interest of the day came at the

end of the incredibly disjointed JCL meeting when the middle school teacher put on the board a poem by Ovid commemorating the fact that it was the Roman end of the year, or, End Year, as I like to say. It was the day chosen

to celebrate and the Romans did this in style by going to the end of their properties on all sides, meeting with the neighbors and offering a little something to the god of boundaries, Terminus. I'm pretty sure that their god Janus fit in there somehow as well, but not entirely sure how.

Kudos to the Romans! That they were wise enough to see the value and importance in boundaries for a functional society. I think about our boundaryless mess and marvel.

Since I'm cramming for a test and seizing every moment to translate Latin, I was grateful for the chance of staying

later and translating. In a last-ditched effort not to have to read Lucan again, my eye alighted on a volume called The Oxford book of Latin Poetry. Opening it, I saw a poem by Cicero's little brother, Quintus, and my curiosity was peaked. What sort of poem would such a man have written? And so we set in. When sight reading Latin, it's a good

thing to have somebody who studied it at Berkley to help you along. The poem was about the Zodiac and I became more and more delighted when I noticed that all of the signs were there. I used to be afraid of such a thing, but a teacher last year some teachers I knew were into it, and my personality-analyzing personality had to find out what it was all about and now I find it quite fascinating.

There it was. We finished the last line when the other teacher said, "It's interesting that this starts in February. It seems like it was probably the kind of thing written to commemorate the end of the year. I thought this, indeed, seemed likely. And there you have it: a perfect Roman end year complete with a poem and everything:

Flumina verna cient obscuro lumine Pisces

curriculumque Aries aequat noctisque diique,

cornua quem condunt florum prenunti Tauri;

aridaque aestatis Gemini primordia pandunt,

longaque iam minuit praeclarus lumina Cancer,

languificosque Leo proflat ferus ore calores,

post modium quatiens Virgo fugat orta vaporem;

autumni reserat portas aequatque diurna

tempora nocturnis dispenso sidere Libra:

effetos ramos denudat flamma Nepae:

pigra Sagittipotens iaculatur frigora terris;

bruma gelu glaciat iubarem spirans Capricorni,

quem sequitur nebulas rorans liquor altus Aquari.

tanta supra circaque urgescunt lumina mundi;

at dextra laevaque ciet rota fulgida Solis

mobile curriculum et Lunae simulacra feruntur.

An End Year, I think, well spent with a whole New Year beginning tomorrow. . .

Have you ever read Pride & Prejudice?

Feb 26, 2009
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Ahhh, the question I like to hear so much that, even though it was the middle of Latin class, I took the bait and answered. "It's only my favorite book in the whole wide world." I believe is what I replied. "Really? I just finished

it last night," was the interested reply from the beaming face of the girl I had just taken her novel away from. "Well,

at least she's not mad," I thought. One of my top students in the class said, "I tried reading that, but I couldn't get past the first page." "Ruth! Zero for you," I teased, but by this point the part of the class that wasn't already talking, took this for the signal to go ahead and do so, and I had to redirect them.

At the end of class, though, the girl (who incidentally is struggling with Latin--I wonder if her work ethic has anything

to do with that?) asked for a study guide of Latin pronouns and brought it up again. "That's pretty amazing that I

asked you that question then." I, who has been asked this several times before said that I thought it comes up

occasionally since it is a book that is assigned in school. I guess I felt like I had to share this girl, for I sort of spewed:

I'm like the biggest fan of Jane Austen--I mean, probably a lot of people would say that. I'd really like to

write like her--probably a lot of people would say that, too. I went to England, though, to go to her house.

She's like--my hero.

And I really think this summed it up.

You have a beautiful face, Miss Langsather

Feb 9, 2009
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It is amazing how those words have been resounding in my ears. Maybe it was the African accent, maybe it was the fact that it came from a student whom I really like. But I don't know, it seems to come down to the fact that we frail, unconfident, human beings are simply needy for love and admiration. Is there one among us who can boast of not needing this? Is there a one among us who is so detached and self-sufficient that a compliment or kind word rolls off our back like an unnoticed drop of rain? I think I could answer for us all a resounding no. And so, while I think I may be a little shy in interacting with my student for a day or two, I ponder what compliments I left unsaid, especially to the troop of acceptance-seeking teenagers in my charge. What is it that I need to say that would resound in their ears. . .

3 posts from February 2009

Roman End Year

Have you ever read Pride & Prejudice?

You have a beautiful face, Miss Langsather

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