I took Ancient Greek in college too! (And boy was that a small class.) And since there wasn't anybody that I could chitchat with or TV shows I could watch to practice the language , I carried flashcards with me. I bought flashcards by the boxfull in college. Because drill really is essential.
As an OT aside, the prof started us on the New Testament because he said that was written in the most basic language of all the Greek writings. And he was right. Going straight from Ancient Greek to Modern American English made the Bible fairly smooth reading. It's as though the King James translation added a layer of complexity that wasn't in the original. Or maybe the English language has just changed so much that English of that time is halfway to a foreign language for us. It also helps that there is repetition built into the Bibe. The same phrases pop up over and over again. I wrote those phrases on flashcards and was good to go.
Yes, those with particular talent often do it voluntarily. I remember reading a long interview with Menuhin, and he described how at age 4 or 5 he played scales for hours, because he wanted to.
Among kids who went through extreme Whole Language programs, you will always find a few who managed to learn spelling and grammar in spite of not being taught. Those kids usually have above average intelligence and an inclination towards language. The things is, IMO anyway, that it is not acceptable to have a public school system in which only the kids with natural talent can hope to master the subjects "taught."
LOL, so you learned Koine. It is the intermediate language between Attic (Plato et al) and Modern Greek. Dd can read the Bible "straight" if slowly, but to read Plato she has to be taught something first. In Greek schools they are taught Ancient Greek in junior high and then in HS they focus on reading some of the actual texts.
Back when dh was in grad school he was assigned to teach Ancient Greek. He had a huge class, to his surprise, and it turned out that all the students were from one of the Evangelical churches. Since they were there to be able to read the Bible, he skipped Plato and taught them from the New Testament as your teacher did. After that he read the Church Fathers with them. Only problem was that they kept arguing with him, because the Greek did not read the same way as their own Bible translations (not the King James, but one of the translations produced by a particular sect). He must have done a number on them, because he found out that some years later this particular group had converted to Orthodoxy (dh's religion).
In this context, someone whose job is highly unpredictable and involves meetings or travel with last minute scheduling and/or such frequency that they can't regularly attend school events.
IMHO, that should be the teacher's job. If dd did not want to do her homework, for example, I usually told her that was fine, but that it obviously meant that she would have to explain to her teacher the next day why she had not done it. I was lucky that she still adored her teacher at that point, so that was enough to get her cracking. If she got a bad mark and was upset about it, we would discuss being careful etc. But if the kid is having a problem, my idea is that the teacher needs to see that reflected in the kid's homework. Most parents do disagree with me on this, I know, lol.
I kept a running check on concepts by debriefing her occasionally (mainly because I had to make her retell her school day in English anyway) but usually I had made sure she knew the concept before it was presented at school.
Pages
I took Ancient Greek in college too! (And boy was that a small class.) And since there wasn't anybody that I could chitchat with or TV shows I could watch to practice the language , I carried flashcards with me. I bought flashcards by the boxfull in college. Because drill really is essential.
As an OT aside, the prof started us on the New Testament because he said that was written in the most basic language of all the Greek writings. And he was right. Going straight from Ancient Greek to Modern American English made the Bible fairly smooth reading. It's as though the King James translation added a layer of complexity that wasn't in the original. Or maybe the English language has just changed so much that English of that time is halfway to a foreign language for us. It also helps that there is repetition built into the Bibe. The same phrases pop up over and over again. I wrote those phrases on flashcards and was good to go.
Yes, those with particular talent often do it voluntarily. I remember reading a long interview with Menuhin, and he described how at age 4 or 5 he played scales for hours, because he wanted to.
Among kids who went through extreme Whole Language programs, you will always find a few who managed to learn spelling and grammar in spite of not being taught. Those kids usually have above average intelligence and an inclination towards language. The things is, IMO anyway, that it is not acceptable to have a public school system in which only the kids with natural talent can hope to master the subjects "taught."
LOL, so you learned Koine. It is the intermediate language between Attic (Plato et al) and Modern Greek. Dd can read the Bible "straight" if slowly, but to read Plato she has to be taught something first. In Greek schools they are taught Ancient Greek in junior high and then in HS they focus on reading some of the actual texts.
Back when dh was in grad school he was assigned to teach Ancient Greek. He had a huge class, to his surprise, and it turned out that all the students were from one of the Evangelical churches. Since they were there to be able to read the Bible, he skipped Plato and taught them from the New Testament as your teacher did. After that he read the Church Fathers with them. Only problem was that they kept arguing with him, because the Greek did not read the same way as their own Bible translations (not the King James, but one of the translations produced by a particular sect). He must have done a number on them, because he found out that some years later this particular group had converted to Orthodoxy (dh's religion).
"But I don't have any issues with checking my kids' homework after they do it.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
"If the work is such that the kid can't do it on his own, then it is the wrong homework, IMO."
No, it's not that.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
"How do you define a "big" career?"
In this context, someone whose job is highly unpredictable and involves meetings or travel with last minute scheduling and/or such frequency that they can't regularly attend school events.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
IMHO, that should be the teacher's job. If dd did not want to do her homework, for example, I usually told her that was fine, but that it obviously meant that she would have to explain to her teacher the next day why she had not done it. I was lucky that she still adored her teacher at that point, so that was enough to get her cracking. If she got a bad mark and was upset about it, we would discuss being careful etc. But if the kid is having a problem, my idea is that the teacher needs to see that reflected in the kid's homework. Most parents do disagree with me on this, I know, lol.
I kept a running check on concepts by debriefing her occasionally (mainly because I had to make her retell her school day in English anyway) but usually I had made sure she knew the concept before it was presented at school.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Pages