These letters by Bob Patrick and John Piazza in response to a professional situation Jeff Brickler has recently found himself in are directed to parents and administrators. They are for our use to use as we wish when we find ourselves attacked by such people. Thank you Bob and John! The first two letters are from Bob:
Dear Concerned Parent:
I appreciate the time and interest that you have taken to write me about your daughter’s experience in my class. I hear the concern in the words you write. You are absolutely right. Things have changed both in how I teach my class and in my understanding of the very best ways of teaching Latin. After considerable study and preparation over the last few years, I have begun making changes in how I teach and helps students at our school learn. I am absolutely convinced that the approaches that I am using will help all of the students in my classroom make good progress in Latin. I could not have said better than you did in your letter why I believe that EVERY student deserves an education in Latin: it connects all the dots in our culture from mythology to vocabulary, history, law, religion, philosophy and the sciences. In the past, teaching Latin with the traditional methods that you and I experienced, we both know that far too many students were not able to keep up and make progress in Latin. That has been my own experience both as a student and a teacher. The traditional methods don’t really work well for all kinds of learners.
I can point to your own daughter’s work as a wonderful example of the many things that are happening this year in my Latin classes that have NEVER happened before. I often ask your daughter to serve as the “scriptor” in the class when we are telling a story. I do this because she is already so good at listening and understanding. Teaching this way allows me, day by day, to give advanced students extra opportunity to go deeper, and struggling students to firm up their work. Your daughter is now capable of writing down the stories that we are telling in VERY good Latin. I have never had Latin 2 students capable of that level of writing until this year. I have even seen students in college Latin classes who cannot do what your daughter is doing. She is just one example. While I cannot talk about other students and their work with you, I can assure you that this kind of progress is happening across all of classes, all levels precisely because of the changes I have made in my teaching and learning practices. I cannot imagine going back to methods that simply were not ever this productive.
I want you to know that this kind of work is being done all over the country right now in Latin classrooms. In all of the schools that I am aware of (via a Latin teacher list serve) the teachers and programs that teach this way are growing. This movement, of creating Comprehensible Input Latin programs, is happening largely at the secondary level, largely in schools that have high college preparatory and college acceptance rates. This work is beginning to find its way into university programs, but this is an example of where university programs are beginning to learn from us. If you are interested in more information about this kind of work, I can supply you with some links and publications to consider.
Please know how much I appreciate hearing from you, and please know that anything that you can do to help other parents with similar questions understand why we are making these changes will be welcome. If nothing else, urge those with questions to be in contact. I look forward to opportunities to share this good work with as many people in our community as possible.
Dear Administrator:
I appreciate the support that you are giving me as I make some significant changes in the way I teach and help students learn Latin. (at this point, repeat much of what I said above to the parent about why I have made these changes, emphasizing how it helps EVERY KIND OF LEARNER make progress, and how it helps you DIFFERENTIATE learning on a daily basis.)
I did not come to these changes overnight, but have been participating in online and real time workshops, studies and practice groups that are doing the same things in Latin classrooms around the country. Various Latin teachers have been presenting workshops and papers on creating “Comprehensible Input” classrooms for several years now at all of our major conferences (in particular the American Classical League). (repeat information here about programs that I know about where college prep schools are using this, programs are growing, and all kinds of learners are being successful.)
I know that you are hearing from parents who are concerned about the changes. I know that if you can help me help them understand how beneficial this approach is for all of their children, they will son come to love this approach as well. If you know of opportunities where I might address parent groups about these exciting new changes, I would appreciate that.
Sincerely,
So, Jeffrey, what I am trying to illustrate is the kind of conversation, emails, newsletters, talks, etc. that I would look to give, send, write anywhere you have the opportunity. You become an enthusiastic advocate for what you KNOW works. Why would anyone want you to stop doing what works? The only reason is because they don’t know what’s working. So, you have to get the word out, and there can be any number of ways to do this. I have literally done all of this: written letters, emails, newsletter articles, spoken at PTA meetings, counselor meetings, Civic organizations. I advocate what I do on my website and I go to and offer workshops at conferences about these things. I collect articles and references from Stephen Krashen and other teachers who are doing this work and cite them when I am writing and speaking.
For what it’s worth–it’s always hard with a class that started learning Latin the old way to make the change. The complainers in those classes will always be the 4 percenters because they know how to do well in a traditional classroom. “doing well” unfortunately means getting their A, but as we know, it does not mean really learning Latin. This is why we must make these changes.
Bob
From John Piazza:
Jeff, you wrote: “The AP said that we have to figure this situation out because we cannot continue to have this kind of criticism” For me, this is your biggest problem, because if you have an AP who doubts you and whose primary objective is to placate parents and avoid criticism even if those parents are COMPLETELY OFF BASE, you in fact don’t have any support in your school, professionally and emotionally. If you can convince the AP that you are in the right, that the complaining parents are in the super-minority, however loud they complain and whatever ivy league professors they consult, and that he has your back, then you can move forward.
So I’d say, before you respond directly to parents making use of some of the excellent suggestions from David and Bob, put your energies into convincing your AP, and get him completely on your side so that he can address parent complaints (which is his job). A big reason behind his hesitancy, I’m guessing, is that he isn’t sure how to respond to these parents. He SHOULD be able to say something like:
“Mr. Brickler is implementing best practices in language instruction. I know this is not common among Latin teachers, many of whom refuse to change and get in line with the research on language acquisition and the practices which help ALL kinds of learners, but his teaching is in line with our school’s mission. In addition, there is a lot of research out there that supports Mr. Brickler in not giving homework. This supports families by mitigating the intrusion of school curriculum into family life, which often creates conflict and takes away from those precious evening hours.You mentioned that you have contacted university professors regarding Mr. Brickler’s teaching. Professors of linguistics and of education will acknowledge that comprehensible input based strategies are part of the ACTFL standards, and of the approach of many language departments. Professors who teach Latin at the college level are dealing with a very different set of learners, and their thoughts on pedagogy are not very helpful to middle school and high school educators. Other teachers, may differ with Mr. Brickler, but I am confident that Mr. Brickler’s pedagogy is age appropriate. It is clear that your daughter is learning Latin and is meeting all of our school’s expectations regarding our standards and learning goals. If your daughter is interested in working ahead independently at home, I’m sure Mr. Brickler would be happy to provide her with additional materials. etc.”
So the question is, what will it take for you to bring your AP to the place where he can confidently respond in this way to these kinds of parents. If you do this once, you won’t have to do it again. If you try to tackle every parent complaint directly, you will have to do this over and over again, with your AP sitting on the sidelines, in effect forcing you to do his job.
John