John shares some important links below, echoing a point made by Robert here recently. That John’s administrators responded positively to these articles is a testimony to his hard work over the past three years to change a deeply entrenched class culture at Berkeley High School, an effort that I find phenomenal. I can only imagine the heartache involved. Out there in the Bay Area he’s had no Diana Noonan to lead the way, guns a’blazing:
John reports:
Ultimately, Latin instruction became a gatekeeper, to filter out non 4%ers. It’s no wonder so many Latin programs were shut down during the educational reforms of the 60’s and 70’s. They ones that remained, either embraced more progressive “reading” approaches, or were allowed to continue because of their high prestige environments. As we here know, teaching a language as a subject, is inherently discriminatory. That was the purpose of grammar-translation in the first place. There are some great articles on this issue. I shared them with my admins, who LOVED them.
https://mrpeto.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/the-grammar-syllabus-is-worth-fighting-against/
http://stacieberdan.com/creating-a-nationofadvocates-from-90-target-language-to-90-retention/