AP Latin Literature Cancelled -- Please Add Your Name

[Andrew Reinhard]

Salve,

As many of you know, AP Latin Literature is being cancelled, although AP Vergil will remain in place for the immediate future. Please read the letter from the AP in the news section on the right and the letter from Ronnie Ancona in the Blog, and if you feel strongly about keeping the AP Latin Literature program alive and active in the United States, please add a comment to this post with your name and school affiliation attached. I will collect these in preparation for what is sure to be a counter-offensive by some of the leading lights in US Classics education. Thanks for adding your names to the list.

Andrew Reinhard
Director of eLearning
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers

[Matt Newman]

discontinuation of this test will rob high school students of a systematized way of engaging not only some of the more exciting Latin authors, but also some of the most important for reading much of the Western canon. Vergil is tremendous, but these are equally so, and rather different.

Matt Newman
Undergraduate Classics Major
Yale University
(beginning graduate program in Classical Studies at Michigan in the fall)
Hillsborough High School, Tampa, FL

[Chris Geggie]

Dear Everyone,

I have taken the liberty to create a facebook group. Here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26873291920

If you can get the word out in that realm, please help spread it.

In keeping our high school curricula challenging for our students,
Chris Geggie

[Magister Lupifilius]

Great idea! Thanks Chris! I'll get the word to my students and children who will spread the word as much as they can.

Brian Hyland
aka Magister Lupifilius

[Andrew Rist]

The Latin Literature Exam is an important part of Advanced High School Latin. Without that test advanced Latin becomes almost all about Vergil. There is so much more to Latin than Vergil, and students that don't go on to study Latin in college may now never see that.

[Molly Ayn Jones-Lewis]

As a graduate student in the Classics who also took both the AP Vergil and the AP Catullus/ Horace exams, I strongly oppose the removal of either exam from the AP curriculum. Both classes were central to forming my ability to read a variety of texts for style as well as content, and the goal of the AP test at the end of the course pushed me to spend more time perfecting my understanding of the content and my ability to comment on the stylistic features of the passages. I still remember passages from the Catullus/ Horace syllabus well enough to recite them from memory; knowing the exam I was preparing for would give me college credit gave me motivation that a simple High School final would not. The two fives I got from both tests allowed me to have a head start in my college courses, both in skipping the introductory levels and in knowing how to write a paper for a philology course. I think effectively cutting the Latin offerings in half would do a great disservice to High School students in Latin, and also a disservice to the field.

Moly Ayn Jones Lewis
Dept. of Greek and Latin
The Ohio State University

[Ana]

Please add my name to your petition. Although I am not a Classics teacher (or any teacher at all; actually, I am a Credit Analyst at a regional bank), I was a Latin student for numerous years and have GREATLY benefited from that education and the numerous, life long friends that I made while studying long, complicated translations and readings required for the Latin AP exam. It would be a great loss to remove this opportunity for unique students to excel.

Ana Rupnik
Senior Credit Analyst
Baton Rouge, LA

[Kyle Ralston]

Having just completed this course last year, I say with some confidence that the opportunity to continue AP Latin beyond Vergil, especially into the poetry covered on the syllabus, is such a valuable experience and provides a great incentive for continued study in the field. I sincerely hope this decision will be reconsidered so that others will have the same opportunity to learn and find joy from these works.

Kyle Ralston
Harvard University, Class 2011

[Kristen Herdman]

I just couldn't believe this! Latin was one of the highlights of my highschool career. My senior year I took AP Latin lit and really enjoyed it. This cancelation is a disservice and a detriment to both students and teachers.

O Miselle Passer-- They are forsaking you!

Kristen Herdman
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio

[Carolyn Troha]

I am a College Student at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. I am a double major in Classical Studies and Mathematics. I took both of the latin AP exams and am greatly distressed to hear that they have been canceled. I would love to sign a petition or join a letter writing campaign to show my disappointment.

[Jason Nethercut]

Jason Nethercut
University of Pennsylvania

[Alison Hight]

Alison Hight
College of William and Mary

[Jennifer Dellner]

I don't know how many more people can say "I am stunned," but please add me to the list. Having taught Latin at both the college and high school level, I can't even imagine what they were thinking, why no one seems to have been consulted, and what effect this will have. I wonder how this decision might be connected to AP's audit of courses last year. Didn't many of us spend time preparing syllabi for approval and then have them approved ? And hidden in all of this is the fact that Latin Literature is more than one syllabus, more than one possible exam. For some schools, this move eliminates at least two courses ! The letter from the AP seems to imply that they cannot support training for the course: did they not think that the many colleges and universities which offer Latin would be able to offer excellent training and preparation ? AP's crisis (if it is that) could have opened up some employment and teaching opportunities for many college programs; instead, they seem bent on not only causing some unemployment at the high school and even college level, as teachers and programs may be eliminated and the number of high school students aware of a range of Latin literature from the high school level on narrows even further.