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

[Dan O'Shea]

I have been deeply troubled by the announced cancellation of AP Latin Literature. True, there can different opinions on how much emphasis to give to classical western languages and literature in elhi education. But a very great number of schools and the resources--personal, intellectuial, and financial--that support them have shaped high school, and even elementary school curricula so that they build towards and are completed in the AP Latin offerings. How can we promote and invite the support of AP Latin and then abandon those who have made choices to join in this, creating a "ground zero" of obliterated curricular, professional, and publishing accomplishments. Aren't there ethical issues here? This announced move is surely demoralizing and possibly even devastating for a company like Bolchazy-Carducci that has been so vigorous, especilally of late, in.supporting AP Latin. If the AP Latin curriculum needs modifying, so be it. Let's work at it together. We don't need to use Weapons of Mass Destruction.

[Mary Jo Burke]

The cancellation of the Latin Literature exam is a tragic turn of events. The exam allows students to study a broad range of Roman authors and helps them to recognize that no author writes in a vacuum. And what happens to those students who take AP Virgil in 4th year Latin and want to continue on for a fifth year of Latin? I hope the College Board will take the truly advanced students into account; they are the ones that will really be hurt by the cancellation AP Latin Literature.

Mary Jo Burke
Miller School of Albemarle

[Jeff Tamaroff]

I would like to lend my support to any efforts aimed at maintaing the AP Latin Literature exam.

[N.S. Gill]

I thought I added my name before, but it seems I did not.
N.S. Gill
Ancient/Classical History Guide
http://ancienthistory.about.com

[Amy Martin-Nelson]

Please keep AP Latin Literature!

Amy Martin-Nelson
All Saints' Episcopal School
Fort Worth, TX

[Christopher Andrew Steele]

Eliminating this opportunity is outrageous. The whole point of Advanced Placement courses is to provide opportunities for students.

Christopher Steele
Instructor of Classics
The Episcopal School of Dallas

[Nicholas Joy]

Having taken AP Latin Literature during my junior year of high school, I was greatly dismayed to learn of this program's demise. Reading Catullus and Ovid was a formative experience for me, and I believe that knowledge of the authors included in this program, in addition to Vergil, is crucial for any would-be classicist and useful for any person. This is truly a sad turn of events, and I hope it can be reversed.

Nicholas Joy
University of Pennsylvania

[Shara Packman]

Adding my name...

Shara Packman
Reid Ross Classical, Latin Teacher
NCJCL State Certamen Chair

[Brian Compton]

As a district that is just now adding junior high language, and thus will be able to offer Latin 5 in a few years, I was looking forward to being able to offer two AP courses and have 4th year and 5th year students working together. Since Latin is the only language so far that offers AP, this is a major draw for our program. It would be a true shame to have only one AP and not be able to have this combination of students together, nor to be able to offer students two opportunities at AP. Finally, while I do like the Aeneid, I really do like teaching the Catullus/Horace syllabus. I would be happy if it was limited to just Catullus/Ovid, which seems to be the most popular option of the three, rather than see the whole thing scrapped. To paraphrase Vergil, "Aut viam inveniemus, aut faciemus."

Brian Compton
Harrison High School
Harrison, OH

[Lindsay Johnson]

As a recent high school graduate (Class of 2006) I was in the fortunate position to have begun Latin early enough that I could take both AP classes at my high school (much as Mr. Compton is looking to do at his school). While both courses were amazing experiences and an excellent taste of what college Latin would (and has been) like, I must say that the impending cancellation of the Literature exam has shocked me. As much as I enjoyed The Aeneid, the Literature syllabus was so much more fun. There were fewer lines (which helped significantly) but it was also more manageable. Doing a couple different poems a night makes translation much more fun than spending a week trying to get through the same, long chunk. Catullus and Ovid, while they were not necessarily easier, provided enough variety to not be boring. The Aeneid, as an epic poem, could be slow and drag at times; to a high school girl, reading lines upon lines of battles becomes tiresome. Yet love poetry and metamorphosis? Those never grow old. I think the College Board is making a serious mistake in taking away the Latin Literature test not only because it robs high school Latin students of a very valuable learning experience, but also leaves students who began Latin in middle school lacking a class to take their senior year. Is that fair to those students, like myself, who put in years of dedication to their language? Absolutely not. The College Board needs to seriously reconsider this decision, and put Latin Literature back on the slate for all the years to come.

Lindsay Johnson
Classics Major, University of Notre Dame

[Kelley Branch]

I am lending my name as a supporter for keeping Latin Literature as part of the AP curriculum.

Kelley Branch
Western Guilford High School
Greensboro, NC

[Teresa Agee]

Please keep AP Latin Literature.

Teresa Agee
McGavock High School
Nashville,TN 37214