My class is over for the summer at UGA. My group did our project and I even turned in my paper early (I didn't know I'd have access to wifi here). I had a short respit yesterday. My mom even stayed over Tuesday to get my cats since I wasn't able to take them to their house myself.
This trip to National Convention started for my 3 Latin babies and me at 7am. The drive, though filled with the infectious and colorful personalities, was a tedious 5 hours. I'm so sick of driving I could throw up.
After we got our room keys and other vital information to get settled in before General Assembly. Wake Forest is small enough with clear signs of where specific buildings, that it didn't take too terribly long to the dorm. My co-pilot found the map after we parked the car.
......
We've been here for almost a whole day now. My girls are at colloquia, aka a workshop, and I am taking a break before we have to meet for our 2nd general assembly.
Being here as an adult, a teacher, leaves only my imagination to wonder what it must be like to be here as a student. These kids are busy almost the entire time. Not only do they have academic tests and a quiz to test your Classical knowledge, but they have athletic and artistic competitions as well. It is truly astonishing! I must add that one of my most favorite parts is that most of the kids are self-motivated and don't require their sponsors to constantly hound them to participate.
I, unfortunately, did not have the luck to have attended a high school with a Latin program. We had Spanish. Not that Spanish isn't worth learning, it just doesn't seem to light a fire in your soul the way Classics does for these Latin students. I feel a disadvantage when I'm speaking with other sponsors or chaperones, who have their own experiences as delegates at these conventions where most of them also probably gained the passion for teaching the language in high school.
I wish there was some way that Georgia could offer Latin in every high school in the state. I'm sure some people still believe that Latin has no relevance in modern world since it's a "dead" language. Obviously, these people barely paid attention in their Spanish or French classes to realize, that Latin is the mother of all things. These people also haven't witnessed the amount of academic rigor and enthusiasm at both State and National convention to realize that these students have brought this "dead" language back to life and it is thriving!
Those of you who have children that are not in high school yet, remember that if you want your child to really be challenged academically and grow a network of friends nationwide who are just as intelligent as your child could be, sign them up for Latin.
http://www.camws.org/cpl/educators/TCAsurvey2.pdf
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