Ezekiel isn't learning as much Greek as Matt had hoped... but they both seem to be enjoying themselves.

Ezekiel is two weeks old in this picture. This is perhaps rather early exposure to Greek phonogram flashcards! He is probably not getting much out of it. But hey -- now we can say he's been studying ancient Greek since he was an infant!

We applaud the effort of the Christian classical schooling movement to bring Latin back into grammar stage education. But, harsh though this may sound, most of the elementary school Latin curricula Matt has reviewed offer little more to the student than the opportunity to say he started Latin in the third grade. (Might as well do flashcards at 2 weeks, like Ezekiel, for all the good it does!) An example is Nancy Sattler's Elementary Latin course, which introduces students to lists of words for things in their daily lives: breakfast words, bedtime words, schoolroom words. This sounds "relevant" to the experience of elementary school students, but it is in fact the worst sort of disservice: because there are no stories using these words in context, they remain mere ciphers in the students' minds. Furthermore, even if there were some stories made up with this vocabulary, they would be of little use as preparation for reading real Latin later on, for the simple reason that the ancient Romans did not write much about modern breakfasts or schoolrooms. Finally, Sattler begins Ecce Romani in grade 5 or 6, after several years of her introductory course. But Ecce Romani is itself a beginning Latin course! Nor is Sattler the lone example of this phenomenon of years of "pre-Latin" before using an introductory textbook, such as Ecce Romani or Wheelock . . This "go back to start" method is in fact recommended by most, if not all of the Christian Classical educators we have seen. It seems to me that this is required, not because of the ability of the students, but because of the ability of their teachers. Now, it is true that most high school Latin textbooks are pitched at a level above some young children. But I have successfully used Ecce Romani with 3rd graders, and started Latin and Greek with my daughter when she was 5 (though our Greek book, Athenaze , requires more supplementation for a 5-year-old than Ecce Romani does, its stories at least are usable). The need -- more acute for Greek than Latin -- is new textbooks. God willing, I'll be writing some when I'm done with my doctorate. When my elementary-age Latin students reach 5th or 6th grade, they will be finished with Latin grammar and ready to read classical authors. Follow the other approach, and your 5th-graders will be ready to ....start over again with first declension nouns at the beginning of an introductory textbook.

Lexical-Grammatical Approach

I have no use for introductory primers used before beginning books. Grammar and sentences must be introduced ab initio. Students must study words in sequence, not words as labels under pretty clip-art images. I insist on this because it is the only way to instill in young students the one thing they most need to get out of the study of classical languages. What is that one thing? Most students will not go on to become classical philologists or do anything else that requires deep familiarity with the literature of Greece and Rome (though I certainly aim to give a good grounding to those who do choose this route). No, the goal of studying Latin and Greek at this young age is to learn to think lexically and grammatically . This way of thinking is a foundation for studying language and literature at any level: it equips students with the tools needed to understand the mechanics of language -- any language, not just Latin or Greek.

But if that's the goal, why not just start with a modern Romance language, say, French or Spanish? Those languages are derived from Latin; their morphology is simplified, their semantic burdens rest more on syntax and less on grammar, and their spelling and pronunciation have become less regular (especially French). All these developments tend to obscure the nuts and bolts of the language's mechanisms of meaning. In addition, French and Spanish will not do as much to increase a child's vocabulary powers, since Latin and Greek underly the vast and (growing!) majority of words in English. French and Spanish loan-words are few and far between these days. Though the Academie may not like it, France is probably in the process of becoming a linguistic colony of the U.S., with the internet as the occupying army. If you want to arm your child with tools to negotiate English vocabulary, Latin and Greek are the only real choices.

The Classical Christian schooling movement has embraced early Latin instruction. Greek, however, has not seen a corresponding rise in popularity. This is for two main reasons: first, qualified Greek teachers are rare and usually not Christian. Second, there are no good textbooks.

Why Greek?

1. The most important reason: the Word of God is partly written in it. Training in Greek will give Christian kids a tool for Biblical exegesis that other high school graduates can only wish they had. When they read commentaries on the NT, they will be able to evaluate arguments based on Greek, instead of merely accepting them without any knowledge.
2. After Latin and German, Greek is the third-largest source of words in English, with many technical, philosophical, and theological terms deriving from it.
3. Its structure and vocabulary is so similar to Latin that kids will be able to learn both at the same time without as much effort as would be required to learn, say, Latin and German, or Latin and Chinese. It is sometimes objected that learning two languages at the same time causes "crossed wires" in kids' brains. This is hogwash. My daughter is constantly able to figure out Greek vocabulary words from their similarity to Latin equivalents. On the odd occasion when she tries to use a Latin word in her Greek composition exercises, this is an occasion for a chuckle as she quickly corrects herself.
4. The notion that we should teach kids a modern foreign language because it will be "useful" is at odds with the notion of a liberal education. Education is not "useful" in the same way as a hammer or a wrench.
5. Greek is the world's first language of philosophy. It is therefore highly precise, and teaches kids to think clearly.
6. The foundational works of the world's main genres of literature are in Greek: tragedy, comedy, epic, lyric, philosophy, fantasy, and history all have their origins in Greek writers. All of western literature acknowledges the Greeks as its wellspring. That includes writers in all the modern European languages, as well as Latin.
7. These writings are not only foundational, but also acknowledged as great in their own right. They have stood the test of time and their aesthetic merits are acknowledged.  Modern languages can often hold up fair competitors to Greek in one field -- e.g., Racine versus Sophocles, or Kant versus Plato, or Lope da Vega versus Euripides -- but no other language can rival Greek for great writers in all of these fields.
8. Latin and Greek were de rigeur for well-educated Englishmen of the 17- and 1800s.

Curriculum
Here's my plan for Latin and Greek instruction. Both languages would be taught to students who have learned to read and write English at a basic level -- i.e. who have finished phonics and know what nouns, verbs, and adjectives are.

After grade 9, students would have done the reading required for most bachelor's degrees in Latin and Greek. I would say that they need not take any more unless they are interested. They will now have the training to use Latin and Greek sources in essays, and to read these languages for pleasure.

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