Homer to the Rescue a New Method in Beginners' Greek

Extract

The trouble with Greek is that too few are taking it. This is a great loss, for Greek has unique cultural value and is in itself the most educative item on the highly varied menu for young minds which our schools set forth. A small percentage of students are taking Greek, and finding it a real benefit. But there are surely many more who could be profiting from a substantial helping of Greek yet are not. Why? And can anything be done to remedy the situation?

I would like to diagnose the ill and suggest a feasible cure—one which has worked out quite satisfactorily in practice in over ninety schools of the United States and Canada where a new technique has been used the past few years. Considerable interest in this experiment has developed in England and Scotland, and it has been repeatedly suggested to me that I describe the innovations entailed, for wider notice and under-standing on the part of those who might find it adaptable to their own needs. The following report endeavours to meet this desire.

It is a harsh fact, in Britain as across the Atlantic, that under present educational conditions and economic urgencies the proportion of able young students who can afford to devote six or more years to intensive study of Greek is very small. Why not take up their problem and work out a compromise? If we can assure them that on a special method and programme they could in only two years (at four or five hours a week) learn enough Greek to read a substantial portion of at least one major author before the two years are up, would not many of them accept the opportunity and take that much Greek at any rate? It would mean, too, in practice, many more students taking Greek, if only on a short-term basis.