The Jazz Band will be hitting the road for New Orleans, Louisiana in April. The trip, which will occur two weeks after spring break, will last April 10th through 13th. They will have the chance to perform and see other jazz musicians in the city made famous by such greats as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Fats Domino. This will be the longest field trip that the Jazz Band has taken, and the music department has put a lot of effort into fundraising for this trip through Jazz Band performances, and publicity on radio stations and television appearances. Play on!
A dozen juniors will attend the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at Georgetown University this week. They will have the chance to see key note speakers like Dr. Lucile Adams-Campbell, the associate director for Minority Health and Health Disparities Research at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown. Other speakers will include Alexander van der Horst, assistant professor of astrophysics at GW, who will talk about modeling of cosmic sources called transients. Dr. Kostadin Kushlev, assistant professor of psychology at Georgetown will talk about his research on online behavior and well-being. Biology teacher Ms. Jost will escort the students for the two-day symposium.
Mr. Anderson hosted Kathryn Zickuhr, deputy director of policy at the D.C. Policy Center in his health class last week. Zickhur was also a research analyst at the Pew Research Center’s Internet & Technology Project. She has studied such topics as the role of public libraries in American communities and the digital divide. She spoke about health and communication policies and how technology can play into public awareness and public health.
Former Head of School Martha Cutts, rejoined the school on Monday for a celebration in the library. She unveiled her portrait, completed by artist Maud Taber-Thomas. Washington Latin board member and classics scholar Hunter Rawlings first learned about the artist several years ago and decided that she must paint the one and only Ms. Cutts. Taber-Thomas, based in Maryland, is a painter who specializes in oil paintings and charcoal. The former English major has also painted characters of classic literature.
When Bill Clausen started teaching Greek I in the fall of 2015, he and Dr. Smith felt that adding a second classical language was the logical next step for our school. Mr. Clausen, who joined Washington Latin in our second year, teaches Latin and humanities courses, and chairs both the Classics Department and the Classical Committee. There are many reasons to study ancient Greek, especially to have a deeper understanding of the themes of truth, goodness and beauty at the heart of our program. Those interested in ancient Greek literature, including mythology, ought to have the opportunity to read some of these texts in the original language. And Ancient Greek is the foundation of many English words.
In December of 2016, Howard Moore, who was the head of classics at multiple schools in the U.K., joined the school and took on the Greek classes. Now Washington Latin offers Greek I, II, and III, with a current junior preparing to be our first Greek IV student next fall. Before teaching at Washington Latin, Mr. Moore taught Latin, Greek, and ancient history in the U.K. and Australia, with classes as large as 28 to 30 students. While there are only nine students enrolled in the three Greek classes at Washington Latin currently, this allows the classes to be particularly intimate and do more intensive language study.
Students read the Athenaze textbook to learn vocabulary and understand aspects of Greek religion, politics, and literature. As students progress through the Greek program, they have the chance to read more challenging texts like Plato’s Apology and Xenophon’s Hiero. As in all Washington Latin classes, students in Greek have also had Socratic seminars on topics like what makes a myth. Several students enrolled in the Greek program have had the chance to continue their studies of classical languages through the Paideia Institute’s programs in Greece and Rome during the summer.
There were many intersections between Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and peoples in both North and Sub-Saharan Africa. I have been exploring some of these in daily tweets in the last couple of weeks. (You can follow me @WashLatinHOS). We have also had a hallway display about some of the prominent black classicists. A public speaking contest, that we are launching this week, will be named in honor of one of those classicists.
