How has training in Greek/Latin/Classics been of use and value to your professional and/or non-professional life?
Like Angelo, I found this question to be one of the most difficult in the series (and it was even harder as one descended into the morass of a nasty flu bug -- both situations account for the lateness of this post, obviously). As many rc readers know, I am a Grade Seven teacher -- mostly math and science. There is very little Classical material in my 'professional' life, according to the official ministry expectations but that does not mean my Classics background never is expressed at school. At least once a year, e.g., I will be forced to tell the Grade Sevens the story of Cassandra in the context of how they never believe me about certain things (usually related to wasting class time) and how they will end up paying for it when it comes to report card time. Other tales from mythology will pop up as the circumstances dictate. Of course, when the Grade Fives are doing their Ancient Civilizations unit, I'll get teachers asking me for info (usually the date, interestingly enough) and I'm constantly babbling about the etymology of various words when it seems a useful way to help students remember things.
But I genuinely believe that my training in Classics has had a rather deeper, more evisceral effect on me as well. As mentioned above, I teach math. When I was in school, I really wasn't what you'd call great at math. At best, I was average. That was one of the reasons, incidentally, I turned down teaching Calculus at the high school level (which is what I was initially offered). But when I started teaching math (at three levels -- Grades Six, Seven, and Eight) I found I had acquired/developed an 'attention to detail' which I didn't have when I was a kid. I honestly don't know whether that can be attributed to my training in Classics (I've asked in the past whether folks have noticed a connection between performing well in Latin and performing well in math; the jury's still out on that one), but I like to think it does. I can definitely say, though, that the rigorous analysis involved not just in dealing with ancient texts but with all the research involved in theses and dissertations HAS become internalized and I automatically seem to analyze events, situations, etc. in a much different (and usually far more effective/authoritative) way than those around me (I don't want that to sound egotistical -- it isn't meant to). I freely admit that I am an intellectual snob and fervently believe that my Classical training is far superior to anything most of my colleagues have had. When I see what passes for an MA thesis in Education, e.g., and realize that on the scale of rigor, it's probably on par with a senior undergraduate paper in Classics, I feel justified in that snobbery. I also find that I have very little patience for speakers and/or people in positions of authority who primarily use buzzwords and abbreviations to show off their 'knowledge' while saying nothing of substance. (By way of praeteritio, I won't comment on the generic annual speaker who reminds us that most people have an attention span of 30-40 minutes and then proceed to yak at us for close to three hours without a break). Of course, in such situations Juvenal is running through my head ...
Outside of that, in my non-professional life I -- as I assume most of you who are reading this -- am constantingly seeing/making allusions to things Classical in the everyday world around me. Interesting words are automatically etymologized, architecture analyzed, news stories analogized, and on and on.
Tough question ...
Like Angelo, I found this question to be one of the most difficult in the series (and it was even harder as one descended into the morass of a nasty flu bug -- both situations account for the lateness of this post, obviously). As many rc readers know, I am a Grade Seven teacher -- mostly math and science. There is very little Classical material in my 'professional' life, according to the official ministry expectations but that does not mean my Classics background never is expressed at school. At least once a year, e.g., I will be forced to tell the Grade Sevens the story of Cassandra in the context of how they never believe me about certain things (usually related to wasting class time) and how they will end up paying for it when it comes to report card time. Other tales from mythology will pop up as the circumstances dictate. Of course, when the Grade Fives are doing their Ancient Civilizations unit, I'll get teachers asking me for info (usually the date, interestingly enough) and I'm constantly babbling about the etymology of various words when it seems a useful way to help students remember things.
But I genuinely believe that my training in Classics has had a rather deeper, more evisceral effect on me as well. As mentioned above, I teach math. When I was in school, I really wasn't what you'd call great at math. At best, I was average. That was one of the reasons, incidentally, I turned down teaching Calculus at the high school level (which is what I was initially offered). But when I started teaching math (at three levels -- Grades Six, Seven, and Eight) I found I had acquired/developed an 'attention to detail' which I didn't have when I was a kid. I honestly don't know whether that can be attributed to my training in Classics (I've asked in the past whether folks have noticed a connection between performing well in Latin and performing well in math; the jury's still out on that one), but I like to think it does. I can definitely say, though, that the rigorous analysis involved not just in dealing with ancient texts but with all the research involved in theses and dissertations HAS become internalized and I automatically seem to analyze events, situations, etc. in a much different (and usually far more effective/authoritative) way than those around me (I don't want that to sound egotistical -- it isn't meant to). I freely admit that I am an intellectual snob and fervently believe that my Classical training is far superior to anything most of my colleagues have had. When I see what passes for an MA thesis in Education, e.g., and realize that on the scale of rigor, it's probably on par with a senior undergraduate paper in Classics, I feel justified in that snobbery. I also find that I have very little patience for speakers and/or people in positions of authority who primarily use buzzwords and abbreviations to show off their 'knowledge' while saying nothing of substance. (By way of praeteritio, I won't comment on the generic annual speaker who reminds us that most people have an attention span of 30-40 minutes and then proceed to yak at us for close to three hours without a break). Of course, in such situations Juvenal is running through my head ...
Outside of that, in my non-professional life I -- as I assume most of you who are reading this -- am constantingly seeing/making allusions to things Classical in the everyday world around me. Interesting words are automatically etymologized, architecture analyzed, news stories analogized, and on and on.
Tough question ...