LAKE MICHIGAN REGION
ANNUAL REPORT
2000-2001
In the Great Lakes Region the year 2000-2001 has been marked by a variety of activities at both the college and high school levels. The threat of closure to the department of Classics at Loyola University, however, has darkened the year's record. We hope that efforts to help them can be counted among achievements in next year's report. Current officers are: Regional VP Michele Valerie Ronnick (Wayne State), Illinois VP Vicki Wine (Black Hawk College), Indiana VP Martha J. Payne (Ball State), and Michigan VP Mark F. Williams (Calvin College). The Regional VP attended the CAMWS meeting of the Southern section in Athens, Georgia. She was unable to attend the NCLG meeting at the 2001 APA meeting in San Diego due to conflicting travel schedules. The three states of the Great Lakes Region continue to enjoy the benefits of CPL funding. A number of CPL projects were funded this year for members in all three states. Activities this year include:
The Illinois Classical Conference has had another busy year of activities. The 8th annual Latin pedagogy workshop was held for four days in July at National-Louis University in Evanston with fifteen participants, and is planned again for 2001. The annual state conference met in October, hosted by the University of Loyola, with a full and stimulating program in a retreat-like setting. JCL, Certamen League, and scholarship awards continue to be popular and growing events. Illinois Certamen League will have 30 schools, two more than the previous year. The Chicago Public Schools Latin Olympics hosted at the University of Illinois at Chicago are scheduled again for March. State Latin Contest finals will be hosted by the University of Illinois in April. The ICC newsletter, the AUGUR, reports on meetings, activities, job openings, and other opportunities and news. Tom Sienkewicz organized funding in order to bring the famous Legion XIIII to several schools in the state, from Monmouth to Champaign to Chicago and suburbs in February. Tom Sienkewicz, chair of the Foreign Languages and Classics Committee, reported that the resolution ICC that passed in October 1999, had helped the cause of the Classics in finishing the list of competency standards.
Morningstar Academy, a Christian Classical school, was able to find a Latin teacher from the Quad-Cities. A Monmouth College Classics student, Ryan Rumppe, was awarded a scholarship from the Senior Classical League at the National Junior Classical League Convention in Oklahoma in August. Amy Cargill, of Naperville North High School, received the Montserrat Vilarrubla Award 2000 at the October meeting of the Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. CPL grants were awarded for the Legion and the Chicago Olympics.
The Chicago Classical Club continues to meet for fellowship and scholarly presentations three times a year. Loyola University also continues to offer an assortment of speakers. Augustana College is offering its web-based contest again this year. Monmouth College
continues a strong presence with Classical offerings including the annual Fox Lecture and the Fox Classics Writing Contest. This year's Fox lecturer, Michele Valerie Ronnick gave a paper on “Evidence for Fishing in Antiquity and Its Later Influence.”
The Indiana Classical Conference met in early November in conjunction with the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers' Association. Jeremy Walker reported on the success of raising awareness about Latin by having a booth at the meeting of the Indiana School Boards Association. One of the materials on display was a map of the state with markers on all of the towns and cities which currently have Latin available as part of the school curriculum. At present 130 schools offer Latin in the state. A motion was passed to create a standing committee for Latin advocacy, which would have contact with the School Board Association. The Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages will be held in Indianapolis in April 2001. It is hoped that there will be a Latin presence at that conference. It is also hoped that money can be raised to help recruit Latin teachers for Indiana. As CAMWS VP, Martha Payne distributed CAMWS materials and a survey requesting information about various Latin programs. The response to that distribution was minimal. In January, mailing of the survey, with a stamped, self-addressed envelope was sent out. Response was much improved.
High School Activities: Jeremy Walker of Crown Point HS was awarded a CPL grant to help fund a recruiting activity. Lawrence Central High School has a growing Latin program which includes a course in translation of epic. There is hope for developing a middle school Latin program At Riley High School in South Bend: 258 students study Latin on a Block-4 schedule in ten sections. An eleventh section is set for Fall 2000. At Mt. Vernon High School, Mt. Vernon, IN: There are four levels of Latin along with a course in vocabulary development and Classical literature of Greek and Roman myths. Judy Grebe, Latin teacher, has presented a special program for Latin students from neighboring school districts. At Fortville High School in Hancock City, IN, students celebrated National Latin Week with a Latin breakfast and taught some basic Latin to two groups of middle school students (Latin on the dollar bill; numbers from 1-10; games and phrases). 95 students are studying Latin at Westfield High School in Westfield, IN. This program is only four years old. 60 students participated in the Latin Day activities at Butler in the fall. There are 75 Latin students in 3 levels at New Haven High School. 69 students took the National Latin Exam at Muncie Central High School, Muncie. At Floyd Central there are 123 students in 5 sections. The ICC Resource Center VII held a Fall 2000 Latin Day program at Butler University. Over 600 students and teachers attended. There were talks by Tim Long of IU, and Bill Gilmartin of Ben Davis High School, Indianapolis.
Michigan Classical studies in Michigan are alive and kicking at virtually all levels. It may be of interest to the membership of CAMWS that a fairly new program in Latin has begun at the Grand Rapids Classical Academy under recent graduate Jonathan Fennell, who is teaching Latin to fourth graders. The GRCA will require Latin instruction at virtually all grade levels, from fourth grade through high school. Floreant!
There is also the possibility of adding a new high school Latin
program in Marshall, MI. Several well-established high school Latin programs bear watching
over the next year or two because of the anticipated retirements of teachers. Marilyn Swart will be retiring from a very
well-established Latin program at Kalamazoo Christian High School at the end of the
2001-02 school year; at present it looks as though the administration and board of the
school are fairly committed to continuing the program, provided a competent teacher can be
found. One other teacher, who has asked to
remain anonymous for the present, is considering retiring sometime in the next couple of
years; he teaches at two high schools in west Michigan, and has been successful at keeping
small programs going with excellent students and good parental support. Low-key contacts are being mentioned with the
administrations of these schools to try to insure that a replacement will be found when
this teacher finally decides to take the wooden sword. Mr. Erich Heidenrich in Marshall,
MI is chair of the board of a local charter school, Marshall Academy, and they have indeed
started a Latin program. Everyone in the
school takes Latin from the third grade on. Right
now they are a K-6 school, and next year they will expand to K-7. He will have to look for
another Latin teacher soon because their current one will be leaving eventually for grad
school.
The statewide organization of high school and college-level Classicists, the Michigan Classical Conference continues its traditions of twice-yearly meetings. Attendance is steady, and the organization has actually grown a bit over the last several years. The MCC is blessed with a strong executive committee that seems poised to make the organization indispensable for high school teachers, especially. In particular, MCC is exploring the forging of closer links with the Michigan Foreign Languages Association, especially since some teach modern languages as well as Classical ones. The MFLA has long been anxious to include a representative of the MCC on its governing board; perhaps this is the year when this will finally happen. At the collegiate level, Grand Valley State University will soon announce its hiring of two new classicists for its year-old Classics' department. Michigan Classicists are grateful to the administration of GVSU for its faith in our field, and for its support of the excellent classicists there.
At the University of Michigan, Deborah Pennell Ross has received a
CPL grant to conduct a much-needed census of Michigan high school Latin programs. At present, not even the state board of education
can tell which high schools offer which languages, how many students are enrolled in a
given language state-wide, etc. Pennell Ross'
work should prove extremely useful to the Michigan Classics community in monitoring the
health of the Classics across the state, and could (with email) provide foundation for a
sort of “early-warning” network to intervene when programs are threatened. In other college news, at Wayne State University,
Michele Ronnick received a CPL grant to reprint her postcards of Classical elements in the
architecture of Detroit. Sets of them were sent by CPL to all state VPs.
Other news includes:
a) The Detroit Institute of Art and its affiliated subgroups, The Antiquaries and the Detroit Classical Association continue to sponsor a series of AIA lectures, which will continue through April.
b) The day of Latin games and contests, the Ludi XVII sponsored by the Detroit Classical Association will be held on April 7 in Detroit. Similar activities, the Ludi Occidentales VII, in western Michigan will be hosted by Professors Robert Griffin and Rand Johnson at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Ten area high schools are planning to participate. Robert Griffin will retire this spring and joining the faculty in his stead in the fall will be a 1999 graduate from the University of Michigan.
c) Speakers of national and international status presented a number of talks throughout the state at various campuses including the University of Michigan, Western Michigan University, Wayne State, Michigan State and Calvin College. At Calvin College, enrollments remain strong with around 35 majors and minors in Classics, Greek, and Latin.
This material was posted on the web by CPL Chair, Tom Sienkewicz, at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois. If you have any questions, you can contact him at toms@monm.edu.
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