On teaching a foreign language to your child
Want your child to have what people call “critical thinking skills”? Make sure he learns a foreign language.
Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to give your child something that you yourself do not have, and it might be that learning a language is in that category. If you never studied Latin, French, Spanish, or any language other than English, you might find it daunting to add it to your curriculum.
Remember, though, that educating your children doesn’t mean teaching them everything yourself. With younger children you can learn along with them; older children can study on their own and benefit from a class or a tutor.
The two main advantages that learning a language at a young age offers are that one can then communicate in that language (this one is rather self-evident, sorry) and that the brain is patterned at a time when the patterning is good. There is no use lamenting the lack of “critical thinking skills” in the curriculum when we fail to provide the essential intellectual basis for that thinking.
Grammar is one of the important ways we learn patterns (after all, language is fundamental to human nature); it is akin to algebra in opening the mind to see things syntactically and according to their relationships. If a child is studying grammar, algebra, and Euclid, his mind will become flexible and strong. The patterns these subjects offer are ones of reason, of going from step to step in a supported way, of not making ungrounded assumptions — a skill the lack of which renders the person incapable of higher-level rational thought. Intuition must be backed up by clarity; without formation in analysis the person is left to bumble about in what Dorothy Sayers calls “the Wood where Things have no Names.”
The problem is that English is not an inflected language, so our grammar is hodgepodge — the rules we have must be mastered without the road map of a language where the parts must agree in gender, number, tense, and other qualities.
The pre-eminent language for this purpose (for the English speaker – a case could be made for Greek and I wouldn’t oppose learning both!) is Latin. The study of Latin provides the key to the grammar and structure of many other languages, and the reverse is not true, as modern languages lack its precision. Besides, learning Latin makes learning the vocabulary of those other languages much easier.
And besides that, the reader will be lost, in all but the most contemporary works which don’t use them, without the ability to decipher phrases and tags in Latin. For a delightful and informative explanation of the uses and joys of Latin and how to teach it, read Dorothy Sayers’ speech on the subject, The Greatest Single Defect of My Own Latin Education.
(Of all her observations, this one is perhaps my favorite: “There is also the matter of derivation, as distinct from vocabulary. I cannot help feeling that it is wholesome, for example, to know that “civility” has some connection with the civitas; that “justice” is more closely akin to righteousness than to equality; and that there was once some dim and forgotten connection between reality and thought.”)
If one is studying Latin, one might as well also study French and Spanish, and really, any language at all (of course, not all languages are derived from Latin, but far be it from me to restrict you to those)! Children will have no difficulty learning more than one language at once, by the way; I well remember in 7th grade going between my French to German classes with nary a hiccup. I only wish I had known to study Latin.
For Latin, I recommend the excellent offerings of Memoria Press for all ages.
For younger children learning French, use Language Together’s French for Kids: 10 First Reader Books with Online Audio and 100 Vocabulary Words (Beginning to Learn French) Set 1. (affiliate link)
For older children, the excellent (if by now vintage) program (but there are no replacements of its caliber) called French in Action teaches by the “natural method” of immersion. You can find the videos on the Annenberg Learner site and the books online (French in Action: A Beginning Course in Language and Culture: The Capretz Method) — you need both textbooks and workbooks. The CDs are not easy to find, but the videos along with the book work well.
I don’t really have specific recommendations for other languages. Feel free to chime in!
bits & piecesPrepare to be cancelled, says my husband — and what to do in that case… (Consider getting this blog and my other one by email, for one thing. I am not fond of being on every email list, but it might be good for us to be connected that way.)Erasing Family is a documentary I haven’t seen, but this article convinces me that it is important. ‘“Erasing Family” speaks to extreme post-divorce behavior because so-called amicable, everyone-is-smiling-politely divorces don’t make for an interesting documentary. But don’t kid yourself. For children, there’s no such thing as a “good divorce,” and the erasure of a parent is not required for kids to experience profound, life-long fallout from family breakdown.’
A good explanation of the importance of the Last Gospel in the Traditional Latin Mass, dropped when the changes of Vatican II were implemented.“The Last Gospel may have lost a great deal of its liturgical status. It has not, however, lost either its theological or philosophical significance. As the Word, it avoids the one-sidedness of the Cartesian, Nietzschean, and Marxist heresies, while opening the door to a rich and profound meditation that unites the Beginning with the Redemption. The Last Gospel represents the Alpha and the Omega of the Christian story.”
Does it matter that the President claims to be a Catholic — not just a Catholic, but “devout” — so devout that he said “The next Republican that tells me I’m not religious I’m going to shove my rosary beads down their throat”? It does matter. It’s a challenge, in fact, to the Church — one that cannot be ignored. Fr. Jerry Pokorsky explains why. Senator Rand Paul lays out the nature of the “transgender” attack on youth involving irreversible genital mutilation and hormone manipulation — resulting in sterility and suicide, in the hearings of Rachel Levine. He declined to give anything but a canned non-response. Since this topic will be coming to an institution, church, or young person near you, I urge you to watch. Amazon has taken the documentary of Justice Clarence Thomas off its platform, just in time for the end of Black History Month. Maybe it’s a good time to watch Created Equal? The Chief and I found it compelling — a well told story about an impressive man. As of now, it is still on You Tube.Every once in a while I come across a discrete “pattern” from one of my favorite books, Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language (which I wrote about here), and it’s just so clear and true that I have to share it. Pattern 130: Entrance Room might give you insight as to why it is that your entryway isn’t quite working for your family or guests, and ways to solve the problem. (It’s wonderful to own the book but I am happy that the patterns can be found online as well.)The question of obedience has reached a crisis in our culture and in our church — very often we are told simply to obey when we know something is off. Here is a sermon from a Traditionalist priest (FSSP) on the subject. I highly recommend listening to it; he explains the virtue of prudence — that is, conscience. He tells a story of an experiment that I think is worth listening to — and talking to your children about as well.from the archivesYou can’t avoid February burnout before it happens, because February is almost over, but you can still do the things I suggest in this post! Lenten soups!I saved my “seed bench tour” in my IG highlights in case you would like to watch/hear a chopped-up video of me going over what I’ve planted so far! In my fabulous thrifted seed starting setup! But seriously, this is the topic that is burning into my soul right now… what, I ask you, could be more interesting than planting seeds!! Are you worried that it’s too early? Do you wonder what I’ve planted? Do you have a critique of my methods?? Hop on over!
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