Specific Aims of Classics Teaching
We support that Classics teaching should:
· Introduce pupils to a selection of the major achievements of the Greeks and Romans in such fields as literature, art, architecture, science, medicine, technology and law;
· Introduce pupils to significant aspects of the historical, political and philosophical thought of the Classical period;
· Kindle their imagination through contact with the Classical world and stimulate a personal response;
· Encourage their independent learning and provide material and guidance to enable them to think and discover knowledge by themselves.
· Develop an open and sympathetic attitude towards the past and the unfamiliar;
· Develop a critical and reflective understanding of the world in which they live;
· Develop a European awareness through an understanding of their linguistic and cultural heritage;
· Develop tolerant but not uncritical attitudes towards customs and practices unlike their own;
· Develop pupils’ powers of observation, abstraction and analysis of information, judgement and communication;
· Enhance their command of language by requiring them to pay close attention to the relationship between concepts and the words and structures used to express them;
· Provide an adequate foundation for the study of Classical subjects beyond the age of 16.
Classics courses taught in the department aim to promote all these basic aims by the study of both language and culture in Latin and Greek, and many of these aims by the study of Ancient History.
