Our Founder
W.H.D.Rouse
(1863-1950) was an exceptional teacher. He pioneered the use of the Direct
Method of teaching Latin. An account of his life and work by
Christopher
Stray, entitled The Living Word: W.H.D.Rouse and the Crisis of Classics
in Edwardian England, was published by Bristol Classical Press in 1992 (ISBN
1-85399-262-3). A review of this book contains the following summary of Rouse's
life:Rouse had a distinguished career at Cambridge, taking firsts in both parts
of the Classical Tripos, and was a Sanskrit scholar as well as a classicist.
After a six-year fellowship at Christ's College, he became a schoolmaster and
eventually headmaster of the Perse School, Cambridge, which he took over at
a time of financial crisis and put on a sound footing. His educational credo
included a firm belief in the need for the involvement of both hand and eye;
outside the classics curriculum, he pressed for the teaching of natural sciences
by observation, and the learning of crafts. With his friend T. E. Page he became
one of the founding editors of
the
Loeb Classical Library, and was still actively involved in translation work
throughout his retirement. In 1911 Rouse was instrumental in starting a highly
successful series of
Summer
Schools for teachers, followed by the establishment of the Association for
the Reform of Latin Teaching in 1913; later he was to make gramophone records
on the pronunciation of Greek, and a Latin course, for Linguaphone. - M.A. Gosling,
University of Natal, Durban.
Rouse published a collection of songs in Greek and Latin which he called 'Chanties.'
The Latin part of his book is now available
here.
We add two pieces by Rouse which explain and illustrate his method.
JANUARY 1925 DIRECT METHOD
... For example, the importance of the order of the words in a Latin sentence
is brought home to learners from the very first, and becomes quite natural to
them, by means of question and answer. Upon order style depends, and if you
are taught to realize the meaning of a Latin sentence as it comes, you will
then later realise the meaning of a Latin paragraph as the phrases come, without
having to hunt over on the next page for the verb, because in classical languages
every phrase tells its tale as it goes and its meaning is absolutely clear.
The only thing that has to wait, is the relation of those phrases to the others
which follow.
To return to the direct method, a simple reading book is begun early, and then
the words are explained so far as possible by Latin words already known, where
they cannot be explained by the thing, the act or a picture. It is found in
practice that a large vocabulary of words can be built up without using English,
and that by and by it becomes possible to explain new things with the old words.
Very soon all the explaining is done in Latin, and we are always careful even
at the beginning if we use English words to apologise for them by adding anglice
or ut aiunt, to keep up the illusion of a Latin world. In the first year in
this manner, taking one lesson a day, the whole accidence is gone through, together
with the simple sentence. In the second, the compound sentence. In the third
year an untouched Latin author is begun—although in the reading book there
have been a number of simple poems untouched, such as those of Martial or Catullus
which are within the faculty of a beginner. In this third year is begun free
composition and the recital of stories. In the fourth year the more formal translation
from English into Latin is adopted, and that fourth year nearly ends the Latin
course for those who do not take it as a speciality ; they do perhaps two or
three Latin lessons a week in their succeeding years, but they do not leam very
much new. However, a boy who has passed through that course will have done portions
of some of the chief writers, Cicero, perhaps Caesar, Virgil, Tacitus, Horace,
some poems of Martial and Catullus.
In the sixth form the staple work is reading aloud. Everything is based on
that, and the greatest pains are taken to have it done well, with due observance
of quantity and expression. If that be done from the beginning, it is very easy
to tell when the reader understands and when he does not. A wrong division of
words will show you that he does not, as well as doubtful intonation. I should
rather have said when he thinks he understands, because he sometimes does think
so wrongly. The master should know by experience, and he must make it his business
to know, where in any given author or sentence a boy is likely to make a mistake,
and he must guard against that by asking a question. Then having questioned
as regards the meaning of a wrongly read passage, if the passage be then rightly
read, pass on. There is no need to delay over it.
Details, of course, are missed in this way. It is quite possible that details
may be missed even under the current system of teaching. I have known it happen!
But I only mention that to show, that we are quite aware of the weak points,
and we guard against them.
Then, of course, there are the occasional examinations, which consist largely
of translation into English and similar tests. In beginning a new author it
is wise to have a good deal translated into English, until you are confident
that his style is familiar, and that a reasonable degree of accuracy will be
got.
All new work is done in school, and that is a matter which has important results.
For one thing, any good point, neat point, is enjoyed very much more. When you
have a boy working by himself in his study with a dictionary, perhaps tired,
he sees a point; it may interest him ; but when he sees it for the first time
in class in the morning when he is fresh, with his master there instead of a
dictionary, and with comrades who also see it, the. enjoyment is intensified
very much. It is the difference between reading a good joke in Punch in bed
and laughing at the ceiling, or reading it with your friends and having a good
guffaw together.
Another result is, that nobody is afraid of cribs. No crib can tell a boy what
questions I am going to ask him as we read the text. If he chooses to use a
translation to revise, it really does him no harm, so long as the translation
is good.
Then we ensure the new work being done, and not being done by a company but
being done by each ; because although you may not perhaps have thought of it,
it is a fact that by the direct method every boy from the very beginning is
trained to attention, and that it is possible to tell when the boy is attending
and when he is not. They always do attend if they are properly handled.
The home-work then in this case is not new work, which may be well done or may
be cribbed, but it is revision of one sort or another, or exercises upon the
work done. After this general description let me take three important branches
of work to show you how they are dealt with.
The first is grammar. You have already heard how that is dealt with, taught
after use. I mention it particularly, because you will frequently hear it said,
that under the direct method grammar is not taught. It must be taught and must
be leamt in the end under every method.The only question is,when, in what degree,
and in what place.
The second is composition. Composition in the proper sense means expressing
yourself in the language concerned : not only the narrow sense of translation
into Latin and Greek from English; that is always going on from the very beginning
in the class room, and what is heard by the ear is then repeated by the tongue,
written down by the hand, and seen with the eye, so that there are four senses
to reinforce the impression. I think it is common-sense to assume, that the
impression wfll be stronger than if only two had been used. I may say even the
fifth sense can be quite well brought in on occasion if you like, and you can
express the meaning of the word for "sweet" by producing and handing
round some sweets.
Occasional exercises of translation from English into Latin of catchy sentences,
to illustrate constructions, are quite good, so long as they are occasional.
No harm is done, and good is done, by this, if they are brought in when the
boys know why, and realise that the translating of these sentences helps them.
That is quite a different thing from making it the staple of the work.
In the third year the master tells a story, as I have already said, and the
boys repeat it, first of all reproducing it almost exactly by imitation, and
then embroidering it. If he gives them a sketch, they enlarge upon it. The same
may be done with the aid of pictures. Lastly, easy pieces of English, so "cooked"
that they will go simply into Latin without much change, are used in the fourth
year.
When the boys get into the sixth form, a great gulf has to be bridged. Of course,
to jump from that sort of work to the translation of pieces of unaltered English
literature, is a very big jump, too big to take at once. The way that we have
found useful to bridge this gulf is, at the beginning to set, as a daily exercise,
a summary to be written in Latin of the text read that day in the school room.
Supposing 250 lines have been read, a summary of that is to be written in Latin
prose extending for perhaps a sheet of twenty or thirty lines. The boys are
directed to use the words and constructions of the author as far as possible,
and to train themselves by degrees to do it from memory. By that means new words
are added to the vocabulary, in addition to the learning of new idiom. Afterwards
English pieces are given, a few at first and more later, to translate in the
usual way.
But I think the most striking effect in this department of the direct method,
is seen in the writing of verses. Verses are done by ear without preliminary
exercises. When the first piece of verse is read, the boys are taught the principles
of scansion and quantity; but after that nothing more is necessary excepting
careful reading aloud, and by the careful reading aloud it is possible to do
quite good verses at the first try. I have kept a large number of these exercises,
and I find .that the very first exercise shows very few, almost no faults, except
such as the wrong position of the accent, or a word of wrong length at the end
of a line, faults that have only to be pointed out to be avoided. The first
exercise also shows who has a bad ear and who has a good ear. There are very
few who are unable to write verses, I should think not one in fifty, although
there are not many of them first-rate of course. By this means of imitation
we find it quite easy to write all sorts of verses. In reading Horace we always
imitate if not all the lyrics, at least most kinds.
Lastly there is translation into English. Here you must remember there are two
sorts of translation, one which is a test, and the other which is an art. The
test is used by masters for their own sakes, to discover whether their pupils
have understood what they have been reading. When that has been satisfactorily
shown, there is no further need to use it at all.
As an art it requires some special consideration. To know how to render a Latin
text into English of good style and if possible of a style something resembling
the original, wants consideration, but a very few lessons are enough to give
the cue to those who are taught to do Latin well by itself and English well
by itself. I should also like to add that if boys understand a thing, they never
find any difficulty in expressing the meaning. Sometimes the rendering may be
a little uncouth, but it is always clear, if they understand it. Muddled expressions
and bad style are due to not understanding, and to that pernicious habit of
construing—continually shifting the attention from Latin to English—which
enables one to talk the most arrant nonsense without realizing it. The most
remarkable fact about the direct method is that there never is any nonsense
; you will hardly deny, I think, that it is a common thing in ordinary schools.
Unseen translation does not play a special part in the direct method, because
all the work is practically dealing with unseens. I have never found it necessary
to do more than a few exercises, in the last term before boys go in for their
scholarship, to teach them to do so much in the hour, and also to see whether
perhaps there may be some gap in their knowledge that wants to be filled up.
In the earlier stages, the translation of unseens is sometimes, but very rarely,
used. It is not a useful thing at all, unless the unseen is very much easier
than the text that they are in the habit of reading. To do an unseen, and to
make a mess of it, is one of the most discouraging things the boy can do.
The method then with the sixth form is very much like that which you would see
in any good French lesson, a lesson on Moliere, we will say, conducted by a
Frenchman in French. Discussion is just as possible in Latin. If the boys are
well encouraged to do their part, it is more like a conversation of intelligent
friends over a dinner-table than a set task.
In summing up the facts, I would first of all call attention to the saving of
time ; since every lesson is entirely a lesson in Latin, it is obvious that
the practice in that language will be very considerably more than if you have
the greater part of it expressed in English. If the master chooses, he can bring
in anything he wants to practise and stick to it for a week. If at the end of
that time it is not pretty well known, I should be very much surprised.
But the most important thing of all is the effect on the temper of the learners.
It is not true to say, of course, that whenever boys are happy they are being
well taught, but I think it is true to say that if they are not happy, they
are not being well taught. I think that a test of good teaching is the temper
of the taught. That is why I never can believe that our mathematical friends
have got the right way of teaching mathematics (though I do not know what it
is) because you hardly ever find a boy who does not hate it. From the very beginning
it is a fact, that boys taught under the direct method are happy, and like to
do it. First impressions are most important things in teaching, as Quintilian
knew, and first impressions are the chief impressions which the boy will carry
away with him into life. Instead of thinking of his school work, as he often
does, as a series of horrible gloomy tasks, his memories will be of pleasant
hours which he thoroughly enjoyed. If you remember that Latin is, for some boys,
the highest intellectual exercise he has ever had or ever will have, you will
see that these pleasant memories would be transferred to intellectual work.
Hence the indirect results are very important.
In conclusion may I just mention the four statements which always meet us when
we are discussing the direct method.
The first is that it is morally good for a boy to have to do what he dislikes.
I do not know whether it is morally bad for him to have to do what he likes,
but that seems to be implied too. Anyhow if the masters who make this statement
apply the same rules to themselves, they must either be very gloomy folk or
else very immoral.
Secondly comes our old friend mental gymnastic. It is very important that there
should be mental gymnastic, but you will get mental gymnastic whenever your
mind is exercised, and the difference between meaningless exercises of the mind
and the direct method, is the difference between the treadmill, which is excellent
for bodily gymnastic, and a morris dance, or a game of football. The game of
football is harder work than the treadmill, but it is enjoyed. So the direct
method is really harder work than the old method ; the mind is more exercised
than by learning a meaningless table, but is not so much wearied.
The third is—and this was put very forcibly at the Headmasters' Conference—that
the current system of teaching classics is fool-proof. These are not my words,
but the words of a defender. He said, "Any fool can teach it". Well,
I am quite sure that no fool can teach on the direct method, but it does not
need anything more than intelligence and willingness to take trouble. It is
willingness to take trouble which has been our difficulty all along. Those who
are invited, will not take the trouble to investigate the facts, which they
can quite well do. No doubt the reason in their minds is, that if they did investigate
them and found them to be true, they would then be bound to take some very troublesome
steps in order to improve the existing system. This is not my own assumption
only but fortunately I have it admitted in print by Dr. Lyttleton in the School
Guardian, where there was a little interchange of politeness some seven or eight
years ago.
The last thing that is always said, which I have already answered, is that a
few men have a gift for this kind of thing, but the majority of men have not.
Of course, that is quite untrue. The truth is, as I have said, that anyone with
intelligence, who will take trouble, is quite able to do the thing in a first-rate
way...
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FEBRUARY 1984 SIXTH FORM LIFE
LIVY XXXIV
M. Salvete, pueri.
P. Salve tu quoque (mixto horrisonofragore).
M. Quid hoc bonist?
P1. Gravedine laboro.
M. Immo tussi, immo pituita.
P2. Immo tonitru!
P3. *Caelo tonantem credidimus lovem regnare, sed idem regnat in naso tuo.
M. Impius es, O Nugipalamloquides tu ! At tu, non debebas foras ire, non oportuit
te foras ire, non decuit, non par erat, haud erat aequum.
P3. Paene hexametrum fecisti, magister.
M. Inscius equidem : poeta nascitur, non fit.
P3. Do tibi praemium (dat cartam pictam—risus).
M. Accipio donum amplissimum, et gratias reddo quam maximas : quod felix faustumque
sit!
Sed quae est hodiemae recitationis materies?
P3. Titi Livi Liber tricesimus quartus.
M. Incipe.
P3. "Inter bellorum magnorum aut vix finitorum aut imminentium curas intercessit
res parva dictu, sed quae studiis in magnum certamen excesserit. M. Fundanius
et L. Valerius tribuni plebi ad plebem tulerunt de Oppia lege abroganda."
P*. Oppia lex quae fuit?
M. Mox audies. Perge.
P3. "Tulerat earn C. Oppius tribunus plebis Q. Fabio T. Sempronio consulibus,
in medio ardore Punici belli, ne qua mulier plus semunciam auri naberet, neu
vestimento versicolori uteretur, neu iuncto vehiculo in urbe oppidove aut propius
inde mille passus nisi sacrorum causa veheretur."
P*. Heu ! quid mulieres dixerunt?
M. Tum quidem nihil, in medio ardore belli; amabant enim patriam magis. Quo
autem anno? Invenies in dictionario antiquitatum.
P5. (quaerit). Anno ante Christum ducentesimo quinto decimo.
Sed addit, "vide sumptuarias leges". Quaenam sunt illae?
M. De sumptu, ne quis sumat scilicet, insumat, impendat, expendat, nimium pecuniae
in luxuria, nempe vestitu, cibo, vino, et ceteris rebus huiusmodi: ne sumptus
faciat.—Sed nonne est aliud quid rogandum?
P6. "Studiis" non liquet. Nonne hic nos studia agitamus?
M. Habes in mente et auribus Anglicum "study", sed cave.
Non est idem "occupy" et "occupo".
P8. Neque "necktie" et "necto" (risus).
M. Bene memoras tu quidem.—Sed ubi amamus aliquid aut odimus, ubi rei
operam damus non sine motu animi, studium inest. Verbi gratia, cum petitores
suffragia ambiunt petentes, sunt maxima studia hinc illinc.
P6. Intellego. Hi amabant Oppiam, hi oderant. Aliud autem est: "plebi"?
Nonne debet esse "plebis"?
M. Licebat utrumque dicere antiqua lingua.
P7. Et "semundam"? An valet dimidiam unciam?
M. Valet.
P8. (novus homo). Sed non intellego ne "unciam" quidem.
[Novos nominabanms pueros primi in Sexta anni.]
P9. Unda est fere idem anglice, scilicet "ounce" ; et libra continebat
duodedm uncias.
M. Itaque est unda duodedma pars aliarum quoque rerum, ut assis. Quis meminit
partes assis?
P10. As, deunx, dextans, dodrans, bes, septunx, semis vel semissis, quincunx,
triens, quadrans, sextans, uncia.
M. Et haec valent tantasdem particulas aliarum quoque rerum.
Habent quoque duos alios usus. Numquis scit?
P10. Usus hereditarius alter est, sed nescio alterum.
M. Usus bibentium ! Dicunt enim "uncias bibunt", vel "besses",
et cetera, semper pluraliter: scilicet tot cyathos vim ex duodecim. Nonne meministi
carminis? "Nam sic bibitur ..."
Omnes. "Nam sic bibitur, nam sic bibitur,
In cenis principum-pam-pom!"
M. *Sed quid de hereditate? Quid valet heredem facere totius rei?
P10. *Ex asse facere heredem.
M. *Dimidii?
P10. 'Ex semisse.
M. *Unius et dimidii? (risus).
P10 *Fieri non potest.
M. *Sed si fieri posset? (nullum responsum).
Ex sesquiasse.
P10. *An tu invenisti hoc ex animo?
M. *Non. Meministi "sesquipedalia verba"?
P10 *Memini! intellego! Sed "novi" nostri non intelligunt—sunt
sesquiaselli! (risus).
M. Sed quantam excursionem fecimus, quantum de via digressi sumus!
P11. Si non molestumst, licetne aliud interrogare?
M. Licet profecto, immo debes rogare.
P11. Quid sibi volt "iuncto vehiculo"?
M. Equos vehiculo iungunt, inde fit iunctum vehiculum. lam ad Oppiam, precor.
Perge, tu.
P13. "Capitolium turba hominum faventium adversantiumque legi complebatur.
Matronae nulla nec auctoritate, nec verecundia, nec imperio virorum contineri
limine poterant: omnes vias urbis aditusque in forum obsidebant, viros descendentes
ad forum orantes, ut florente republica, crescente in dies privata omnium fortuna,
matronis quoque pristinum ornatum reddi paterentur. <p> Augebatur haec
mulierum frequentia in dies ; nam etiam ex oppidis conciliabulisque conveniebant.
lam et consules praetoresque et alios magistratus adire et rogare audebant;
ceterum minime exorabilem alterum utique consulem, M. Porcium Catonem, habebant,
qui pro lege, quae abrogabatur, ita disseruit."<p>
P13. Id quod etiam nunc faciunt mulieres, ius suffragii petentes!
[Ante bellum enim haec dicebantur, ubi nondum datum est ius suffragi mulieribus.]
M. Ita, etiamque peiora. Nonne se catenis portae curiae constringunt, canuntque
magna voce—"Suffragia date mulieribus!" Sed scribetis mihi domi
oratiunculam de hac re.— Dic tu breviter quid sit compendium huius loci.
P14. Mulieres tumultum fecerunt, ut pristinus sibi status redderetur, liceretque
sibi plus semunciam auri habere, vehiculo iuncto vehi, vestitu versicolore uti
: magna erant studia faventium atque adversantium ...
P16. Hoc nomen Porcius ludicrum sonat.
M. Revocat in mentem sane Porcum. Sed nonne sunt apud nos quoque talia in usu?
Apud Romanus erat Corvus—erat Scipio Asina—erat Aquila—erant
duo Mures, et magnanimi quidem, non ridiculi mures. Multa autem nomina de corporis
facie.
Balbus—quis?
P16. Qui lingua titubat.
M. Calvus?
P17. Sine coma!
M. Rufus?
P6. Ruber!
M. Naso? Nasica?
P*. Cum longo naso.
M. Varus? (nullum responsum}. Cruribus ita distortis, ut genua alterum alteri
appropinquet. Sed perge tu.
P*. (xlii. 4). "Praetoria inde comitia habita ; creati P. Cornelius Scipio
et duo Cn. Comelii, Merenda et Blasio, et Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, et Sex.
Digitius et T. luventius Thalna". (ridet).
M. *Non compos videris esse corporis, nam semper sine causa rides.
P4. *At ecce aliud nomen, Ahenobarbus! ecce aliud, Digitius !
M. *Quot igitur digitos habuit?
P4. *Sex !! (risus). Ita stat in textu !
M. Claudite iam rivos, pueri, sat prata biberunt. Valete.
P. Vale tu quoque.
[Manifestum est hanc scaenam ex duabus compressam esse : sed cui malo? Idem
fecit Plautus contaminando.]
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