I’m not sure if fluency is our goal with our Latin studies yet, but I do think that the person who has savored Virgil or Homer in the original languages is more able to fully enjoy Milton and Shakespeare in their language. Imagine if you were Chinese reading a translation of Paradise Lost in Mandarin. It might be wonderful, but could it possibly be as great as it is in its original? I assume it’s the same to read those Greek and Latin classics in the languages they were first crafted in. I can’t read fluently in any other language, so this is only an assumption on my part. :-)

Jami

However, I’m still not sure where to draw the lines on terms. She’s not a “classicist,” because that is a more narrow term which means someone who studies Greek and Latin and classics in Greek and Latin in particular, and Miss Mason did not.

So, should “classical education” be limited to those methods that teach Latin? That might be legitimate, and in that case, Miss Mason is a proponent of a liberal education, or a liberal arts education, and classical is one subcategory of liberal education, but not the subcategory CM fits into.

I did get a kick out of CM’s 2-page long tirade against what is now known as unit studies. She was downright offensive on the topic. :) Ah the irony. How many people do “CM style” and unit studies? My impression is that’s a more common mix than CM classical. And CM had nothing but disdain for unit studies. :)

You realize you will scandalize some people by calling Mason a classicist, right?

I completely agree with you, though. :)