Instructor: Mr. Watson Email: mwatson@aristoiclassical.org Meeting: Monday-Friday @ 8:00 A.M. Extra Help: M,T,Th @ 4-5 P.M. Humane Letters I God and Man: Ancient Greece to the fall of Rome Aristoi Classical Academy 2015-2016 To my students: I hope the vacation was a time of rest and leisure, and that you return to your studies with full hearts. While you naturally may feel some distress at the passing of the carefree days of summer, I promise you that the coming school year like any season represents a life-changing opportunity. The study of the past has its origin in the Socratic maxim, Know thyself. Every human is born into a story that predates him and whose chapters will continue to carve a path through time even after he has returned to dust. German theologian Karl Barth wrote, We know history in that another s action somehow becomes a question to which our own action has to give some sort of answer. In Aristoi s four-year Humane Letters sequence, you will take up the call to locate your brief life within the currents of a larger story by conversing with history s great souls, entering into their experience, and allowing them to question you. Thus we will count among our teachers such luminaries as Homer and Aristotle, Dante and Jane Austen, Thoreau and Dostoyevsky. This year in the freshman course, you will consider Man--his nature, his capacity for good and evil, and his earliest transactions with the Divine. In addition to studying Western Civilization from its Greek and Hebrew origins through the fall of Rome and rise of Christianity, you will develop academic aptitudes foundational to the Sequence, including gracious and productive participation in the Socratic seminar and composition of analytical essays and oral presentations drawing on multiple sources of authority and close readings of literary texts. The course culminates in a Freshman Thesis, in which you will publicly defend your position on whether the advent of Christianity in late antiquity should be understood as a development, a fulfillment, or a repudiation of the classical world. As you arrive at that moment in June, I assure you of this you will not be the same person. If you will give yourself to this course over the next nine months, you will enter the next season of your life wiser, more eloquent, and more attuned to the invitations to greatness even now beginning to pay their call. That is why I teach. That is why you are here. Your servant, Mr. Watson Katy, Texas 1
Course Texts. Although the below list does not encompass all course readings, it does represent those works for which the student will utilize the complete text. Parents are strongly encouraged to purchase personal copies for their student in order to facilitate his or her ability to enter into texts through on-page annotation. Publisher information is included below for that purpose. Athanasius, and John Behr. On the Incarnation. Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary, 2011. Print. Herodotus, Robert B. Strassler, and Andrea L. Purvis. The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories. New York: Anchor, 2009. Print. Hesiod, Stanley Lombardo, Robert Lamberton, and Hesiod. Works and Days and Theogony. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1993. Print. Livy, Aubrey De Se lincourt, R. M. Ogilvie, and S. P. Oakley. The Early History of Rome: Books I-V. London: Penguin, 2002. Print. Homer, Robert Fagles, Bernard Knox, and Homer. The Odyssey. New York: 2006. Print. Plutarch, Robin Waterfield, and Philip A. Stadter. Greek Lives: A Selection of Nine Greek Lives. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print. Sophocles, David Grene, and Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2010. Print. Virgil, and Allen Mandelbaum. The Aeneid of Virgil. Toronto: Bantam, 1981. Print. 2
Course Objectives. History is a discipline one part art, one part science. It is the search for pattern, order, and meaning in the seeming chaos of the human past. It is above all a humane study, namely, a pursuit that bestows on its devotees practical wisdom, a capacity for contemplation, and sympathy for the plight of one s fellow man. But as the study of the past is also a scientific endeavor, a course on the history of culture such as this class proposes will ask you to do the following: 1. Interpret historical documents and literary texts from a position of intellectual sympathy with their authors, as well as in light of the temporal and cultural gulf dividing you from them. 2. Define the temporal position, significance, and interrelation of the major episodes and personalities of Classical Antiquity. 3. Explain the function of literary devices, tropes, and forms in a given text. 4. Identify patterns, themes, and recurring issues in the Classical civilizations. 5. Discriminate between philosophical presuppositions. 6. Analyze cause and effect in human affairs. 7. Situate ideas with reference to their historical context. 8. Evaluate which ideas transcend their historical setting and have a place among the permanent things. 9. Produce cogent arguments in writing and orally. 10. Collaborate with your fellow students to advance our insight into the past. Progress toward Course Goals. Though education is its own reward in that it offers an occasion for the development of virtue and self-culture, it is nonetheless important to mark your progress toward the stated goals of the course. Ideally, your grades will reflect the good faith and vigor with which you have risen to the challenge presented to you. Assignments in this course are weighted as follows: Daily Seminars 40% Tests, Projects, & Compositions 40% Classwork, Homework, & Quizzes 20% *Nota bene: As 9th graders, you are subject to the Upper School policy on late work as stated in the Aristoi Parent Student Handbook. Classroom Decorum. Classroom procedures and guidelines will be discussed extensively on the first day of school. They include: Be in your assigned seat and working when the class begins. Bring all books and materials to class and take them with you when you leave. Treat each person in the room with respect. Wait to be recognized before speaking. Follow directions the first time they are given. If you choose to become a hindrance to other students learning, you will face consequences based on the nature and severity of the offence. I am a teacher because I love students and desire to see them grow and succeed. Know in advance that any consequence I mete out is intended to be corrective rather than punitive. Let s have a great year! 3
Course Outline. Below is a basic outline of the course. Pay special attention to the essential questions that serve as the semester headings; you will face these questions in one form or another at the end of each semester on the Midterm and Final Exams. Major Texts & Topics Overture. Semester I. Crescendo. Letters from a Stoic and the pursuit of Wisdom; familiarization with Humane Letters rubrics and assessment procedures (1 week) Drawing on this semester s readings, what would you identify as the tragic flaw of Greek culture and how did it contribute to end of an independent Greek Civilization? I. Hesiod s Works and Days and Theogony, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and the cosmologies of the Ancient Near East (3 weeks) - Minor Composition: What shared themes seem to be shared among the cosmologies of the Ancient Near East? II. Athens, Sparta, and the Greek ideal in Homer s Odyssey (4 weeks) - Major Composition: Should Odysseus be considered the archetypal Athenian, or Spartan? If neither, what does his character reveal about the meaning of being Greek? III. The Histories of Herodotus, the historical process, and the dawn of Greece s Golden Age (3 weeks) - Produce a children s book that will convey in the simplest, most winsome possible manner your answer to the question, Why were the Greeks ultimately victorious in the Persian Wars of the early fifth century B.C.? IV. Contemplation, habit, and the good life in the Meno, Euthyphro, and Nicomachean Ethics (4 weeks) - Produce an original Aristotelean Dialogue. With the Platonic dialogues as a model, you and your partner must script and perform a dramatic rendering of Aristotle s treatment of one of the four cardinal virtues V. Oedipus Rex, Plutarch s Greek Lives, and the tragedy of Greek democracy (4 weeks) - Minor Composition in preparation for Midterm Exam: What does Oedipus Rex suggest about the nature of destiny? Two-day Midterm Exam; Day 1 Objective Test; Day 2- In-Class Composition in answer to semester Essential Question (Midterms Week) 4
Intermission. Semester II. Finale. Christmas Holidays (2 weeks) Should the advent of Christianity in late antiquity be understood as a development, a fulfillment, or a repudiation of Greco-Roman culture? VI. Livy s Ab Urbe Condita Libri and the rise of Rome in the Italian context (2 weeks) - Minor Composition: What does Livy s semi-mythical account of Rome s founding suggest about the character of the Roman Civilization? VII. Caesar, Cicero, and the fall of the Roman Republic (3 weeks) - Major Composition: What political, social, and cultural factors made possible Rome s shift from republic to empire? VIII. Virgil s Aeneid and the ethics of empire (4 weeks) - Major Composition: Should The Aeneid be read as a proimperial epic poem? IX. St. Athanasius On the Incarnation, The Acts of the Apostles, and the spread of Christianity (4 weeks) - Short Epic Poem: Compose an original epic poem dealing with the advent of Christian and drawing on the early primary sources. X. Gibbon s Decline and Fall, Augustine s City of God, and the role of Christianity in the fall of the Roman Empire (5 weeks) - Minor Composition in preparation for Final Exam: To what extent does the advent of Christianity account for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire? Freshman Thesis oral defense (Finals Week) 5
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Return Next Day of Class!!! (Quiz Grade) Dear Parents/Guardians: I look forward to partnering with you in the education of your child in the 2015-2016 school year. I consider it a great privilege and trust. Please look over the above course syllabus. Familiarize yourself with the course objectives, classroom expectations, course texts and supplies, and major assignment categories. During the year you can keep abreast of classroom happenings by means of my school webpage. This can be accessed from www.aristoiclassical.org by going to the About Aristoi tab, selecting Meet our Administration, Faculty & Staff, and scrolling to Watson, Matthew. I have high expectations of my students, but I cannot get far without parental support. Please take a moment and let me know the best way to get in touch with you. Here s to a great year! Your servant, Mr. Watson Aristoi Classical Academy Katy, Texas Cut Print Student Name: Print Parent/Guardian Name(s): Relation to Student: The best phone number: The best email address: I have read the course syllabus, and understand the expectations and procedures it outlines. I will contact Mr. Watson as questions arise. Parent/Guardian Signature Student Signature 7