Jason Pedicone

Jason Pedicone, the co-founder and President of the Paideia Institute, received his Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University in 2013. Jason has taught courses in Latin, Greek, and the history of Classical Scholarship at the university level in the U.S. and Western Europe, and is an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College and Fordham University. Jason received a Fulbright Fellowship for research in Germany in 2004, and a Jacob Javits Fellowship in 2013 to support his graduate work. In 2015, together with Paideia’s co-founder, Eric Hewett, Jason was awarded the President’s Award by the Society for Classical Studies for outstanding achievements in promoting the study of Classics. He lives in Manhattan.

SESSIONS:

Who Killed Latin?
In traditional American classrooms Latin has been a dead, read language. But more recently, some Latin teachers are arguing for an “active method,” which involves speaking the classical languages extemporaneously as living languages. This approach, they claim, is both “more natural” and “follows the science” of second language acquisition. Others prefer the more traditional grammar-translation approach. Who’s right? And what are the historical reasons we stopped speaking Latin in the classroom in the first place? This talk will explore these questions.

Teaching Literacy with Latin in the Elementary School Classroom.
Improving students’ literacy is a cardinal goal of elementary education, and more 60% of English vocabulary comes from Latin. Nevertheless, even at classical schools, elementary educators often miss the opportunity to supercharge students’ literacy by introducing Latin in early literacy education. This workshop explains why Latin is such a powerful tool for literacy instruction and shows how it can be incorporated at your elementary school.

Why Your Classical School Should Teach Latin and How to Start a Program Even If You Can’t Find a Full-Time Teacher.
Latin and Ancient Greek, the classical languages, have always been the foundation of a classical education. They are the linguae francae that make students truly conversant in the Great Conversation about western civilization’s foundational ideas and its development throughout the ages. And yet, many classical schools do not teach the ancient Languages. This workshop explains how adding a classical language program can benefit any classical school and demonstrates a new curriculum that allows any school to teach Latin, even if it can’t hire a full-time Latin teacher.

How Visiting Ancient Sites Can Contextualize Your Classical Curriculum, Whether You Leave Home or Not
The so-called Grand Tour has long been a capstone experience of a classical education. Beholding the marvels of the ancient world now lying in ruin has provided important context and perspective for pondering civilization’s change and continuity as well as familiarity with the sites and settings of classical literature. Teaching students to interact profitably with an ancient monument, whether in person or virtually, is an art that can incorporate the disciplines of archaeology, art history, history, literature, and language pedagogy. This workshop demonstrates how to lead site-visits to ancient monuments, both in situ and virtually.