Graduate Education in Classics: A Continuing Conversation....

Report of the Task Force on the Relationship between Graduate Education and the Undergraduate Curriculum

Section 3

M. Williams on J. May's idea of a more "intentional and structured course of study"

"I begin by assuming a five- or six-year program; maybe those who began Latin and Greek in elite prep schools could finish more quickly. Don't worry; I'm going to sketch out only the first two years (four semesters) here--not the entire program. But most students should begin with a program like the following: 
"YEAR ONE, first semester:
1. Latin Prose of the Republic (survey course), linked with
2. Latin  Prose Composition;
3. Early Greek Poetry (survey course on Homer and/or Hesiod);
4. Teaching Observation.


"YEAR ONE, second semester:
1. Fifth-Century Greek Prose (survey course), linked with
2. Greek Prose Composition;
3. Latin Republican Poetry;
4. Teaching Observation/Assisting (very closely supervised).

For some Random Commentary, click here. 

"YEAR TWO, first semester:
1. Silver Latin Prose (survey);
2. Fourth-Century Greek Literature (survey);
3. Greco-Roman Religious Literature (survey including LXX, GNT, Vulgate
   as well as pagan sources), linked to
4. Teaching Classical Mythology (combination of theory, pedagogy and
    content).


"YEAR TWO, second semester:
1. Latin author/genre course;
2. Greek author/genre course;
3. Latin Literature of the Later Principate (survey);
4. Course in ancillary disciplines (epigraphy, palaeography, etc.).

For some Random Commentary, click here. For a Heretical Idea, click here.