Oxford University proposes dropping twin classic texts Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid from Classics syllabus in bid to modernise and attract more state school pupils

UK Daily Mail ^ | February 20, 2020 | Kumail Jaffer and Bryony Jewell

[Verginius Rufus]

"Modernizing" by dropping the greatest work of Western literature, the Iliad?

[proxy_user]

Moving from Attic to Homeric took a little doing, for those who survived first-year Greek. We actually read the Odyssey rather than the Iliad in second-year Greek, since the vocabulary was somewhat easier. I did finish the Odyssey, but only read the first eight books of the Iliad.

Now Aeschylus and Pindar, that’s another story....

[Jewbacca]

“Modernizing the Classics is a bit of an oxymoron.”

+1

[MCF]

“ To be replaced with what?”
Marvel Comics

[GOPJ]

Maybe an Iliad And Odyssey comic book series would do...

[bert]

Good for you.

I was lying

[Red Badger]

LOL!.....I had that same thought a while back!

Today’s CGI Animation Superhero movies are just like the old mythology stories of ancient Greece and Rome! No real difference.

Homer = Marvel Comics

Virgil = DC Comics.......................

[paterfamilias]

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.

[livius]

Remembering it is all predicated on surviving it, and with the purges going on now and socialism on the horizon, I’m not sure our society is going to make it.

Maybe centuries hence this learning will be rediscovered, as has happened in the past, but it’s just stunning to see how quickly it’s being ripped away and trashed. (Along with everyone who supports it, a trend that will only increase under President Karl “Bernie” Marx and his rabid Red Guard followers.)

[Grampa Dave]

My sophomore year of the so called advanced class of 36 so called smart kids, read and studied the Iliad.

The instructor was the drama teacher coach. She made it interesting and got some of us to try out for school plays.

I can’t say that in spite of her, studying/reading the Iliad ever helped me in any way.

My mother was a reading teacher and basically told me to read it, get a good grade and move on.

My Dad like many men at that time had gone to school for 8 years and then went to work for the rest of his life. Most of his reading after that was what he wanted to read like:

He loved Zane Grey, Jack London and re read the Old Man and Sea time after time. He read the local newspaper which was a good one. He borrowed my granddad’s condensed Books to read.

He wore out 2 copies of the Old Man and Sea, and he was on his big print copy when he died.

My Mother in spite of being a reading teacher, said to find writers, you enjoy reading and try to read a new book or re
read one a month after college. She said to try new authors, however if they didn’t get you hooked in the first couple of chapters or 30-50 pages, move on to another book. There was nothing wrong with reading 2-3 books during the same time period, just vary the reading. I’m currently reading 3 books.

She followed that regimen until she died at 86. The last four years of her life, she lived in a good retirement with a good library. She became the librarian and got the other ladies to list the books they kept in their room and to loan them to people who wanted to read them. She donated her many books to that library. Once a month, she led a group of readers in their little bus to the local library to check out their books. She was a volunteer reader at libraries and schools for most of her retired life.

My wife, oldest son, and a granddaughter read dozens of books in a month or two. The 3 of them are speed readers with incredible recall. Now, that my wife is retired, she gets about 6 books a week to read at our local library. All 3 of them have electronic readers/kindles and they prefer reading from real books.

[TBP]

Yeah, let’s not teach kids the classics — they might not think “right.”

[paterfamilias]

I agree with you.

I have had a long talk with my son about the need to home school his kids: my wife and I stand ready to retire in order to make sure that it happens.

[frank ballenger]

Family reading....

Your brief story about reading was so interesting. The hidden backgrounds of so many FReepers go past us unknown but contain facets of the American Way of Life that we must hold onto.

Thanks for sharing that with us.

[frank ballenger]

I’m a millennial and my PUBLIC high school in a middle class community had Latin courses (that included selections from the Aeneid), western humanities courses, a special course that mixed American history with American music and art, etc. ....(courses now removed)....

I assume you were one of the last to have that valuable education available from what I hear. I'll try to remember you when I wrongly paint Millenials with a broad brush.

I studied Latin and French in public junior high and high school---but that was in the early to mid sixties. Should have studied Spanish but didn't know it then.