Bryan Carlson Attends Latin Course in Italy

Over the summer, Upper School Latin Teacher Bryan Carlson had the opportunity to attend a 10-day course in Italy hosted by The Vergilian Society. The course, Social Justice in the Latin Classroom, explored strategies for keeping the study of the classics relevant to a changing society and addressing emerging social issues within the classroom. Carlson was about to travel and take the course, thanks to approximately $10,000 worth of grants and scholarships. 

The Vergilian Society offered a tuition scholarship that covered a majority of the class, including room and board. He was also awarded the Society for Classical Studies Coffin Traveling Fellowship, which provided funds for the majority of his travel expenses. Additionally, the University of Florida Classics Department, where he is currently completing his doctoral dissertation in Latin Literature, provided a generous travel grant.

As a result of the x-day course, Carlson brought home many resources to his classroom covering the topics of both ancient works and modern scholarship.

“Some of the ideas were deliberate and part of the intentional course planning, but there were also numerous avenues for inquiry and opportunities to integrate these ideas into my course [Upper School Latin] that arose through the lively discussion of the participants of the course,” said Carlson. “It was great to hear all of the different ways that people were approaching these topics. The variety of geographical, ideological and economic composition of the schools provided a very interesting cross-section of the student population and the variety of approaches that we are using as teachers.”

One of the ideas he plans to implement is he will be using reading strategies for identifying authorial bias to allow students to be more critical consumers of anything from texts to podcasts.

Carlson also found other topics interesting, including text selection and how to manage curriculum and class discussions, which he’s excited to bring back to FWCD and share with his colleagues.

“The course delivered on my expectations,” Carlson said. “I do not think that there is anything that we did, whether I agreed fully or not, that will not have a lasting and meaningful impact on my teaching.”