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So I just found out that the NJCL (young classicists; basically the kids I& #39;ll teach in a couple of years) sponsors separate declamation contests for boys and girls????
The boys recite a bit from Ovid& #39;s AA (about grooming children for sex) and the girls? ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
The boys recite a bit from Ovid& #39;s AA (about grooming children for sex) and the girls? ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
The major organization for secondary Classics is telling high-school boys to memorize and recite a passage from the Ars Amatoria (a text I wouldn& #39;t teach to undergrads) about how "If you take them in first and still growing years, a real girl will come before your eyes."
But hey! Ovid is canon, at least: the AA requires a ton of context but Ovid& #39;s legitimately a titan of Latin literature. I can& #39;t imagine how it would feel to run a classroom where boys were given Ovid or Livy and girls got (shit you not) "Alicia in Terra Mirabili."
This smirking bullshit isn& #39;t how Classics is taught @CUBoulder or anywhere else I& #39;ve worked/studied. How many students see this crap and leave forever? How many majors do we lose because @NationalJCL can& #39;t be bothered to find Classical texts with women who aren& #39;t being groomed?
I promise, you can let young men and women read poetry in the same competition - it& #39;ll be FINE. And if it& #39;s so important to @NationalJCL that there be separate options for men and women speakers, SULPICIA! BOUDICCA! HEROIDES! Do, like, a *scintilla* of research.
And for boys: there are plenty of passages in Latin literature (hell, in Ovid) (double hell, in the Ars Amatoria) that don& #39;t glamorize child sex or talk about Roman men as leering sex pests *while endorsing said sex pesting.*
I want to teach students who were exposed to Latin (sometimes Greek!) and ancient Mediterranean culture, WITHOUT running a misogyny gauntlet in order to make it to my classroom. Work with me on this?
(source: https://www.njcl.org/NJCL-Convention/Convention-Contests/Creative-Arts-Contests)
Fin.">https://www.njcl.org/NJCL-Conv... Tip your food service professional.
(source: https://www.njcl.org/NJCL-Convention/Convention-Contests/Creative-Arts-Contests)
Fin.">https://www.njcl.org/NJCL-Conv... Tip your food service professional.
