Writing: What do Educators Want from You?

Why We Torment Students With Many Writing Assignments
Plus: How to Improve Scores Right Away

By Amy E. Barr, The Lukeion Project

“AARGH! I don’t know what I am supposed to DO for this writing assignment! Why do I have to WRITE stuff for this class?”

It is that time of the year when the first big writing assignments are due in many Lukeion Project classes. Depending on the class, students have been tasked with all sorts of writing tasks ranging from short research pieces to creative genre-specific assignments, to solid five-part exam essays, to close readings of literature with exacting analytical style and careful citation. 

Expect a bit of hair-pulling and griping. We instructors certainly do. 

In an ideal world, students will be tasked with a gradient of writing tasks throughout their education. Starting in middle school they should see short objective investigative projects with basics in good outlining, thesis development, five-part essays, and other fundamentals. Students would continue to improve their skill set to include robust research and analysis by the time they finish out their high school years. If things have progressed smoothly, college writing assignments gently integrate themselves into the upward trend of a student’s writing development. BLISS!

In the real world, there’s no “gentle integration.” New college students too frequently experience something a bit closer to a painful writing crisis and sudden familiarity with red ink and the college writing lab. The more normal "gradient of writing tasks" in high school looks like this: Based on early opportunities to write subjectively and creatively in high school, many students will have too early subtracted themselves from membership in the “good writers club," much the same way that others consider themselves good or bad at chemistry, computer languages, or art. We might universally want a modicum of chemistry, COBAL, and cinematography but, in the real world we will certainly require the ability to write. 

Over the course of middle through high school, students should conquer and practice various forms of writing proficiencies. Without a bit of structure, few are prepared to handle the tools of reason, logic, theory, and analysis, much less research, citation, style sheets, scholarly tone, outlining, argumentation, and persuasiveness. No wonder so many of us think we aren't good at writing! 

One’s first college lab report, case study statement, or market research project will have no rubric for “strong adjectives” or “nice nouns.” That special request email to your professor better be persuasive. That first English paper better not include clichés and slang. That first extended exam essay better be comprehensive and comprehensible. Students must become proficient writers in a relatively short time. Not all of us are called to be Twain or Tolstoy but most of us can become reasonably good at many types of writing. 

Writing is an essential life skill. Annoyingly, good educators know this. If they have your best interests at heart, they will keep requiring you to write more (and MORE!), to write differently, and to write better. 

Students: Here are three pointers to help you get the best possible results from your efforts here and now (or, in medias res, to use the poetic device).

1.  Writing has rules. Follow the ones that apply to your task. 

No matter what you are writing, that writing project has rules. Want your boss to take your seriously? Don’t use text abbreviations and slang when explaining why you are late to work again. Want to write an A-grade history paper? Don’t write like the narrator from Ancient Aliens with Wikipedia as your main source. Want to receive top marks on your AP essay? There are rules. If your instructor tells you to never use rhetorical questions or “X is defined by Webster’s Dictionary” in a scholarly introduction, don’t put her to the test and use these things anyway. 

You get the idea. Your personal journal, blog, vlog, texts, social media can all play by your rules. Everything else has rules: Find them, follow them closely, and practice them. If you your instructor merely said, “MLA format.” Welcome to writing at the college level! Those are the rules.

2.  Writing is a cumulative skill. You get better at it by doing more of it and by doing it longer. 

At The Lukeion Project we introduced a program called Skillful Scribbler for 8th-10th grade because we discovered that most of our students—at all levels--were poor at basics like developing a thesis, outlining, paragraph transitions, formal academic tone, basics of research, and five-part essays. In fact, most students had almost zero experience with these tasks even in 11th and 12th grade classes so we found all levels of students needing these basics. We also have College Composition and College Research Writing so students can develop important advanced writing skills by 11th or 12th grade as they work through AP classes and prepare for college writing. In the meantime, our literature, history, and upper level Latin classes task students with mastery of basic writing skills. 

Students who may never have described themselves as “good” at writing should be given every opportunity to develop satisfaction at becoming competent and then even proficient at writing through practice.    

3.   Writing takes time.  

This will come as a complete shock to many of you writers: Your educators can tell if you took time and effort to complete a writing assignment. Yes, LONG experience tells us if you sat down 52 minutes prior to the deadline to crash your way through the given task.  

The more writing experience you have, the better you can perform under tense time constraints. Gained experience learning how and what to write contributes beautifully to how well you do with only limited time. Not only do you improve your writing skills with more practice, but you also improve your ability to write well quickly. This is why in AP Latin, for example, I grade beginning essays more lightly than later essays: you should develop skill and speed. 

Every busy student can confirm that speedy writing skills are a bonus at college. While writing will always be improved with a bigger time investment—especially if you can get away from a project and come back later for final edits—writing gets better and faster with practice. No writing chore, task, or assignment is a waste of time. Getting good at writing AND fast at it, takes time. 

Three Myths about Learning Classical Mythology

Let's Talk Myth Congeniality

By Amy E. Barr, The Lukeion Project

Ah! Classical Mythology! I’ve offered a course on the subject for more than a decade. This is the first year I’ve taken a break. Students love to read vivid tales of heroes, monsters, and adventure. Parents love to see their kids learning more about vocabulary, history, and writing while they grow to love good literature. Soon students become thirsty to read more, explore ancient art, search for Classical themes in music, and maybe even go see a Greek tragedy or start their own Classically inspired writing projects. What’s not to like about a course in Classical Mythology? Yet, this tends to be a course with ridiculously small enrollment even though those that do join the class, love it. 

I have a theory. I think a few too many people believe a few of these myths about Classical mythology.

Myth #1: Classical mythology is childish and is best for young students.

Indulge your imagination with tales of Jason and the Argonauts as they outwit the serpent and steal the Golden Fleece. Construe your own heroic escapes from the Cyclops, Cerberus, and Charybdis. Cheer or boo the crafty Greeks as they outwit the Trojans with a wooden horse. Rick Riordan has a huge following of young fans who adore how he’s applied Classical mythology to the fictional lives of modern teenage heroes. These stories are a lot of fun, but can mythology bring more to the table for older students than fluffy entertainment?

Outside the sporadic head-sprouting Hydra, man-eating turtle, or deadly gorgon, the subject matter of Classical literature requires the maturity of a student who is well into the logic stage and is ready to express himself coherently as he reasons through the complexities of the story at hand. A younger student can memorize scads of mythological names, get a kick out of Odysseus outwitting the Cyclops, or cheer on Theseus fighting the Minotaur. Yet the younger student will likely misinterpret Achilles’ rage, fail to understand Hecuba’s desolation, misconstrue Clytemnestra’s revenge, and miss the mark on Oedipus’ hubris. Simply put, most Classical stories are PG-13. 

Older students love to wrestle with the complex dilemmas posed by myths in Classical literature. Did Penelope’s suitors deserve their fate based on the mores of the ancient guest-host relationship? Why did Theseus grow suddenly absent-minded as he abandoned Ariadne? Was Achilles justified in all that rage? Did Oedipus deserve his cruel fate? 

Save mythology for your high school learners who crave weighing in on life’s bigger questions. Your teenagers will love to debate the weightier questions of Classical mythology even while enjoying a few violent cyclops stories.

Myth #2: Classical Mythology isn’t an appropriate subject for persons of faith.

One time I was in my booth at a homeschool conference when one very angry woman stormed up to me and asked if I taught Classical mythology. I’d never had anyone angry at me for this sort of thing but when I said yes, she glared and snorted, “I can’t believe people still believe in the Olympian gods.” 

She spun and left in a huff.

She must think the strangest things about historians, science fiction writers, literature teachers, and artists of all types.

Despite some admittedly problematic decisions by those Olympians, many notable scholars and authors of faith have been experts in Classical literature. A quote credited to C. S. Lewis sums things up nicely, "I believe Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." Lessons of courage, hospitality and loyalty can inform and instruct as well as tales of greed, pride, and cowardice. The vast range of Classical literature has inspired authors from Augustine to Shakespeare, from Twain and Tolkien to our C. S. Lewis who himself who wrote poems, essays, and elegant epics with strong Classical underpinnings. 

Myth #3:  Classical mythology isn’t a good use of precious busy high school time

I saved this for last since it is one that many hardworking home educators fervently believe (because it’s the one I hear quite often). With an impossible schedule of duel enrollment and 3 AP classes, I find a lot of students skip the study of Classical literature because they think it isn’t particularly useful for serious-minded folks trying to get into a serious-minded college. Likewise, students who are not planning on the college path are expected to grind away on the same topics that have failed to inspire before so they can tick boxes and be done. 

“Mythology,” mom says, “won’t help you finish your math and science diploma requirements nor get you into college.”  

Mythology in Classical literature may be one of the most practical topics a high school student can study. Hear me out: Greek and Latin word roots and origins found in mythology will open wide the potential for English word power. Mastering Greek and Latin literature will pull back the velvet curtain on the currently maligned Western Civilization. Virtues like courage, hospitality, civic duty, and hard work are exemplified in these ancient tales. Concepts like liberty, responsibility, perseverance, and loyalty abound. Nearly every great literary work has been inspired by the Classical world in some way. Skipping Classical literature is like pulling half the blocks out of a building’s foundation. That building may not fall, but it will surely be rendered useless and flimsy during toughter times.

Once considered an essential part of an excellent education, mythology in Classical literature has now been consigned to the academic discard pile by public, private, and home educators alike. Shifting perceptions about education have pushed it out of the way out to make room for more math and science. 

Ignorance about Classical literature will narrow one’s perspective and can make the mind’s terrain a tad barren. Encourage your high school student to take on the intellectual challenge of a good Greek tragedy, a finely worded epic, or even a suspiciously funny retelling by Ovid.  You never know where his interests might lead him; maybe he’ll be this generation’s Aristotle, Shakespeare, Tolkien, or C. S. Lewis.

Lukeion Students: Mythology took a short vacation during the 2020-2021 academic year at The Lukeion Project. Look for the new version to roll out for the 2021-2022 academic year under the genius tutelage of Dr. Fisher, Muse. 

Five Myths About Learning Latin

Let's Clear Some Things Up

by Amy E. Barr, The Lukeion Project

What’s so great about a dead language that one might want to dedicate so much precious time and resources to master it? What awesome things can Latin do that causes some parents to start Latin at home as soon as their toddlers can hold a flashcard? Let’s look at a few popular myths about learning Latin to help you can decide if Latin really pays off in the long run or if, for goodness sake, you’ve already missed your opportunity if you didn’t start learning Latin while I elementary school.

Myth #1: A person must start Latin young to be a success.  

If you want to keep college plans on your child’s horizon, her transcript must include a minimum of two reasonably hearty years of the same foreign language at the high school level. 3 years looks even better to the admissions dean. A challenging 4^th year might win her college language credits by succeeding on the AP exam. Modern students can choose from Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Latin. Aside from the pleasures of academic success, most of us want our children to adeptly use and enjoy a foreign language but we fear the time has flown by too quickly. There is so much pressure to start new languages extremely early. Can a person start Latin late, in high school, and still be a success? Absolutely yes.

Parental guilt about early language instruction (or lack thereof) is common and often crippling. Such guilt is generally unwarranted. If your child wasn’t accurately conjugating his Latin verbs at age 6, please don’t despair. While there’s normally no harm in starting Latin early, the ideal time to start is closer to grades 8-12. Give him some strong background in English language mechanics and then let your 13-18-year-old invest his energies in Latin when his formal reasoning skills promote the best success. The ideal starting point is late middle school/early high school.   

Myth #2: Learning Latin is no different than studying any modern language.

Latin is mostly unspoken with some fun exceptions in class. While students must learn to properly pronounce and read Latin, most won’t invest much time making casual conversation. When a person learns a modern language, she’ll spend hours on proper pronunciation and comprehension clues in short, basic sentences. Accent mimicry and active listening nurture mental muscles from even a young age, but the ability to analyze Latin’s visual cues develops later. Older students have formal reasoning skills that younger children lack. Latin will unlock the secrets of language mechanics, but your child needs some mental maturity to make that happen. This rule applies to all languages. Even if your child began Spanish at age 6, in most cases she won’t be ready for any substantial grammar and sophisticated literature until her teen years. Unlike French, Spanish, or German, there is no real advantage to starting Latin early just to master proper accent.

Myth #3: Any type of Latin will do.

It is easy to feel intimidated by Latin if you have never studied it for yourself. It makes sense that some programs are specially designed for the unskilled home educator to teach without any background in Latin. As there are for modern languages, one can find textbooks, full curricula with piles of worksheets, computer-based programs, vlog-style video, or little interactive language apps. Light, fruity, and fun approaches can launch the Latin ship for some but how far will it sail?

Visualize language objectives as early as possible. If your goal is limited to writing 2 years of Latin on a high school transcript, your child must still invest appropriate time and effort for those credits. Many approaches offer little more than extended busy work. If you or your learner has a real interest in learning the language, words, or writing, select a more approach rather than anything that plods slowly through worksheets or constant review of basics. Pursue mastery instead of simple familiarity. It will take the same amount of time to LEARN Latin rather than just play with it, but the investment in effort will pay huge dividends as far as skills gained.

Another consideration is the type of Latin being taught to your student. Latin was a living language for over 2000 years. It went through many changes over time. Consider English. Even modest calculations suggest we use only 1/6^th of Shakespeare’s vocabulary. All languages simplify. Vocabulary shrinks and grammar gets easier. Many elementary instructor-friendly approaches rely on Late Latin for this reason: it is very, very easy. Don’t be surprised if several years of rudimentary elementary Latin count for very little while your student must start over from the beginning for high school credit. Latin programs are seldom one size fits all. Elementary Latin offers the bare basics and a little vocabulary to make a student familiar with the basics rather than well skilled.

Myth #4: Latin is best reserved for above-average students.

Is Latin is more academically challenging than other languages? Latin, like biology, algebra, and history, always has its challenges. All these subjects require determination and effort. Students who take high school Latin tend to pursue more academically challenging fields in college. Students who take Latin in college tend to move to the top of their chosen field after graduation. Students who excel at Latin in college often go to graduate school. Some get the connection backward. Latin doesn’t naturally attract academically ambitious people, it creates them. Latin, like math and music, trains the brain to be more analytical, observant, focused, and logical. Latin is not best reserved for above-average students. On the contrary! Latin makes a student above average.

Myth #5: Latin is not practical.

The same scene repeats itself often. I ask the boy if he is interested in learning Latin. The 14-year-old shrugs and says Spanish is more practical. He doesn’t seem convinced, so I ask, “Oh? What do you plan to study?” I notice he is fairly interested in the Latin text as he recognizes many of the words. He admits he doesn’t know what he plans to do or study. All he knows is that he’ll encounter Spanish speakers more often than people who speak Latin. Is Latin really impractical?

Colleges require students to study a second language for a variety of, particularly good reasons. Americans have a horrible track record of failing to master other languages. This failure to be more global is far from the primary consideration. Learning another language does several important things to us and for us. The side effects of learning a language are just as important as the language itself.

Language study requires discipline.  Even a brilliant student will struggle a bit to rewire the language centers in his brain. Regular practice is the only way to succeed and so language learning requires determination. Most of us already succeeded at mastering a first language in our infancy, but we had to struggle with it daily (even though we don’t remember). Picking up a second language is comparatively easy though we’ve gotten out of practice. Mastering a language also requires analytical alertness. One must observe, understand, and employ the rules again and again until they become an effortless habit. Discipline, determination, and analysis are all ideal characteristics for a successful person in any field, career, ambition, or endeavor.

There’s intrinsic value in learning any language but is Latin as practical if not more so than most? Think of Latin as the source code, the foundation, or the blueprint for all languages. If it doesn’t directly contribute to the grammar and vocabulary of the language (such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and a sizable proportion of English) then it is one of the best language models available. It offers everything we need to decode languages of every kind from Indo-European, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, or Swahili. If one is only going to learn one other language in a lifetime, Latin is an excellent choice. If one plans to master many more, Latin will make that process 50% easier.

Latin is foundational to mastering any other language including English. It also goes without saying that Latin is essential in the sciences, medicine, and legal profession. Finally, a serious study of Latin helps builds the skills necessary to tackle anything with determination, discipline, and logic. Latin is the most practical subject one could hope to master. 

Above All, Don’t Quash the Squash

Sundry Garden Metaphors for Educating your Own

By Amy E. Barr, Latin guru at The Lukeion Project

Pardon all the garden talk lately. It is that time of year. I moved to the middle of nowhere so I could have a big garden, chickens, fruit trees, and fewer neighbors. Before I took up the responsibilities of owning a bit of land, I fancied myself as clever about growing things. I was wrong. My horticultural efforts are only impressive to the most amateur neophytes and those that see my carefully edited photographs on Insta. Painful comparison of my efforts to successful growers comes weekly when I visit the nearby Amish community. Their lovely produce is a nice supplement to my inability to grow enough potatoes and cucumbers in any given year. I confess I did manage to produce some fine cabbages and squash this year for once. I’ve been growing things and gardening since I was a kid, but I still have a lot to learn.

If I were to give up my day job teaching Latin, it would be fun to teach gardening lessons. My first bits of advice would be: prune often, coddle seldom, and thin regularly. Since my day job is teaching young people, my advice can be a bit similar so hang in there, we are about to talk veggies.

Prune Often

Tomatoes, roses, peach trees, and most people, do best with regular pruning. When it comes to people, think of pruning in terms of well-calculated challenges. Twelve long years of bland or overly simplified education results in adults who seldom bloom. If a tomato just sprawls on the ground, it will continue to leaf, but it will not produce much fruit. Challenging a plant with a good pruning along with a bit of support and feeding, followed by several more pruning sessions is a good tactic in education. Support and nourish? Yes. Challenge and rectify? Also, a big yes. Growth, blooms, and fruit are stimulated when students encounter challenging subjects, endure a set back or two, and then learn to grow past failures and challenges while they meet new ones.

I once met a gifted student who was terrified by the thought of even the smallest academic failure. His terror was so severe that he had to be cajoled into completing every single assignment given to him. Hoping to mitigate his academic anxiety, his mother made it far worse by constantly trying to “help” him avoid those very academic challenges. She begged for extensions, she pled for special grading, she demanded a unique schedule, even though this student performed quite well whenever he decided to do so. This student had been fed and supported, but never pruned much.      

Coddle Seldom

This year I grew a bed of giant sunflowers. I love their cheerful yellow but admire their ambitions to grow to 10 or 12 feet before sustaining the weight of massive seed-filled blooms. Winds, thunderstorms, squirrels, and a few chomps from our old goat Otis (living next door) did not knock them down. They went from sprouts to towering giants in a few months. They grew strong because they were not shielded from sun, wind, and rain. They were given appropriate challenges along maturation so that I never had to prop them up artificially.

Students can grow the same way. Education shouldn’t be something done TO or FOR a child, with minimal expectations of the child’s engagement in his or her own education…yet it often is.  There’s no magic grade level in which a student can start working on challenging or exciting subjects after clocking enough hours in boring worksheets, primers, and prerequisites…yet we often think there is.  Likewise, too powerful a challenge at too young an age can stunt grown.

Learners are like young plants. The wind must blow, and the rain must fall from the start so that a student responds appropriately and grows strong enough to sustain harder challenges. Greenhouse veggies are tender, but they need hardening-off before you can plop them in the garden. Don’t keep your learner in the greenhouse for twelve years. Let them enjoy some sun and rain now.    

I once spoke with a person who bought an exotic specimen tree for her front yard. Since the tree was still small but represented a sizable investment for her landscape, she strapped a strong pole to the little trunk to make sure it grew straight and tall. After the tree had grown for two years, she decided it was mature enough to remove the support pole. She was horrified to find her little tree snapped in half after a rainstorm a week later. Strapped to external support, the coddled tree had not encountered any real challenges as it grew. It appeared to have been maturing, but appearances were deceptive.

Thin Regularly

Carrots are difficult vegetables. They don’t like to germinate and, when they do, they take their sweet time about it. Carrot experts always plant way more seeds than necessary if they plan to get a normal harvest. If one is patient enough to grow carrots, one is also aware of the need to thin those hard-won sprouts before they crowd each other and fail to grow. Thinning carrots is a tedious, but necessary task for everyone planning on a good harvest. What can carrots tell us about education?

Thin your child’s schedule regularly so he or she won’t get crowded out. Thin intelligently and in the best interest of your learner rather in the best interest of somebody else. Lots of upper level high school students forgo classes that interest them so they can pile on prestigious classes that might look good on a transcript. Sure, an ambitious student should add an AP class or two, but only if the subject is engaging to the student. I teach an AP Latin class. About three-quarters of my students love the subject. It gives them great satisfaction to succeed at that level of Latin so the AP credit is a nice bonus. About one-quarter of my AP students are there because they hope it will look good on a transcript. They are not terribly excited about the material, but they will spend a lot of energy on it anyway. They are likely taking a variety of other AP classes and they are stressed to the max. Instead of easing into their best transitional year, they are tired and a little bitter. Crowded schedules keep people from healthy growth, regardless of their age. Thin the timetable a bit if you want to see improved development.  

Don’t quash the squash

This time of the year my garden is consumed by a few sprawling winter squash plants. As the main growing season comes to an end, I don’t mind if my pumpkin vines start to crawl over the asparagus or shoot up the tomato trellis. There’s an especially sturdy offshoot headed into my cowpea patch right now. I try to keep the roots watered, fed, and relatively bug-free while vines head in all directions. If a vine is relatively healthy, I let it head off on its own unchecked. In a few weeks, I’ll look for the fruit (hopefully some butternut squash, some pumpkins, and maybe a large summer squash that went unnoticed too long under the vines). Some of the biggest and best fruit comes from healthy vines that were allowed to grow in a direction of their own choosing.