Abstract
My introduction to Latin came at the hands of my prep school headmaster, now a little over 20 years ago. An unyielding authoritarian of the old school, he had by then owned and run his institution for 49 years as the unquestioned ruler of an educational empire. In spite of the Spartan conditions – ‘We've never gone in very much for “facilities” here,’ he once observed – and wildly eccentric characters, the school turned out scholars (and future classicists) at an impressive rate.
Highlights
Thanks to his tutelage and that of his successor, we were afforded the privilege of a rock solid foundation in Latin grammar, a gift for which I shall always remain profoundly grateful
I began collating them into a two-part primer which I intended to set at 13+ scholarship level, while including all materials required for Common Entrance and GCSE examinations and most of those needed at the old AS level examination
The name Variatio arose from the breadth of formats I attempted to include in the exercises: sentences, Latin to English and vice versa; unseens and proses; comprehensions; derivations and
Summary
My introduction to Latin came at the hands of my prep school headmaster, a little over 20 years ago. I was mindful too of my parents’ verdict on their experiences of learning Latin Working their way through a modern course in the late 1970s, they both initially felt very confident in their command of the subject. I never cease to be amazed at my Year 5 pupils who each September, embarking on Latin for the first time, derive simple joy from mastering amo and translating elementary verbs – just as I did two decades ago. Any teacher worth their salt seeks to enliven the proceedings, but often the purest enjoyment of the language is to be found in its gradual mastery. I created Variatio in the hope that I might aid in that noble endeavour and continue the work of those without whom I would never have been inspired in the pursuit of my own classical career
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