THE CHALLENGING OF TEACHING THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TODAY: THE «CHILDREN AT THE UNIVERSITY» PROJECT. PATHS TOWARD THE FUTURE AND PEDAGOGICAL ∗ MATTERS ROSANNA LAURIOLA University of Idaho (Moscow) and Marshall University (Huntington, WV - USA)
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[email protected] ∗ I would like to thank all children of Russell Elementary School, who participate in the project, their parents, and Ms. Gretchen Wissner who has played a fundamental role in the recruitment of the young students for this project. A sincere thank to the children: Caleb Aaron, Adison Butler, Kimana Cofre, Leah Davis, Sam Gomulkiewicz, Luke Gresback (= Luke Senior), Alli McIllroy, Athena Nolta, Hallie Paul, Emma Ramalingam, Luke Salbury (= Luke Junior), Maya Salbury. I am grateful to, and very proud of these children, for the enthusiasm with which they learned ancient myths and for their deep commitment to my class. If I may say so, ‘they were great!’. A thank goes also to two senior students of mine, majoring in Classics (Foy DeMoss and R. Whitney), who attend- ed this class to learn teaching strategies, and assisted me in managing the class (For other information about the class, see below n. 5). Last, but not least, I would like also to thank: Dr. Debbie Storrs (Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Art and Social Science of the University of Idaho) for her moral support, encouragement and sincere interest she has always shown for my initiatives; and David Tart (another student of mine, majoring in History) who took the time to come to speak to the children of some humanitarian activi- ties in which he is involved, when we were studying Herakles, the philanthropist hero.