Introduction
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INTRODUCTION The aim of this study is to examine how the works of the Latin poet Virgil were taught in the schools of New South Wales, Australia, throughout the twentieth century, and beyond, despite the enormous social and educational changes over that period which challenged the survival of Latin as a subject in the school curriculum. To observe the teaching of Virgil’s poetry, in a time and place so removed from its origins, offers an opportunity to study the survival of an educational tradition of great antiquity, in a context never envisaged by students of Virgil in earlier centuries and seldom considered by scholars today. The teaching of Virgil in an Australian context has been overlooked in our own time, both by those writing on the reception of Virgil and by those investigating the place of Latin in modern education. A major work on the reception of Virgil in the twentieth century, Theodore Ziolkowski’s Virgil and the Moderns (Princeton 1993),1 illustrates the impact of Virgil on the twentieth century public with reference to the lavish celebrations held in many parts of the world in 1930 to mark two thousand years since the poet’s birth. He lists the outpouring of Virgil–centred publications and activities, including some by and for secondary school students, that took place in Italy, the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, France, Germany and South 1 described by Duncan Kennedy as “the point of departure for future studies of Virgil’s impact on the literature of the twentieth century” in his essay “Modern receptions and their interpretative implications”, The Cambridge Companion to Virgil, ed. C. Martindale, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 55. 1 Africa in that year.2 He makes no mention of Australia, although in fact a grand commemoration was held on October 15, 1930, at the University of Sydney, at which a presentation was made, by the Italian Consul-General on behalf of Mussolini, of a complete set of all publications issued in Italy for the occasion, including a facsimile reproduction of the Medicean Codex 39-1 of the Laurenziana of Florence.3 At this function the Professor of Latin and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney, F.A. Todd, gave an oration on the life and works of Virgil and his relevance to the contemporary world. In response, the Consul-General for Italy, Commendatore A. Grossardi, made reference to the exceptional context of this commemoration of Virgil: I, as an Italian and the representative of a great Latin country, feel moved to express my special gratification, both personally and on behalf of the Italian Government, for this great commemoration, in this distant land. 4 Not only is there no mention by Ziolkowski of this or any other Australian commemoration of Virgil’s bimillennium, but he also ignores Australia in the remainder of his book, in which he explores the influence of Virgil on the literature of “the Continent” (Europe), Britain, and “the New World” (America) in three separate chapters. Such influences arose, as might be expected, from the educational experiences of writers in those parts of the world in which Virgil featured significantly in the school curriculum. In studies of the teaching of Latin and its place in the school curriculum, Australia has been similarly neglected. In a recent work, Françoise Waquet has collected a wide range 2 T. Ziolkowski, Virgil and the Moderns, 1993, pp. 17-26. 3 The Celebration of the Two-Thousandth Anniversary of Virgil’s Birth, a booklet produced to commemorate the function held by the University of Sydney in conjunction with The Societa Nazionale Dante Alighieri, The Classical, The Australian English, and The Modern Language Associations of New South Wales, 15th October, 1930. The booklet of 48 pages contains the texts of the speeches and of six articles on Virgil published in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1930. 4 Celebration booklet, p. 27. 2 of material to illustrate the dominant role of Latin in Western civilization for the last four hundred years,5 and its decline, especially in education, in more recent times. She cites evidence from several European countries and from the United States to document “the disappearance of Latin which . occurred everywhere in the Western world during the 1960s”.6 Despite such all-encompassing remarks, there is no mention of Australia in this book at all. The teaching of Virgil, therefore, as a regular component of Latin within the school curriculum in an Australian context, is a subject yet to be documented and discussed. The present study deals specifically with the school system of the State of New South Wales. Despite some recent moves to establish a national curriculum, the structure and content of school education in Australia have been and are still managed autonomously by the six State governments. By the end of the twentieth century, only New South Wales and Victoria had significant numbers of students completing a Latin course to matriculation level.7 In New South Wales, because of the foundation of several academic government high schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Latin had an established place in the state school system which has survived to some extent until the present day. In New South Wales, then, Virgil was being taught to senior Latin students in both government and non-government schools throughout the twentieth century. 5 Latin or the Empire of a Sign, published in French in 1998, Albin Michel, Paris, and in an English translation by John Howe, Verso, London and New York, 2001. 6 F. Waquet, Latin or the Empire of a Sign, p. 272. 7 Final examination Latin candidates in the year 2000: NSW: 209; Victoria: 133;Queensland: 18; South Australia (including Northern Territory): 16; Western Australia: 0. Tasmania: 9. These statistics are readily available on the websites of the examining authorities in each State. www.boardofstudies.nsw.com.au; www.vcaa.vic.edu.au; www.qsa.qld.edu.au; www.ssabsa.edu.au; www.curriculum.wa.edu.au; www.tassab.tased.edu.au. 3 Chapter One supplies a necessary context for the discussion of the teaching of Virgil by providing a historical survey of the changes in the position of Latin in the school curriculum in New South Wales. Little work has been done in this specific area, although general historical research into education in New South Wales, done notably by Alan Barcan, has proved invaluable as background. Two Master of Education theses on Latin teaching in the 1960s gave insights into the state of affairs shortly before the great changes that took place in the 1970s. Statistical information was derived from University of Sydney and Department of Education archives, and, for the second half of the twentieth century, from figures published on the Board of Studies website. As the resources for Latin teaching were almost all produced in Britain, reference is made to a number of studies done by British experts in Latin teaching, and to manuals produced in conjunction with courses developed in the 1970s. Chapter One also includes some personal experiences, as the present writer took an active part in the efforts of Latin teachers in New South Wales to modernize and preserve the subject and adapt it to the changed educational scene of the 1970s and thereafter. These efforts are documented in the records of the Classical Languages Teachers Association Inc. and the associations which preceded its formation in 1975.8 Chapter Two investigates the treatment of Virgil as the most commonly prescribed author for the final school Latin examination throughout the twentieth century. It is reasonable to assume that the demands of such examinations were a strong, perhaps even a dominating, influence over the approach taken by teachers. For this reason, Chapter Two 8 The Catholic Teachers Latin Association, also known as the Catholic Latin Teachers’ Association, was formed in 1961. It became a general professional body in 1972, known as the Latin Teachers’ Association. 4 is the longest section of this study, offering a comprehensive documentation, analysis and evaluation of syllabuses, text prescriptions, examination questions and reports on performance, and all the officially recommended secondary material on Virgil. Data for this Chapter were collected from the many official documents issued by the administrative bodies responsible for public examinations and courses of study in New South Wales. For the first decade of the century, the archives of the University of Sydney yielded information on the prescription of Virgil for its public examinations. On the establishment of the first state curriculum and examination system for secondary schools (1911), the Department of Education took over the function previously performed by the University of Sydney, and held this responsibility until the creation, in 1990, of the New South Wales Board of Studies. Administrative changes within these bodies produced a confusing array of variously-titled documents, held in the archives of the Board of Studies, the Department of Education and Training, the State Library of New South Wales and the State Records. Some information was found also in the publications and archives of the Classical Association of New South Wales and the Classical Languages Teachers Association Inc. This archival material is dispersed in random fashion among the libraries and depositories of the organizations mentioned, some of it in the possession of private individuals, and so far there is no catalogue of material pertinent to the teaching of Latin. It is hoped that the data collected in this study on the teaching of Virgil will prove a useful guide to researchers wishing to explore this or other aspects of Latin in the school curriculum of New South Wales. As stated above, a comprehensive study has been made of all the material relevant to the teaching of Virgil which was issued officially by the various examining bodies.9 This material has been classified and listed 9 These documents cannot be identified as the work of individuals.