Over the years I have encountered three women Latin teachers whom I really admire. They all love the Latin language and have done what they could within their small sphere in life to advance its study here in the postmodern world.
The first is the one I know the best (and she doesn't know I am writing this!). She is the lovely lady mentioned in my first post on Latin in this series. She's taught three out of my five children Latin so far and she taught me, so that after years of frustrated effort I finally learned a little bit of Latin, enough to feel I had finally gotten some traction. Many local homeschooled children and some not-homeschooled children who needed tutoring after school hours have benefited from her gifts as a Latin teacher. She has a marvelous collection of Latin textbooks! She also wrote and self-published two lovely little helps for Catholics who want to learn Latin. Here's a link to her website, Understandinglatin. The store is temporarily closed but you could try emailing her, if you are interested.
The second lady I have only recently met via email. And I have hardly done that. But I listen to her a lot because I watch the videos she made for Aquinas Learning. She wrote her own curriculum based on Wheelock's Latin, which is a highly popular college text that is adapted frequently for high school. Her curriculum is pretty brilliant, I think. My daughter is in the intro level, Latina Ponti, and I am currently mentoring kids in the Studium Latinae, or Latin 1 level. She's got this website where she offers courses to homeschooling families.
The third lady was someone out of my past that I only recently re-encountered Way back in the 1970's when I was high school, there was a girl a couple years ahead of me named Maura O'Donnell. She had cystic fibrosis. All her siblings also went to my Catholic high school and, I think have all died of the same disease. This inspired my high school to start something called the Superdance. I danced in the Superdance to raise money for cystic fibrosis research. The Superdance is still going on, dedicated to Maura's and her siblings' memory. Maura died soon after she graduated. Years later, it was somehow brought my attention that Maura's mother, Maureen, had passed away (see obituary). It turns out that she was a very popular and beloved Latin teacher in the public school system here. I remember this fact was mentioned in her obituary. Well, fast forward many, many years later. I have finally gotten enough Latin under my belt that I was going to take something called the National Latin Exam. And lo and behold there is an award given out for the National Latin Exam named after Maureen O'Donnell. What a tragic life she had and yet she was a wonderfully dedicated teacher who transmitted to her students a great love for the Latin language. Apparently, she was instrumental in restarting up the National Latin Exam after it had fallen apart. If you are nerdy enough to be interested in such things, here's a link that tells the history of the National Latin Exam.
I would like to say gratias tibi to each of these wonderful ladies.
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