Program Updates: Latin

By Alex Ung | February 14, 2023
The eighth grade is going to Rome in March! There are a lot of “firsts” connected with this trip. First (pun intended), we are traveling in early March rather than in February. This will be the first trip to Rome for the school in three years, and due to Carol’s logistical magic, we will be in Rome for a weekend, which means we will visit Nero’s Domus Aurea for the first time. The highlight of the trip will no doubt be the opportunity to see the soccer match between Juventus and Roma. Usually soccer on the trip consists of students and a few teachers kicking a ball around the Circus Maximus, so this is a Very Big Deal.

 

The eighth grade met at lunch two weeks ago to pick “their buildings”. Each eighth grade student picks a structure in Rome and does a slide presentation on it. To keep one section from having the advantage of picking first, all eighth graders met in the Latin room and picked a number out of a box. The person with the number “1” then got to pick their building before anyone else. This year there were some surprises—no one picked the Colosseum!—and two students teamed up to study St Peter’s Basilica. Three students pitched all of Vatican City for their project, so for the first time, three students will give a presentation about what’s in the Vatican besides St Peter’s. Presentations began this week, and so far we’ve heard about the Largo Argentina, the Circus Maximus, the eleven aqueducts that served Rome, the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Domus Aurea. Coming soon: the Palatine Hill, Trajan’s Column and Trajan’s Markets, the Area Pacis, and many other sites, most of which the students will visit in Rome. We haven’t had to peel the kids off the ceiling yet, but the excitement is definitely growing.