Accademia Vivarium Novum - Latin Summer School in Rome

My name is Fernando de Morais,a.k.a Ferdinandus, and I too attended the Summer School program at Vivarium Novum this year. I’d like to briefly summarize my experience there by adressing some specific points raised by abitmiffed and Hesperian.

Abitmiffed said:

1. “the website boasts an attractive array of authors that one would read, it turned out to be predominantly a prose version of the Aeneid andsome slightly simplified Livy.”

R. That’s simply not true. We read original texts from thevery first week. Of course you wouldn’t know it, because you were not there by that time. But a lot of students just missed these texts because they consistently skipped the classes in which we would have them read and explained.

2. “Most peoplemade a valiant attempt at speaking Latin permanently”,

R. Exactly. And some did not. Guess who benefited from the course.

3. “but there was not nearly enough intervention for this to bea worthwhile exercise, and there was no particular assistance in expressingmodern concepts, which just made everything deeply impractical”

R. As for me, I had every help I asked for in expressing whatever concept I wanted, from day-to-day objects and activities to some more complex Ideas. One of the tutors and I, for instance, used to exercise by translating modern songs into Latin. So I don’t understand what you mean by “no assistance”. All you had to do to get some assistance was to ask for it.

If you meant, though, that having talked more Latin in class would have helped us, then I would totally agree. But bear in mind that our classes already had a lot of conversation implied, e. g. when teachers would pose questions to us and anyone willing to do so could answer. They used to do this all the time while reading the texts. Unfortunately some students would never try answering those questions and just kept silent during the entire class.

4. “When I declared my resolve toleave and explained some of my reasons, one of the most solid things that Icould point to was that there was no water in the swimming pool, something thathad been explicitly promised.”

R. Quite the contrary, I believe the lack of water in the swimming pool is one of the most liquid points of yours. You are absolutely right,of course. The swimming pool was dry as a desert. But it is quite telling that most solid (let’s say it is, since the water was lacking) and only undisputable point you made has nothing to do with teaching or anything relevant for the matter.

5. “I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that theprincipal of the Accademia is ideologically opposed to fun”

R. Really? Ok, so just to prove how seriously I take this assertion I will examine it on the light of what Hesperian has to say. Wait a little bit, please.

Hesperian said:

1. “It is really a program intended for Italian high school students”.

R. I am neither Italian nor highschooler and I pretty much enjoyed the program.

2. “If you read the founders book on Latin pedagogy you will find that it has really little to do with pedagogy as such and a whole lot about how to keep bored, disinterested teenagers entertained”

R. I am sorry, Hesperian, but this cannot be. Entertaining teens would dangerously lead to some kind of fun, and the principal of the Accademia, as we learned from our friend above, is ideologically opposed to fun.

So, since you and abitmiffed cannot both be right on this, I would invite you guys to consider the possibility of you being both wrong. It is clear to me that you analyze this – either the principal’s ideology or the school’s pedagogy – under a rather subjective, distorted perspective. Your complaints may look sound and fair to you because they somehow express your frustration,but they simply cannot correspond to same object, or any object at all.

3. “Basically all the Accademia's method boils down to is reading the textaloud in class, acting out the reading as a comic skit, and evening sing-alongsessions”.

R. You obviously have not been able to realize how much thought and preparation are put even in the most modest procedure you so contemptuously described.

4.“They make even the most inappropriate historical episodes into comic skits, including the Rape of Lucretia which they insisted on actingout using their beloved "full body response" method. Needless to say,this resulted in one of the most inappropriate moments I have ever witnessedinside a classroom-- or really anywhere.”

R. Well, I was there too, and I saw nothing inappropriate about it. We had two men performing the scene in which Tarquinius enters Lucretia’s bedroom and, showing his sword, tells her to shut up. And that wasall. The rest was of course not performed but read from the textbook. The funny moment was provided by a bearded guy trying to look convincing as beatiful Lucretia.But the funniest scene I saw much later, during dinner, whena guy who had not even attended class that day wouldn’t stop complaining about how inappropriate and misogynist the scene was.

5. “And as abitmiffed more or less pointed out, they do not actually teachyou to speak Latin, they just tell you to speak Latin when you arrive and thenleave your to your own resources”.

R. Nine and a half hours of classes every day (or just sixand a half for those not attending greek and teaching classes), plus tutoring sessions, exercises, extra night classes and even private classes for anyone requiring it are really nothing?

6. “ the founder does have bold ambitions of living in a Renaissancepalazzo in Frascati where he will run his school (...)That sort of ambition isexpensive and that money has to come from somewhere--- it could be you!”

R. This is just a vacuous, malicious comment.

7. “They are also extraordinary arrogant people”.

R. And all those arrogant people, the founder included, would serve the tables for lunch and dinner every day, while the students would humbly sit and be served, as it seems, in deep humiliation.

8. “Truly terrible food and rooms too”

R. The food is not very varied but is good, well-prepared and delicious. As about the rooms, the only serious issue is that most of them get really, really hot during summer. The reason is rather obvious. The school tried its best to minimize the discomfort (e.g providing fans), but the summer proved to be invincible.

Of course Hesperian would never consider the possibility that the founder’s ambition of moving to Villa Falconieri may have actually nothing to do with living as a Renaissance prince but with providing better facilities to students.

My name is Fernando de Morais,a.k.a Ferdinandus, and I too attended the Summer School program at Vivarium Novum this year. I’d like to briefly summarize my experience there by adressing some specific points raised by abitmiffed and Hesperian.

Fernando is not the founder of the place in disguise. He is a teacher in Brazil. Fernando, Mark, Noah, Thedore, Ignacio and I were in the same class.

Fernando is not the founder of the place in disguise. He is a teacher in Brazil. Fernando, Mark, Noah, Thedore, Ignacio and I were in the same class. Ignacio is a painter in Spain and not in any formal higher education at the moment; while Noah and Theodore, both from the U.S.A, are undergraduate students at Harvard. Mark is PhD student at UCL who is originally from Brazil, while I am a PhD student at Oxford, originally from India. As you can see, we all come from different age groups, and no one who has replied is Italian. I do not think we would not have take out so much time to answer these questions if we did not want to remove/clarify any misunderstanding. Maybe that is the reason we have created new accounts? We all tried our best to get along with each other while we were in the course and most of us, despite the demanding nature of the course, came away improving our language skills as well as making friends from all over the world. The teachers asked for critical feedback from the students on the last day and I wish the students had given their responses then. Every institution and every summer school always has room for improvement but perhaps it is better to give such suggestions constructively.

So all of you went on TSR, a British website for students?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Presumably one of them saw the negative comments about the school, responded and told the others about it and they responded as well.

Just as a general point - people are entitled to difference's in opinion, it may be that some people really didn't enjoy this summer school while others did. Everyone can put forward their viewpoint, and it's best if that's done in a manner which means they aren't questioned or harangued when trying to do so

To your first point: indeed.

Absolutely, no problem with people giving their opinions at all. It's all just a bit... odd.

Anyway I'll leave them to it...

Posted from TSR Mobile

I thought the same - but if you go on the Accademia's website, there are people in the photos with these names and descriptions who clearly attended the school.

To anyone interested in this summer school - it is definitely expensive, and I think from what I've discovered it is worthwhile only if you will throw yourself into their unique style of learning. There are other courses in the UK which cost a lot less and use different techniques that may be preferable. Just make sure you look into everything before choosing