DGL is dedicated to raising the ceiling of academic possibility for Detroit students, by returning the study of ancient Greek and Latin to the Detroit Public Schools.

Every student deserves access to a classical education in accord with the highest standards: one anchored in ancient Greek language and literature, beginning with Homer, and continuing on through Thucydides, Socrates, Euripides, and the Gospels.

Every bright-eyed elementary student deserves to experience the thrill of SINGING lines of the Iliad and Odyssey in the original metered, musical Greek; and to experience—by drawing, by play-acting, and by listening—the myths and heroes of antiquity.


CLICK HERE TO LISTEN:
Eight-year old Rhapsode

Every beginning student of Latin—whatever the limitations of the Latin program at their own school— should have a clear path to a top score on the AP (Advanced Placement™) exam in both Latin and Greek: the only proper limit to individual academic progress should be the student's own degree of effort.

Every high school graduate should know how to think about ancient artifacts, societies, peoples, and literature; and to have access to the bounty of eloquence and the expanded powers of self-expression that attend a sustained encounter with Greek and Latin literature in the original.

Every thoughtful adult can profit from exposure to the wisdom, mythology, and heroism of antiquity. Through adult education courses, DGL works to expand public awareness of ancient tradition.

In consultation with administrators, principals, and teachers, DGL is dedicated to improving the overall depth and rigor of language arts and social studies (and even STEM) learning and instruction, by connecting all these fields with their first beginnings in Greco-Roman antiquity—All having begun "Alpha, Beta, Gamma . . ."

 

 

 

In curtest terms, DGL curriculum boils down to this: Homeric Greek first, then Latin, then the world!
—Prelude to Latin

DGL curriculum starts with the Greek alphabet, the exotic allure of which automatically beckons to children so inclined. (Even for an adult, a glance into a Greek text is experienced as a glimpse into another world. Not so Latin—which simply looks like English gone awry.) The exoticism of the alphabet is immediately confirmed by leaping into the SOUND and myths of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, and continues on to the winding tales of the first historian, Herodotus. From Troy, to Ithaca, to Marathon, to Thermopylae and Salamis: It is impossible to imagine a more effective prelude to the study of Latin, English literature, or world history.

For just as a deep enjoyment of Virgil's Aeneid presupposes familiarity with the poetry of Homer, so too is the prose rhetoric of Julius Caesar fully decipherable only through its Greek antecedents. Likewise, just as a deep enjoyment of Milton's Paradise Lost presupposes familiarity with the poetics of Virgil, so too is the prose of Jefferson, of Arnold, or of Orwell fully comprehensible only through the Greek and Latin models they themselves internalized from their earliest school-boy days.

Add Euclid's Elements, Plato's Meno, and Frontinus' On the Aqueducts of Rome and one stands squarely in the world of STEM exploring geometry, logic, engineering, and architecture in the remains of antiquity. Even closer to earth (and the Promised Land of a sure and steady paycheck!) the future writer of computer code could find no more useful background than a basic knowledge of Greek, Latin, or the Sanskrit alphabet.


Efficacy of Latin Studies in the Information Age (Alice K. DeVane: 1997) reviews evidence for Greek and Latin study as a means of improving English skills, facilitating the learning of another foreign language, and improving critical thinking skills, as well as increased SAT and ACT scores.
Gifted Dropouts (Hanson & Toso: 2007) asks "Why do intelligent students drop out of high school?" and discovers that a majority who considered doing so "wanted their teachers to plan more exciting and challenging tasks."
Prelude to Latin and Greek the DGL Way provide more detailed accounts of the DGL curriculum.
The tight fit of DGL curriculum with the Teaching Standards for Classical Language Learning is demonstrated in DGLEF Proposal for DPS and DGL and the Five C's.

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