Appearances Can Deceive: Review of Wheelock’s Latin

Beware: Appearances Can Deceive

Truly, appearances can deceive. Take Wheelock’s Latin, for example. A few years back I was serving on one of those committees that the state Department of Education sends out to do accreditation reports on local universities. My task was to evaluate the master’s degree program for prospective Latin teachers at one such institution. A professor there was lauding the virtues of a new textbook, and wielding Wheelock as a foil, citing it as an example of what his favored book was not. Speaking of his preferred text, he remarked, “It’s not like Wheelock. You know Wheelock, every chapter twelve pages long, with exactly twenty vocabulary words.  That’s deadly.”

Now, it’s true that Wheelock isn’t the most visually stimulating book on the market. And yet, while the good professor may have been overstating the case somewhat, it does tend toward a certain regularity of format from chapter to chapter. But, as the old saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Or, in this case, by its format. While Wheelock’s Latin may come across as a little, well, staid at first glance, it actually has a lot to offer the motivated Latin student.

Curb Appeal

But let’s start with the professor’s implied criticism. We’ll set aside for now the question of whether it’s a vice in a textbook to have chapters of regular length. The fact is, Wheelock is indeed lacking in what real estate agents call “curb appeal.”  There are no colored pictures. What pictures there are a black and white, and few and far between.  And small. There is also much less white space on the pages than is customary today.  A lot less. Wheelock packs its pages full of words, lots of words, an abundance of words.  Open to any page, and your first impression will most likely be masses of dense text.

I’m willing to concede that this first impression alone can fatally discourage younger or less motivated learners. I’ll go even further. If you look more closely at those masses of text, you’ll find much more information and much more linguistic explanation than those younger and less motivated students need. This is not the best book for them. As is the case with Jenney, I no longer use Wheelock’s Latin in introductory courses for high school students.

Fortunately, not all beginning Latin students are high school freshmen. As it happens, some of the same features that are so off-putting to those students are particularly valuable to more mature or more intellectually curious learners. For example, let’s take the 3rd conjugation. All a young beginner needs to know is that, unlike the 1st and 2nd conjugations, the 3rd does not use the same vowel with its present tense endings as it has in the infinitive. The infinitive ends in –ere, but the vowel in front of its present tense endings is -i- (and -u- in the 3rd person plural).

Generous Information

Wheelock, however, dispenses information much more generously when it introduces the 3rd conjugation in its 8th chapter. It explains that the 3rd conjugation does things somewhat differently than the other conjugations because it is the only conjugation with a short stem vowel. Next, it reminds us about the long –ā- in the 1st conjugation and the long –ē- in the 2nd. It gives up a heads-up that we’ll be encountering a long -ī- when we get to 4th conjugation in Caput X. Finally, it dwells briefly on the historical development of the 3rd conjugation.

That’s all before we see the paradigm of agō, agere illustrating the present system forms of the 3rd conjugation. There are several more paragraphs after the paradigm discussing the distinctive features of each tense of the present system. There is also a rather longer passage examining the rules for determining the present stem, and how they apply in the 3rd conjugation. This paragraph culminates in the observation that “The most practical procedure is to memorize the present tense paradigm, paying close attention to the altered stem vowel . . .”

Well, yes. And we don’t need the two pages of explanation to do that.

We’re Not All Distracted Adolescents

Now, there are a couple different things we can point out here.  First, your average fourteen year old who is still struggling to sort out the difference between nouns and verbs might do better to skip directly to that last point.  But suppose you’re not a distracted adolescent?  You might be saying to yourself, “That all sounds kind of interesting.”

And in fact, the abundance of information that is an obstacle to some students is actually an asset to others. If you’re looking for a thorough, informative, and linguistically rich introduction to Latin and don’t need color pictures and graphics that jump off the page at you, Wheelock’s Latin just might be the book for you.  

Remember, appearances can be deceptive. The good news is that Wheelock is surprisingly engaging once you get past that forbidding first impression. The explanations are long and detailed, but they’re not dry or dreary. The authors strive for a more personal feel. The (admittedly long) paragraph introducing the vocabulary for Caput VIII, for instance, begins with the observation that “Macrons can be mighty important . . .”

Vocabulary and More

Speaking of vocabulary, you will not really find a list of exactly twenty words in each chapter (not that there’s anything wrong with that). It’s true that there are about that many words in each chapter, some more and some less, but that’s true of most introductory textbooks. Wheelock’s vocabulary lists are unusual in the sheer amount of information they provide. Compare how Wheelock introduces the preposition ā, ab as opposed to Ecce Romani’s treatment. When a student first formally meets the word in the chapter 13 vocabulary list of the latter book, here’s what they see:

ā or ab, prep. + abl., from

And of course, that’s all you really need to know to navigate the first book in the Ecce Romani series. By the way, the entry in the glossary in the back of the book is exactly the same. Contrast that to the preposition’s formal introduction in Wheelock’s chapter 14:

ā (before consonants, like Eng. “a,” vs. “an”), ab (before vowels or consonants), prep. + abl., away from, from; by (personal agent); frequent in compounds (aberration, abject, abrasive, absolve, abstract, abundant, abuse)

The first entry gives the student just enough information to deal with ab in Ecce Romani’s first book, and no more. Wheelock explains the difference between the variant forms, as well as all the possible meanings of the word (including the fact that the translation “by” goes exclusively with the ablative of personal agent). On top of that, we find a list of common English derivatives as well.  We might prefer something like the Ecce Romani approach if we’re afraid of overwhelming our students. Wheelock‘s approach, however, equips more mature and more confident students to move beyond the confines of the introductory textbook.

Appearances Can Deceive Once More

The presentation of Grammar is traditional in that it is developed systematically (rather than imitating what putports to be a more organic presentation).  It is a well-organized and systematic development built on grammatical concepts. For example, Wheelock introduces 1st and 2nd Conjugation in Caput I (chapter 1), 1st declension in Caput II.  This is a reversal of the more usual pattern, but it’s close enough. After that, we meet second declension, then imperfect and future tenses of 1st & 2nd conjugation, and so on. You might notice here that, as we saw above, Wheelock tends to be rather information heavy.  Even most traditional grammar-based texts don’t introduce both 1st and 2nd declensions together in one of the first two chapters.

The thoroughness and orderliness of the grammar program alone might be enough to put off those who prefer a progression that looks more like the randomness of “real life.” But here again appearances can deceive. I explain my view of this approach more fully elsewhere.  Let me just make a couple of points here. It’s true that we learn most of what we know of our native language from the random occurrences of everyday life. That learning is so effective because it’s happening during every waking moment, every day, from birth to death.  There’s no way a class, or a book, can replicate that experience. Also, it’s simply not enough. Virtually every even partially literate society in human history thought it necessary to require students to undergo formal instruction in the workings of their native language.  We do it for English.  The Romans did it for Latin.  

Reflection of a Lively Culture and Philosophy

In any case, there are some tangible advantages to Wheelock’s approach. For example, unlike more recent reading-based texts which prefer to introduce only those forms students need at a given point, Wheelock presents entire paradigms at the first meeting. Most students find the forms easier to remember and understand if they can see them as part of a coherent, rational system. It’s also less work than having to rearrange your mental picture of how the forms fit together every time you meet a new one. The same is true of the entire systematic approach to grammar instruction.  Giving learners the “big picture” helps them feel more in control when they encounter new information.

At this point, I ought to make clear that Frederick Wheelock did not, in fact, set out to create another traditional grammar-based introduction to Latin. In their introduction to the 7th edition his daughters explain:

“Why would a vet, schooled on the battlefields of Europe and Asia, want to study Latin?” asked our father, then [i.e., in 1948] a professor of Latin at Brooklyn College. What could this language say to those who had already seen so much reality? How could a teacher make a “dead” language become alive, pertinent, and viable? How could one teach Latin, not as an extinct vehicle, but as the reflection of a lively culture and philosophy? This was the challenge our father undertook.

Frederick Wheelock set about to create a Latin text that would give students something to think about, a humanistic diet to nurture them both linguistically and philosophically. –Martha Wheelock and Deborah Wheelock Taylor

An Invitation to Engage

Frederick Wheelock, then, did, not see his book as some sort of technical manual. He saw it as an invitation to engage as human beings with our brothers and sisters from the past who expressed themselves through the Latin language. Giving students the opportunity to read the actual words of those writers as soon as possible was a key part of his program. He saw his book as a “reading-based” text decades before the Cambridge and Ecce Romani series.

There are, of course, significant differences. We’ve already seen that Wheelock offers much more explicit (and detailed) work with grammar than is customary in current reading-based texts. Also, the reading-based books put the readings at the beginning of each chapter to emphasize their primary importance. This also encourages students to begin processing grammatical concepts inductively before they are made explicit. The Oxford Latin Course even goes so far as to put grammar lessons in separate sub-chapters at the end of the book.  Wheelock follows the more traditional practice of leading with the new grammar and vocabulary. After that, students are invited to work out the new material in Latin sentences.

Nothing Like the Real Thing

Notice I said “sentences.”  Here’s another important difference.  In her writing workshop Steering the Craft author Ursula LeGuin says, “In a narrative, the chief duty of a sentence is to lead to the next sentence.”  The reading-based books follow a similar philosophy. Each chapter boasts long passages of connected prose.  In most of these programs the individual readings are at least loosely fitted into a narrative or story that encompasses the entire book, or even the series.  Wheelock does have a brief reading passage in each chapter (sometimes several), but most of the reading, at least in the forty instructional chapters, is in the form of unrelated individual sentences.

Now, I tend to think LeGuin (and the reading-based books) makes a good point.  Long, coherent passages do give learners experience with reading Latin as really reading.  My main criticism of these texts  is that their content does not, for the most part, derive directly from actual Latin literary works.  Granted, many of these readings do expose the students to relevant historical and cultural background, and familiarize them with important literary sources such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid.

Nonetheless, I’d rather have them reading even heavily adapted versions of the real thing. A few years ago, I began a new teaching job. My new students had been using one of the more prominent reading series, so I picked up where they left off.  One day a couple of weeks into the school year I found myself slogging through yet another lengthy, pointless story made up by modern editors in which a made-up master was yelling, once more, at his made-up slave. It suddenly occurred to me: If this looks pointless to me, how does it look to my students? I immediately switched to a different textbook.

Focus on Actual Authors

Wheelock compensates for a shortage of longer readings by focusing intensively on actual authors. In most chapters, the readings following this pattern.  First, there is a series of ten to fifteen sentences called Exercitationes. These are mostly Latin to English, with a few English to Latin. They are designed to familiarize students with the new material in the chapter.  Next are the Sententia Antiqua. These are either adapted from the writing of Latin authors or reproduced verbatim.  Each sentence is followed by the name of the author, with an asterix in the case of unadapted sentences.  A brief reading passage follows, which is also drawn from an authentic Latin literary source. In later chapters, there are often two or even three separate readings here.

There are more readings, by the way, in the back of the book.  There are a dozen pages of Loci Antiqui.  These are slightly modified, relatively short passages from Latin authors. After that you’ll find another fifty pages of Loci Immutati. These excerpts are not adapted. Both sections are equipped with copious notes to help less experienced readers.  I have often used selections from Loci Immutati (especially the fables of Phaedrus) in my 3rd year Latin classes.

Other Features

Finally, Wheelock has a few other interesting features as well. At the back of each chapter there is a section called Scripta in Parietibus, literally, “Written on the Walls.”  This section features a drawn or photographic reproduction of ancient graffiti with an explanation of where it comes from and what it means.

The final item in each chapter is a brief section called Latina est Gaudium – et Utilis! (“Latin is a Joy – and Useful!”). Here we find a discussion of some of the modern English connections for a few of the chapter’s vocabulary words.  Yet again, the language here is not stuffy, but breezy and conversational. For example, at the end of Caput XI we see:

Salvete, discipulae atque discipuli! Quid novi? Well, how about some more well-known Latin phrases and mottoes related to the verba nova in this chapter’s Vocabula? First, for you Godfather fans, there’s Italian cosa nostra, from causa nostra . . .

You get the idea. Yet again we see that, once we get past the imposing first impression of densely packed text, we do find the content to be interesting and engaging.

Appearances Can Be Deceiving, but How Deceiving?

So, what does it all add up to? As was the case with Jenney’s First Year Latin, it all depends on the student. Younger and less committed students might find it overwhelming.  For that reason, as explained, I don’t use Wheelock as an introductory text for high school students. I have done so in the past, as has one of my sons. We both came to the conclusion that these learners would get more benefit from a different textbook series. Wheelock can be an excellent introduction to Latin, however, for older and more motivated students, including many home-schooled students. These learners, as well as DIY students, will also benefit from one more feature which I have not yet discussed. The book includes a well-designed set of Self-Tutorial exercises for each chapter in the back. It also provides a key for students to check their work.

The Rating

Bearing in mind that appearances can deceive, I can confidently recommend Wheelock’s Latin for motivated learners, especially those with a lively curiosity about language and its history. It’s reliance on wordy, in depth (although very interesting) explanations make it less suitable for less committed students. Accordingly, I give two different star ratings below.

Rating based on the five points I outline in my earlier post, “Latin Textbook Reviews: How to Choose.”

My rating: ★★★★ & 1/2 for mature & motivated students, ★★★ & 1/2 for younger or less motivated students.

Rating for Wheelock’s Latin:

★	Includes a clear, rigorous presentation of Latin grammar. Yes, as explained above. Subtract half a star for younger or less prepared students, who may be oberwhelmed by the sheer volume of information.
★	Provide students with ample opportunities for reading Latin prose (and occasional poetry) that is as authentic as possible for their stage in the learning process. High quality readings adapted (and where possible taken verbatim) from excellent literary sources.
1/2★	Present the Latin Language as an ongoing, living literary medium over the past two thousand years. I wavered a bit on this one. There are occasional (but few) sententiae from Late Latin and medieval authors.  The etymological and Latina est Gaudium – et Utilis! sections by definition deal with the survival of elements of Latin in the modern world.  Aside from that the focus is almost exclusivel on the classical period.
★	Provide a reasonably comprehensive view of the literary and historical context that produced and continued to nourish the Latin language. No shortage of information here
★	An inviting and lively invitation to the study of the Latin language. High quality readings and the engaging narrative style more than compensate for the lack of eye-appeal, at least for properly equipped students. Remove half a star for students who would be put off by the visual aspect of the book and/or overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information.

Featured Image top of page: Mosaic of Virgil with Muses, public domain via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.