Patrick J. Burns

Research Associate at Harvard Human Evolutionary Biology | Formerly Quantitative Criticism Lab, ISAW Library | Fordham PhD, Classics | CLTK contributor

Latin in Unexpected Places: The Paideia Itinera Program

Talk on the Paideia Outreach panel at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States
Saturday, October 7 2017. New York, NY.

This talk traces the development of the Itinera program from its roots in field trips led by Reginald Foster in Rome to annual events in and around Fordham University to its current form as an integral part of Paideia Institute’s commitment to site-specific learning. Paideia has now organized Itinera at museums, zoos, and farms, among other places. In this talk, I build on my earlier research into Latin-themed field trips and argue that the Itinera demonstrate five key qualities that complement traditional, classroom-based language learning: authenticity, directness, allowance for free-choice, novelty, and fun. By way of conclusion, I discuss the role of improvisation as a particular pedagogical strength of the Itinera program.