SALVI is deeply grateful for the endorsement of the following national leaders in the fields of Latin and language education:
Martha G. Abbott MA, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Martha Abbott is Executive Director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the premier professional organization for language educators in the United States. Before moving to ACTFL, she served in the Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools as a Latin teacher, foreign language coordinator and director of high school instruction. She was chair of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in 1999 and president of ACTFL in 2003. She also co-chaired the national public awareness campaign 2005: The Year of Languages.
Jacqueline Carlon PhD, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Jacqueline Carlon is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Classics Department at UMass Boston. In addition to her scholarly work on Roman history, Prof. Carlon also has a strong interest in the application of Second Language Acquisition Theory to the teaching of classical languages. She is a co-originator of UMB’s “Latin by the Sea” (aka Conventiculum Bostoniense), the annual intensive summer immersion program which brought conversational Latin back to New England in the modern era, in 2006.
Sally R. Davis MAT, MA, Metro DC Area Schools
Sally Davis is one of best-known names in U.S. secondary Latin teaching. She is an original founder of the National Latin Exam and chaired the landmark 1991 study Latin in American Schools for the American Classical League (ACL) and the American Philological Association (APA). She has taught Latin for over 35 years in public and private schools, finishing her career in Arlington VA, and earning the APA’s national award for excellence in the teaching of Classics. She has also taught pedagogy at the Universities of Virginia and Maryland, and at Catholic University of America. Her publications include an edition of Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis with Gilbert Lawall, and her Review and Test Preparation Guide for the intermediate Latin student. She has served on major committees of the APA and ACL, and helped write the National Standards for Latin as well as the Standards for Latin Teacher Preparation.
Richard A. LaFleur PhD, University of Georgia
Richard LaFleur is emeritus Franklin Professor of Classics and former Head of the University of Georgia’s Department of Classics — one of the largest Classics programs in North America. He served for more than 25 years as Editor of The Classical Outlook, and for two years as President of the American Classical League (ACL). Prof. LaFleur has been the recipient of over a million dollars in grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and other grantor organizations. He has also been honored with numerous teaching awards, including the American Philological Association’s national award for excellence in the teaching of Classics, the ACL’s Meritus Award, and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Training. His numerous published works include The Teaching of Latin in American Schools: A Profession in Crisis, A Song of War: Readings from Vergil’s Aeneid (with Alexander G. McKay), and the revised editions of the classic textbook Wheelock’s Latin with several associated titles.
Robert Patrick PhD, Metro Atlanta Public Schools
Robert Patrick is the first Latin teacher ever to be named a finalist for the national ACTFL Teacher of the Year award. He currently serves as Chair of the Foreign Language Department at Parkview High School in Lilburn, GA, and teaches classroom methods as an adjunct instructor at the University of Georgia. Dr. Patrick has taught Latin for over 25 years, and is the nation’s most recognizable proponent of the use of TPRS within the realm of Comprehensible Input approaches to Latin teaching. He is also a co-founder of the Latin: Best Practices listserve, which has over 1200 subscribers around the world.
In Memoriam: John A. Rassias, doctorat d’État, Dartmouth College
Legendary language teacher John Rassias was William R. Kenan Professor of French and Italian at Dartmouth College and president of Dartmouth’s Rassias Center for World Languages and Cultures. He is the inventor of the Rassias Method®, also known as the Dartmouth Intensive Language Model, created during the launch of the US Peace Corps in the 1960’s. Today, Rassias Method language instruction is in use worldwide. Prof. Rassias was the recipient of numerous national and international grants and teaching awards, and has served on important professional commissions, including President Jimmy Carter’s Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies and the Modern Language Association (MLA) Commission on Professional Service. Prof. Rassias and his work have been the subject of over 400 articles in regional, national and international press, and he has appeared on several national and international television programs, including 60 Minutes and Good Morning America. He died December 2, 2015.