Curriculum
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Ambleside Online Plutarch RotationWho was Plutarch and why are we reading him?Plutarch was a Greek writer who lived from 46 to 120 AD. To quote from the Philip's World History Encyclopedia, "his best-known work is his Parallel Lives, which consists of paired biographies of famous Greeks and Romans. Shakespeare used it as the source for his Roman history plays." Charlotte Mason categorized Plutarch's Lives under Citizenship rather than under history, because his biographies are more concerned with character and leadership qualities than they are with pure historical details. That is not to say that you can't learn a great deal of history from them; and in fact, Plutarch is one major source of the historical information we do have on many events. But for our purposes, we read Plutarch for some of the ideas and life-lessons his biographies offer, rather than as a history course. It's a look at what motivated some of the famous figures of the ancient world, what they did right, and where they went wrong. "Plutarch's Lives, . . . I think, stand alone in literature as teaching that a man is part of the State, that his business is to be of service to the State, but that the value of his service depends upon his personal character. (Parents Review article by Charlotte Mason) You can find out more about Plutarch's life here: http://www.e-classics.com/plutarch.htm How do our studies work?We take one of the biographies each term and study that person's life in detail. To make it easier, we've offered study notes for each term's Life, breaking it down into twelve readings, suggesting parts that parents will probably want to omit, giving vocabulary help and discussion questions. You can start with the current term's study, or you might want to start back with Poplicola, since it's fairly straightforward and not too difficult. (Another reason for starting with Poplicola might be that he seems to be, as the study notes say, "one of the good guys." A few of the people profiled are much more complex in terms of the good or evil they did.) The lives don't go in any kind of chronological order, which would seem to violate CM's preference for chronological history; we have to re-establish ourselves each term in a new Greek or Roman time period. But on the other hand, if you studied Crassus, then Caesar, then Pompey and so on, you'd have a lot of overlap since they all lived at the same time. Studying a variety of people allows you to touch on different periods such as the Golden Age of Athens. Marking a timeline or a Book of the Centuries is very helpful in keeping things straight. When we did the revisions to the curriculum and wrote the 36-wk schedules in the.summer of 2002, the written Plutarch studies hadn't even happened yet. Before that, people were just doing their own thing with Plutarch, and some probably still are. The notes are just to make life easier. If you follow the study notes linked below with the term rotations, each life is divided into 12 lessons, which you would probably do one per week. Unless your student is extremely independent, you would likely want to schedule them into a time when you work together. Do I have to buy a copy of Plutarch? If I do, what version should I look for? What is all this stuff about Dryden, North, Clough and other translations?No, you do not have to buy a volume of Plutarch's Lives. Many of the books out there do not contain all the lives we will be reading; some are selections of the Lives that he wrote. Each term's study notes gives a link to the online version we used in preparing the study notes. In a couple of cases, an edited version of the text is included with the notes (when we felt that there was a real problem either with length or with some material). The translation Charlotte Mason recommended was that by North, which is also the one Shakespeare would have used and which is full of nice, rich, Shakespearish language. Later on, the poet Dryden re-translated Plutarch, and in the 1800s that translation was edited by Arthur Hugh Clough. Dryden's version isn't always as earthy and interesting as North's, but it is a fairly standard English translation and since it is readily available online it is usually the one that has been used for the notes. You are welcome to use North's translation (the Wordsworth Classics North's paperback is inexpensive and often found at chain bookstores, although it contains only about a dozen lives) or another suitable version, although you will have to modify the study notes (i.e. you will have to look up your own vocabulary). There are three childrens' versions of Plutarch (Our Young Folk's Plutarch by Rosalie Kaufman, Plutarch's Lives for Boys and Girlsby W. H. Weston, and a 2-volume Children's Plutarch by F.J. Gould divided between Tales of the Greeks and Tales of the Romans; see chapter titles for Gould's book below) on http://www.mainlesson.com that may be helpful in the same way as Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare or Bible story books are; and there is a Boys and Girls Plutarch on Project Gutenberg which is basically the Dryden/Clough translations with omissions of material not for children. However, like Bible story books, sometimes the retellings feel like they're missing the original flavour or intent of the story, and on occasion they will even substitute a gorier word or phrase than one that Dryden used! These readings seem very difficult, even with the notes; how is my student going to get anything out of them?One thing I sometimes suggest in the notes is not trying to focus on details of names or other unfamiliar references, but just trying to get the main idea of what's going on in the story. The same thing can happen with Shakespeare if you get so caught up in understanding all the vocabulary that you can't just read the script. Plutarch does tell good stories; you have to get into his style, though. (One advantage I've found of doing Plutarch is that it takes some of the fear out of reading other older historical books.) Stop frequently and have your student narrate, or at least make sure he/she is clear on what just happened. That's why I like to start Plutarch lessons with an overview of what's going to happen, even if I have to include a "spoiler"--it helps to know what kind of a story you're listening to before you start. You could also suggest one or two things to listen for in the reading. Helpful Links Why Read Plutarch? by Dr. George Grant of King's Meadow Study Center; this is a great essay about the reasons for studying Plutarch. "Plutarch's Home on the Web" Plutarch links, texts Ambleside Online Term ScheduleTerm 1: September - November Ambleside Online schedules these terms as a group to facilitate our Artist, Composer, Plutarch, Shakespeare, Folksongs and Hymns studies through sharing resources and experiences on the list. 2002-2003 school year
*Plutarch- Poplicola (or Publicola) Study Guide 2003-2004
school year 2004-2005 school year 2005-2006 school year 2006-2007 school year 2007-2008 school year 2008-2009 school year 2009-2010 school year 2010-2011 school year 2011-2012 school year 2012-2013 school year These retellings could be used with younger children if Plutarch is read as a family study, or as a supplement. Plutarch's Lives for Boys and Girls by W. H. Weston (not a complete collection, but the least abridged; not a childish edition.)
Tales of the Greeks: The Children's Plutarch by F. J. Gould (the shortest, most condensed version for the youngest ages; includes pronunciations of names.) Tales of the Romans: The Children's Plutarch by F. J. Gould Also: Famous Men of Rome and Famous Men of Greece by Haaren and Poland includes many of Plutarch's Lives ("for ages 9-16")  |
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