Ars docendi 5/2020
Vorwort – premessa – Foreword [Adami]
It's snowing – snow is covering the world, tranquillity, absolute silence... that's how I've been feeling in recent weeks. We hear little or nothing from others, everyone seems to have taken refuge in their own homes, in the intimacy of their families, we are afraid to go out, to create something new, something different, we seem locked in our own little existence, waiting for the world to finally change.
The world seems to be made up of many bubbles of stagnation, taking away our ability to be proactive; we can only try to react, and sometimes we do so inappropriately, to a virus that renders us mute and inactive out of fear.
Despite these unfavourable circumstances, we have once again managed to publish Ars docendi: the last issue of this year. We must move forward, hoping that this situation will change soon.
In this issue, we focus mainly on mythology (in two essays: one on the motif of the cunning hero, the other on the theme of the god Pan and his reception in twentieth-century music) and hymnology. Rainer Weissengruber discusses the possibility of introducing some examples of musical performance into Latin lessons, while Matthias Korn reflects on the ever-topical issue of assessment (of written essays) in our subjects.
And – always very important – another essay discusses and reflects on the value and importance of classical culture in a totally different, modern world.
We wish everyone enjoyable reading and a peaceful and hopeful Christmas!
Martina Adami