Ars docendi 1/2019
Vorwort – premessa – Foreword [Adami]
Humanitas Nova, CLE's online magazine, has been given a new look, with a more modern Internet appearance and a clear editorial structure designed for the web, making it easy to read.
All this is underlined by a new name: ARS DOCENDI – precisely because everything we intend to do for a universal, complex, integrated, thoughtful and responsible classical and humanistic education starts with the commitment of us teachers and our ability to convey content, methods, skills and ways to accompany our students well. ARS DOCENDI is destined to become a forum in which university teachers and researchers, school administrators and other interested parties exchange opinions and experiences on various topics reflected in this journal, which is divided into four sections: Teaching Theories, Teaching Experiences, Textual Exegesis, and Other Sections.
The journal will be published four times a year, at the end of December/beginning of January, at the end of March, at the end of June and at the end of September, and will collect all the contributions sent to us up to those dates. These will be concrete contributions based on direct work done in schools and concrete teaching experiences. They will be reports on fascinating projects related to work in classical high schools, reports on visions and ideas about the role of classical high schools in our time, and articles from Austria and Germany and other European countries to help us compare our work, and presentations of scientific works.
Articles can be published in three languages: Italian, German or English, and will be preceded by a short abstract in one of these languages, unlike the article itself. It is in the nature of this new online magazine to try to weave a network between like-minded people in a Europe that is becoming increasingly united, but where there is a lack of widespread information on how research and teaching are carried out in the various countries of the continent. We need to build a network for scientific and educational exchanges in the world of secondary schools, particularly in disciplines that are fascinating precisely because they require reflection (whether imposed or voluntary), a task that is more difficult than ever before.
Discussions may arise that will be stimulating and can only be fruitful for our work. We really care about this European network and would like to find European readers who are ready to join us in promoting the idea of classical culture, the idea of classical secondary education in its current form, the idea of an education that is not based solely on individual, isolated subjects, but consists of all these subjects together, supporting critical, conscious thinking based on reflective knowledge.
The first issue will be published in early January 2020, with seven articles: three of which were written by school administrators who discuss the role of classical high schools today and tomorrow – based on the value of translation, the idea of a teaching method that starts from the needs of today's young people, comparing European visions of classical culture. These reflections are accompanied by a text about a wonderful school project in Florence and a very interesting methodological proposal on Homer and hypertext (Hodoi elektronikai). Text no. 6 is a beautiful introduction to the Sardinian language, its Latin origins and its peculiarities as a Neo-Romance language. As for the “Textual Exegesis” section, we present an article on Euripides' The Bacchae, comparing it with a well-known text by E. Canetti, Crowds and Power.
We wish everyone an enjoyable and fascinating read and a very happy new year!
Martina Adami