Hartnett has also produced a supplemental text titled By Roman Hands: Inscriptions and Graffiti for Students of Latin, which dissects preserved public etchings in ancient Rome, providing students with a glimpse into the daily lives of average Romans. “Sometimes it can be a while before students feel like they’re interfacing with real Romans. My goal with the text was to have kids, from the first day of class, be able to read actual Latin written by real Romans,” he says. “It’s about recognizing the humanity of people that seem very, very different from us.”
Asking life's big questions
Hartnett encourages students to explore the same “perennial questions” that the great thinkers of the era pondered, which often transforms the Harkness conversation into philosophical discussion. “The Romans and Greeks have a way of bringing the important questions to the table and forcing you to confront them,” he says. “Questions like, ‘What does it mean to live a good life?’ or ‘How do we mediate differences among people?’ or ‘How do we deal with the fact that we're mortal?’”
Spend time in Hartnett’s second-floor Academy Building classroom during a Latin or Greek class and there’s no telling what other subjects might be touched upon. “In the course of a single class, we could be talking about art, architecture, political science, history, literature, math or science,” he says. It’s these “multidisciplinary experiences” that allow Hartnett gateways to connect with his students regardless of their backgrounds or interests.
“If you like math, it’s amazing to read Euclid’s axioms in Greek or if you’re interested in science, to read about Aristotle talking about classification of animals or to read Hippocrates talking about diagnosing disease, these philosophers were establishing the foundations for all that came later on,” he says.
Timeless patterns
Hartnett enjoys teaching the epic poems of Homer and the philosophy of Plato, but he also strives to provide students with works that speak to their current state as adolescents. A favorite is the myth of Icarus who, despite warnings from his father, flies too close to the sun, melting his wax wings and sending him plummeting to Earth. “The story is about pushing limits and not wanting to listen to the advice of older generations,” he says. “The students are interested when they see that these myths connect to human psychology and the more timeless patterns in human interaction.”
While Hartnett enjoys curating ancient texts that relate to teenagers, he’s noticed more modern works have guided students to classical languages. “For a lot of ninth graders, it's an interest in mythology, which they may have conceived from reading Harry Potter or seeing Percy Jackson movies,” he says.
