In Defense of Henle Latin

People hate Henle Latin, but maybe it’s not so bad!

As a former Classical Conversations director and current CC parent, I hear all the time that people do not like the Henle Latin curriculum that CC uses in their Challenge program.  While I can state with great certainty that it is not the program I would have chosen if I were in charge, Henle Latin is actually a very good Latin textbook!  To combat the negativity, I would like to share some of the things that I DO love about it and how I get around the things I love less. 

Henle is extremely orderly!

I love the orderly fashion in which new material is presented in the Henle Latin book!  I still have my Latin books from high school.  While they are much more colorful and contain what I think is more interesting subject matter, the teaching is all over the place!  I think they could best be described as “higgledy-piggledy.” They teach verbs at the same time that they are teaching nouns and adjectives!  While that style might help a student engage with the material better at first, they do not properly learn the grammar of the subject.  Henle teaches one thing and he teaches it well before it moves on to the next thing.  It doesn’t introduce first declension and second declension words in the same passage.  Instead, it makes sure that the student has a solid grasp on the first declension before he or she moves on! 

It begins with the end in mind!

It begins with the end in mind.  The goal of the First Year Henle Latin book is to prepare you to read from Caesar’s actual writings in the Second Year Latin book.  Yes, we have 10 different ways to say “slaughter” and we all know that “there are bodies in the river” but Father Henle is preparing us to read what Caesar wrote about the war with the Gauls! 

The grammar book is handy!

There is a handy grammar book to refer to if you forget something!  There are hundreds of different endings, meanings, and rules to learn when you study Latin, but instead of having to remember where you saw that chart before, you can simply refer to the handy-dandy blue Latin book and refresh your memory, unless, of course, you are taking a test! 

The answer guide has your back!

I hear all the time that people dislike the answer guide.  I often wonder if they actually tried it and found that it did not meet their needs, or if they were simply told by a director or another parent that it was bad. Most of the time I think this comes from a combination of fear and overwhelm. Either way, there are several alternate answer keys that you can purchase if you don’t like the Henle one.  As for me and my house, we will use the white book. 

There is often more than one right answer!

There is more than one way to skin a cat!  Speaking of the answer guide, often there can be several ways to correctly translate a sentence.  The answer guide gives you one of those ways.  It is 100% okay if your answer differs from what they said.  Sometimes a word has more than one meaning.  Sometimes you have to change a sentence a bit to make it make sense in English.  GRACE!

What I love LESS about Henle

Now, as for things that I love less about Henle, I have some tips for dealing with those too!  

It’s not colorful

It’s kind of ugly. What I mean is it’s just not colorful and we have come to expect some color in textbooks!  Aside from the cover, the only colors in the book are black and white.  I love to use a highlighter to make my book more interesting and to make it easier to find things.  I typically highlight rules and derivatives and I draw a box around new vocabulary. I make notes in the margin when I have an aha moment!  Just because it comes black and white doesn’t mean it has to stay that way!

It’s hard to keep open

It’s hard to keep the Henle Latin book open.  For years it was recommended that we take our Latin books and have them spiral-bound.  Actually, after having a poorly spiraled book fall apart and have to be replaced, I no longer recommend this practice.  We have had good luck, though, with a book stand purchased at a local bookstore that has little arms to hold the book open.  I find that people tend to feel strongly about their spiral bindings though, so to each his own! 

Where are all the women?!?

Where are all the women?!? Ok, this one really bothers me, and all I can say is that Father Henle was a priest and he really only acknowledged women if they were the Virgin Mary or if they are crying because their sons were slaughtered by the Gauls.  The way I combat this in my class is to introduce more female words!  A great example is the word amicus/amici which we are told means “friend.” Actually, it refers specifically to a male friend.  I make sure to teach my students that amica/amicae is the word for female friend.  There are plenty of other examples that you could find to bring a feminine touch to the Henle Latin curriculum, such as teaching the word for “sister” when you learn “brother.” (But yes, this one is especially upsetting to many female students and I fully acknowledge this shortcoming!)

The vocabulary is limited

As stated above, the goal of Henle Latin is to be able to read the writings of Caesar, so the vocabulary taught is what you need to accomplish that end.  As a Challenge director, I liked to introduce non-Henle vocabulary words every now and then because it is nice to be able to say “hello, my name is Heather” in the language you study.  It is much more socially acceptable than a listing of words for murder, slaughter, and death!

In conclusion

In conclusion, while the Henle Latin curriculum is not without its faults, it does have some true merit, not the least of which is that it was written back when well-educated people still studied Latin!  I truly hope that you will approach it in the future with an open mind and supplement as needed in order to have fun with your study of Latin! 

*** I have created a document full of ideas for making the study of Latin fun for you and your students, and another one full of Latin phrases, so be sure to check them out! ***