So, where will the demand for fluency in ancient Greek come from? In my
opinion, it will never come from the teachers, who are not fluent
themselves and have already invested careers and publication in service
of grammar-translation. They seem, by and large, satisfied with the
status quo. It will also never come from college or seminary
administrators, who seem to be doing all they can to streamline their
degrees and make education ever more “practical.”
Rather, the demand must come from the grassroots. College students must
protest the current system, which leaves them at the end of a 4-year
program sorely lacking in the kind of fluency expected of their
counterparts in the modern-language department. Seminary students must
revolt against a 3-year program that gives them just enough knowledge of
the languages to be dangerous. PhD students in classics and biblical
studies should be rising up at the prospect of 3-10 years of
postgraduate work in ancient texts that leaves them unable to read fluently and for pleasure in those languages.
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