July 11, 2009
Dear students and parents:
In this letter, and in the two attachments, you will find information regarding Asheville Latin seminars, schedules, and policies. Please read the enclosed documents carefully. If you are unable to open the attachments, please go to ashevillelatinseminars.blogspot.com. Posted under July 11 you will find the same information.
Fees: circumstances--that is, income taxes--dictate charging by the semester rather than by the year. The first semester fees are due by August 3. If you wish to pay by the year, please feel free to do so. Please pay all fees promptly.
The fees run as follows. In the first semester, there are sixteen sessions per seminar. In the second semester, there are seventeen sessions. Each individual session is $12. If your student is taking one class this fall, your fee is 16 classes x $12=$192. From this amount, you need to deduct the deposit you paid last spring. Most of you paid a two-session deposit of $24. If that figure was your deposit, then you owe $168.
Payment: You may pay in one of two ways. On Monday, August 3, I will be at Trinity Presbyterian Church in the upstairs classrooms from 4:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. to collect fees and to meet with any parents who have questions. I will have some help collecting fees, so you shouldn’t have a long wait.
If you are unable to make that meeting, please send a check for the amount owed by August 3. Make the check to Jeff Minick and send it to Jeff Minick/114 Montford Ave. #3/Asheville NC 28801. With the check please put the subject, day, and time for which your student is registered. If there is a discrepancy, I will contact you.
There is a good chance that I will be moving by August 1 to a new location in Montford. If you send your fees by mail, please ensure that the letter will arrive at the above address no later than August 3.
Homework and tests: Students, I encourage you to determine to do well in my classes and in all your endeavors this year. Determination and the will to see a duty performed are keys to success in life (I recommend you go to www.incharacter.org and read Angela Duckworth’s article on Grit).
One part of your duty involves doing your own work. Cheating and plagiarism are wrong. They are sins (“Thou shalt not steal”). In my classes, they are particularly silly sins, because you gain so little by them. You are not competing against your classmates. There is no class rank, no honor roll, no comparison of grades. You are competing against a standard and in many ways, against yourself. Do not demean or diminish your honor by looking at a classmate’s test or by using someone else’s work.
Be sure to have your summer assignments completed on time for the first class.
Thank you. May you all have a wonderful summer!
Jeff Minck

ASHEVILLE LATIN SEMINARS
Jeffrey Minick
Address: 114 Montford Ave. #3, Asheville, NC 28801
Telephone: 828-400-8132
E-mail: ashevillelatin@charter.net
Blog: ashevillelatinseminars.blogspot.com
Calendar: August 24 Classes begin
September 7 No Monday class (We will make up this class on Monday before Thanksgiving)
Nov. 24--29 Thanksgiving Break
December 18 Christmas Break begins
January 5 Classes resume
March 8--11 National Latin Exams
April 2--11 Spring Break (Easter is April 4)
May 4 Last week of class
May 12 End of year party
Payment: Please pay by the semester or by the year.
Inclement weather policy: Unless you hear otherwise by a general email, please follow the A-B Tech policy in terms of cancelled classes. We will NOT follow the college’s delayed opening policy. Our classes begin at the usual time.
Homework policies: Students in all classes always have homework. Students in the history and literature classes will receive a syllabus every month or so containing the upcoming assignments. Because their progress is less predictable, Latin students don’t receive a syllabus. Their homework assignments will be posted on the above blog. Students will also be assigned homework partners whom they may call if they miss a class or lose their assignment.
Grades: Your work will be graded frequently both in and out of the classroom. Neatness and punctuality count. It is inadvisable to do written work in the car on the way to class. Complete all work by the required deadlines or suffer a lower grade. I will issue semester grades before Christmas and at the end of the year.
Grade scale:
A……..90--100
B……..80--89
C……..70--79
D……..65...69
F……..Below 65
Note: On papers written for class, an A indicates writing that is well-organized, thoughtful, and free of errors in grammar or punctuation. A paper which is weak in its arguments, which is sloppy or badly constructed, earns a B. A paper containing many grammar errors, faulty conclusions, or poor organization earns a C. The grade of D reflects a paper even more poorly written on which the student spent little time or effort. F is reserved for papers that come nowhere near the standard set for the class. (The grade of 0 is reserved for those who copy other papers or who fail to turn in their work).
Parents and grades: Please email me directly if you have any question about your student’s performance in class. It is easier for me to answer such a correspondence than to initiate it. I will try to answer your emails as promptly as possible.
In the case of Latin I students and 3Rs students, I will contact parents if the grades slip or the work is incomplete. Students in all other classes are responsible for keeping their parents informed about their grades.
You will also need to pay some attention to the amount of work your student does at home. You will factor this amount of work into their final grade.
Tutors: Students who need assistance may avail themselves of the services of our tutors. These tutors are available free of charge at specified hours.
Church policies:
Please park in designated areas of the parking lot. Be vigilant in regard to others, particularly young children. Do not drive on the grass.
Drivers should park away from the front of the church.
Treat church property with respect. Do not slide on the banisters, stand on tables, or run in the building. Ball games should be played outside.
Please enter and leave the building quietly. Use the stairwell on the office side of the building to enter the classroom.
The room adjacent to our classroom is for lunch and for breaks between classes. Please eat your lunch in this room. When classes are in session, this room is a study hall.
Important: Students should not congregate in the foyer outside the office. They should be in class, in the break room, or on the fields outside.
Classroom policies:
Be on time for class. Have the materials you need for that class out of your book bag and on the desk before class begins. If you are late for class, please enter as quietly as possible.
3Rs students will need a composition book.
All students will need a notebook.
Do not pack up books before the class has ended.
Turn off cell phones before class. Do not answer cell phone calls during class.
Don’t eat or chew gum during class. Water bottles may be brought to class as well as drinks in non-spill containers.
Let honor and duty be your bywords for these classes. Practice personal honor. Do not use work on papers or on tests that doesn’t belong to you. Don’t copy homework. This is cheating.
If you are unable to complete an assignment, bring a note from a parent stating the reason for the missed assignment.
Dress appropriately for class. If you are in doubt about your attire, glance into a mirror and ask yourself whether your nonagenarian great-grandmother might approve.
Polite behavior toward your fellow students is expected at all times.
Bring pencils, pens, notebooks, books, and enthusiasm to class.

July 9, 2009
Dear students:
Several of you have asked me this past year why we need to study literature, or if I teach history from any particular viewpoint, or how I select the books for the seminars. Since I will not deliver any formal remarks this year at the student/parent meeting in August, it seemed prudent to put down some brief thoughts here for you.
Great literature speaks to our hearts and minds, and forms within our souls--our very being--the thoughts, emotions, and aspirations of men and women whose shared insights help bring us to the fullness of our humanity. Great literature also allows us to live vicariously, to put ourselves among heroes and scoundrels, saints and scalawags, in a way usually unmatched by life. When we dive into Pride and Prejudice, for instance, we not only see our fellow creatures through the eyes of Jane Austen, but through the eyes of Austen’s creations: Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins, Bingley, Charlotte Lucas, and the rest. When we read Crime and Punishment, we experience what Raskolnikov sees, hears and feels, and thereby understand why he commits murder and how he comes to repentance.
Literature grants us insight into that most mysterious of all creatures on this earth: the self.
Conversely, history points us away from the self and to the exterior world. If we are strangers to the past, we are likely to find the times in which we live a swirl of events, chaotic, incomprehensible, even frightening. Studying history can inoculate us against such fear. A knowledge of history, the story of the men and women who have gone before us, allows us to draw some conclusions from the past that are applicable to the present. Through such study we gain perspective on our present circumstances and the ability to face our future with courage and strength.
Many of you will soon sit in classrooms where teachers espouse a particular view of history and literature: Marxist, socialist, neo-conservative, Freudian, Darwinian, and so on. You must learn to identify a teacher’s viewpoint and to take that viewpoint into consideration when drawing your conclusions about the subject studied.
My own point of view regarding history is somewhat old-fashioned (though radical by today’s standards). I believe, for instance, that human beings are fallible creatures capable of great good and great evil. I believe that individuals play a large role in historical events, and that history is at its most interesting when approached through biography. I believe that, with some effort, students of history may learn from the past and apply that learning to the present. I believe that history offers us an imperfect laboratory in which we may study human beings, their beliefs, actions, and institutions.
Latin students: We will discuss the advantages of Latin in class. Besides being the native tongue of the Ancient Romans, suffice it to say that Latin was the language familiar to every educated Westerner from Saint Augustine of Hippo to John Calvin.
Usually at registration some of you inquire as well about my educational background. I graduated from Guilford College, earned a Master’s Degree in European History from Wake Forest University, and studied for a year in the doctoral program at the University of Connecticut. I have taught in a variety of institutions: a semester in college; two years in the NC state prison system; two years in the Haywood County public schools; twenty-two years at home with my own children; and fifteen years teaching home school seminars. For a good number of years, I also studied, like your parents, at the Institute of Hard Knocks, from which I have earned several degrees.
I look forward to meeting you and to our seminars this year. May God bless us all in our endeavor,
Jeff Minick