Everyday Educator · Classical Conversations Inc.

JAM with Latin

·47 min·4 clips

When schools removed Latin in the 1950s, student IQs and test scores began to plummet nationwide.

This episode of the Everyday Educator podcast features host Lisa Bailey and guest Alexis Selby Carrico, a homeschool educator and founder of Jam with Latin. Alexis, a homeschool mom for 15 years, shares her journey into Latin education after initially having no background in the language. She began learning Latin to help her son, who has dyslexia, using the Robert Henle textbook from 1945. Alexis recounts spending Sundays recopying textbook exercises in larger print to make them accessible for her son, which helped her grasp the grammar herself. She created Jam with Latin to provide structured, digestible lessons after other homeschooling parents sought her tutoring help. The program offers daily instructional videos of eight minutes or less, breaking down Henle's grammar and vocabulary. Alexis emphasizes that her service includes a supportive community where members can email, call, or Zoom her for direct help with exercises. She notes that students who persist with Latin show marked improvements in English sentence structure and writing ability, sharing an anecdote about her daughter's standout essay in a university freshman English class. Alexis references a study where introducing Latin in a Chicago public school raised test scores without other curricular changes. She argues that Latin was standard in education until the mid-20th century and its removal correlates with a decline in student capabilities. The program includes tools like a John 1:1 coloring book drawn by her daughter and a planned storybook comparing English and Latin words. For summer learning, she offers a 40-week "Summer Study" workbook to pre-teach vocabulary and noun declensions before tackling the main textbook. Alexis encourages parents to learn alongside their children, framing it as opening gates rather than building walls to their education. The tone is encouraging and conversational, focused on empowering homeschool parents. This episode is ideal for homeschooling families, especially those using Classical Conversations or feeling intimidated by teaching Latin. Listeners seeking a critical analysis of Latin's educational value or purely entertainment-focused content might find it less engaging.

As heard by us

A steady Latin lesson for homeschool families who want the subject to feel manageable.

Everyday Educator keeps things calm and practical as Alexis Selby Carrico walks through Jam with Latin for homeschool families. The format uses short, linked videos, with each day building on the textbook, so the work feels less heavy near the end of the school year and still…

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Need Latin to feel manageable before next fall's classes begin?

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