David Parkinson
Latin and Classical Civilization Teacher
About Me
Mr. Parkinson has been fascinated by the lore and languages of fantasy ever since childhood, and discovered that the greatest stories and languages of any universe came from our own. In his study of the Classics, he has put myth, history and the languages in which they were written in context of one another to show how they relied on each other and how we continue to rely on they today.
After receiving his undergraduate degree in Classics from Emory University in Classics magna cum laude in Atlanta, Georgia, Mr. Parkinson went on to a Master’s in Classics from Tufts Universities. He is currently doing coursework for a second Master’s degree in education at Tufts and teaching at Ottoson as part of this study. In addition, his study of Classics has also taken him to Australia and France, where he has participated in study and a Roman archaeological excavation.
He is interested in all areas of Classics but in particular loves drama, epic, and history. His favorite Latin authors are Ovid and Catullus, but also does a lot of work in Greek, where he most admires the works of Homer, Nonnus, and Euripides. He has experience as a teaching assistant at the university level, where he primarily assisted instructing culture and history courses as well as some Latin.
Mr. Parkinson's goals as a teacher are to bring a dead language alive and to make it not only relatable, but also useful. It is his hope to unlock the world of the ancients with all of its wonder to a new generation of learners and in so doing help reveal how it is alive in our own language and culture today.
Contact Information
I am available at lunch time and after school. Outside of school hours you can reach me via email.
Email: cparkinson@arlington.k12.ma.us
Miss Holt's Contact
Email: aholt@arlington.k12.ma.us
What to Expect in My Class
In class we will be using the Cambridge Latin Series. These books contain an exciting story in Latin about a real Roman family living in Pompeii right before the eruption of Mnt. Vesuvius. We will act out the stories, we will discuss them in Latin and we will look at the grammar contained in them. We will also explore and analyze some of the ruins, artifacts and history that come up in the Cambridge Latin stories, first in Pompeii and then in Roman Britain. You can click on the map on the front page of this site and explore some of those places early if you want.
Some of our projects include the Gladiatorial Games, a Roman Election, a Latin Wizard's duel, an Archaeology Lab project with real artifacts, a Quest through the Hades, and a Roman culture project where you have a chance to cook some Roman food among other possible topics.