Here are the main features of the change we have made: We have separated the courses into two different "tracks": the middle school track and the high school track--which just means we have divided them into middle school Henle Latin courses and High School Latin courses. The two tracks cover the same material, but the high school courses cover the material at an accelerated speed.
The following chart shows how the two tracks relate:
| Middle School Track | High School Track | |||
| First Year | Henle I: Units 1-2 | Age: 6th-9th Units: 1/2 |
Henle I: Units 1-4 | Age: 9th+ Units: 1 |
| Second Year | Henle I: Units 3-5 | Age: 7th+ Units 1/2 |
Henle I: Units 5-10 | Age: 10th+ Units: 1 |
| Third Year | Henle I: Units 6-14* | Units: 1 |
Henle II: Entire | Units: 1 |
Let me make several points about this change to avoid confusion. Please read the following FAQ before contacting us. If the information below does not answer your question, then contact me by e-mail and I will try to answer your questions:
What track is my child in? If you signed up for any of our Henle courses up until today, then your child is automatically enrolled in the middle school class.
What if I want my child in the High School Track? If you are already enrolled in a Henle Latin course and want your child in the high school track rather than the middle school track, then all you need to do is inform me by e-mail that you would like to do this, and I will take care of it from our end. If you are not already enrolled in a Henle Latin course, and you would like your student to be in a high school track course, just sign up for the high school course. They are listed separately on the website.
Is there any charge for changing from the middle to the high school track? There is no charge for changing from the middle school track to the high school track. The tuition for the courses is the same.
Which track should I enroll my 9th grader in, since your chart says he could enroll in either the middle school or high school course? The age designations are just suggestions and don't have to be strictly observed. Much depends on your student. If your 9th grader is a good student, there is no reason he should not enroll in the high school track course. If you have any concerns about how he or she might do in the course, you can always enroll in the middle school track course.
What if my student took this year's Henle course (which is now listed as a middle school course) and I want to shift him to the high school track next year? If your student took this year's Henle I course, which covered Units 1-2 of Henle I, he has several options for next year:
- He could enroll in the First Year High School Track course. Yes, he would be covering some of the same material that he covered in the Henle I Middle School course, but--guess what?-- about half of what you do in Latin is review anyway! He will be covering the same material over again during the first part of the year, but much more quickly. For many students this will serve as helpful--and needed--review.
- He could do a little work during the summer and cover Units 3-4 and enroll in Second Year High School Henle next year. If you would like to do this, let us know. We can set up a special summer course just for this purpose.
What about the change in credits for the course? This year the courses which are listed as counting for a full year credit are listed next year as counting for only a half credit. Quite frankly, the whole system of Carnegie units is confusing and arbitrary--and fast becoming irrelevant in the face of the home school revolution (as is school accreditation). When it comes to Carnegie units, we tend to become very Charlotte Masonish, since they are, at best, only a rough and imperfect quantification of what a child has learned. High school Latin courses in different schools across the country run the gamut from easy to difficult, yet they all count for a high school unit. Our middle school courses probably fall on the easier end of that spectrum, and our high school courses on the higher end of it. We offer credit calibrations for our courses only as a rough approximation for your own convenience and record-keeping purposes. In regard to how they work with our Latin programs, we have only changed them for purposes of internal consistency within our own system of courses. If you took a year of Latin in our online system this year it would not be at all inappropriate to consider it as a single high unit if your student strictly followed the guidelines in our Henle I or II Guides, including the grammar and vocabulary cards and grammar notebook activities. There are two reasons for this:
- First, it would be equivalent to what many schools elsewhere offer in a one year high school course;
- Second, although our middle school track courses cover less content, they cover the material deeper and more comprehensively, and with a higher degree of review. Because our high school track courses cover the material at an accelerated speed, they cannot, of necessity, dwell on the same material as long or as deeply.
Once again, if you have any questions about this please contact me and I will answer your questions as best I can.
Thank you for your interest in our courses.
Martin Cothran