This curriculum is geared for the dialectic/rhetoric stage. It is a CD ROM computer program; the pronunciation can be chosen, whether scholastic, classical, or ecclesiastical; and multiple students at multiple levels can use the same program. Artes Latinae is the closest thing to a Latin teacher on a disc as you can get. All the bases are covered, through high school to infinity and beyond. The program is complete and you do get what you pay for. The parent does not need to know Latin in order for the student to learn, as the program is the teacher. The student reader that accompanies the program is wonderful, with varied, excellent material offered for translation practice. The work is repetitive in a good sense that allows the material to be thoroughly learned.

I'm writing about Artes Latinae, which we're using successfully at Ithaca College. This year our Latin enrollments have begun to climb steeply. We now have 20 in Latin 101, 6 in Latin 102, 6 in Latin 201, and 1 in Latin 202, for a total of 33. Last year at this time we had a total of 19. We've hired a second instructor on a part-time basis to help me keep up with the demand. Although only a handful go all the way through, those who do are real die-hards. So far 5 students have completed 202.

Artes Latinae has been a good program for IC because it enables the students to work on their own and we can hold class meetings only once per week.
     Mike Twomey
     Ithaca College

The CD-ROM created by Jeffrey P. Lyon is such a cinch to operate that even I, who had never worked with Microsoft Windows before, had no trouble intuiting my way through the series of frames and units on my first attempt.
     Anne H. Groton

Bolchazy-Carducci publishing firm is devoted to putting out teaching aids for Latin teachers including the most successful computer instruction series on Latin (Artes Latinae).
     Dr. Thomas Fleming
     copyright Chronicles, July 2002 pg. 36

I've been an educator for 17 years and Artes Latinae is the finest program, course of study, I've ever seen.
     Ronald Kirk
     Berean Christian Academy

Artes Latinae offers more resources than nearly every other Latin textbook on the market. The course was radical in its day, and what is more amazing is its continuing usefulness for Latin students today...

Artes Latinae has a proven track record of helping students from middle school through graduate school learn Latin on their own. It is especially well-suited for situations where there is not a Latin teacher available, such as a home-school situation or a school district that cannot afford to hire a Latin teacher, since it is easy to use, provides frequent and immediate feedback to the learner, and allows learners to progress at their own pace. The program is comprehensive: the CD-ROM for Level 1 covers the grammar and vocabulary equivalent of one year of high school Latin or one semester of college Latin. It integrates listening, speaking, reading and writing at the sentence level and offers a wide range of ancillary materials, aural and visual. An additional benefit is that the publisher offers a customer service hotline for any questions about the program, and maintains an extensive list of Latinists who are willing to assist learners with questions not covered by the program.
     Prof. John Gruber-Miller
     Cornell College, May 1999 Review on CALICO Journal website

Review of the CD-ROM Format
The Artes Latinae methodology was designed to break the learning process down into ‘bite-size bits’ and structure it carefully according to a flowchart system of feedback and looping, requiring a minimal level of competency before a student could proceed to a higher level. This way a motivated and well-disciplined student could proceed through the textbook almost entirely on his or her own. As a result ... (the course is) very popular with ... (those learning) Latin without a Latinist friend on hand to help them.
     Rob Latousek
     Classical Outlook, Spring 1996

The single most important contribution to the area of Latin pedagogy of the 20th century. The use of programmed learning materials opens Latin up to a broad spectrum of students. The direct contact with the wisdom and thought of the ancient people which the course provides through the basic sentences, and the opportunities it provides for aural-oral work are likewise very attractive.
     Dr. Rudolph Masciantonio
     School District of Philadelphia

I am delighted with Dr. Sweet's course. It is a godsend, since I have to teach several levels of Latin in one class period, which meets five times a week. With Artes Latinae I can let the abler students go at their own pace while working with those who need it.
     I think Artes Latinae is the ideal solution for schools like ours, which do not have sufficient Latin enrollment for several independent Latin courses.
     Dr. Jeffery Lyon
     Antelope Valley College

Instead of pondering dull phrases like "the farmer is plowing near the cottage," students learn, in Latin, aphorisms such as Pliny the Elder's "Wisdom is overshadowed by wine." By substituting or adding words, students begin to understand how the language works.
     Sweet also rearranged the grammar that clogs up normal first-year courses [and] students seem to respond to the leavening of the old diet.
     Newsweek

The Sweet materials, then, are first and foremost of value to students who need to learn according to personal deadlines. Self-pacing with flexible self-imposed deadlines for course completion takes pressure off. [The materials] are successful not because of any pedagogical or linguistic doctrine behind them but because of Prof. Sweet's masterful breakdown of the knowledge and his programming of those bits for self-paced learning.
     Prof. Robert P. Sonkowsky
     University of Minnesota

Sweet's Artes Latinae is success-oriented.
     The Classical Outlook

The program is a life saver.
     Northeast Conference
     on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Artes Latinae brings Latin to life.
Artes Latinae uses Latin for everything: to define words, explain structures, ask questions, describe pictures, interpret stories, and talk to people.

Artes Latinae is versatile.
I have used it successfully with all ability and maturity levels from grades 8-12.

Artes Latinae opens doors.
The variety of sententiae allows and encourages the teacher to provide cultural enrichment while stimulating discussion on who those Romans really were.

Artes Latinae is logical.
The order of introduction of structures is determined in part by frequency of use by Roman authors and in part by the degree of contrast with English structures. This eases the students into Latin, avoiding the linguistic shock of paradigms, cases, and declensions on page one and also teaches the most important and difficult lesson first—that in Latin word order is almost entirely free and does not signal structure.
     Catherine E. Neide
     East Brunswick High School

Currently the most comprehensive Latin course available to home-schoolers, Artes Latinae is available in the traditional format, books and tapes, or on CD. This interactive self-teaching approach allows families who haven't studied Latin to learn together. While it's best for teenagers, older elementary students can tackle it, too. If you're not convinced you should add Latin to your curriculum, consider that learning any language takes real mental discipline. Knowing Latin also leads to an incredible increase in English vocabulary skills (and a subsequent increase in SAT scores). And it looks really good on a college application!

2002 Christian Parenting Today/Christianity Today International.
Page 62, Christian Parenting Today Summer 2002