Volume II Issue II
OCtober 31, 2013
The Official Newsletter of MOJCL
FALL PLANNING MEETING:
PUTTING THE “FUN” IN FUNCTIONAL
By David Greaves
Last Saturday, October 26, In
the inner sanctum of Hickman High
school, the teachers lounge, complete
with argyle cabinets, a coffee machine
likely dating back to the time of Julius
Caesar himself, and two boxes of donuts, the leaders of the Missouri Junior
Classical League gathered to plan the
year for all things latin in the first of two
annual planning meetings that in which
the legendary convention is orchestrated. On the agenda for this meeting:
Introductions, Officers’ reports, Service
Project, Proposed Amendments, Financial Report, Test Writing, Convention Location and Date, Speakers and
Presenters, and Fall Classics.
After brief introductions and
quick updates from the officers sans
Parliamentarian Tessa Smith and His-
torian Deanna Pace-Smith due to
conflicts with standardized tests and
travel, President Abbey Haines took
the floor to present her proposals for
this year’s service projrects. The officers
and teachers decided that following the
monthly service projects coordinated
by the national board would be too
great of a task to be executed by a state
of our size, and agreed on one project
for each semester. The project for fall
will be either a can drive for thanksgiving or a board game/toy drive to ensure that underprivledged children get
christmas presents. Updates on this to
come. The spring project will likely be
creating and mailing valentines to soldiers over seas.
Besides various tidying of
grammar and clarity, the only significant
(continued on reverse side)
“Senātus Populusque Rōmānus”
Pumpkin carving by David Greaves
READ ON FOR:
Sparta Missouri: a rural
town’s historical secrets
revealed!
Classical Jokes to assist in
raking in the Halloween
candy.
MOJCL Students and teachers gather ‘round to discuss the delectable year ahead!
The Oracle
II
MODERN METROPOLIS: SPARTA
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@MOJCL
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Missouri Junior
Classical League
Sitting quietly on the outskirts of the
statistical metropolitan area of springfield in Christian county, Sparta, Missouri, holds its population of 1,144 as
of the 2000 census. If you thought this
town wasn’t already ancient enough
with a name like Sparta, think again.
Sparta High School is home to the curiously named Trojans, which begs the
question: huh?
According to Sparta’s mayor,
Mike Younker, “The story [behind
Sparta’s name] is a small group of sailors
settled here originally coming up from
Sparta, TN. They just decided to name
it after their home town.” Why would a
group of Tennesseans settling in southern Missouri be considered sailors? The
world may never know.
Unfortunately, the origin of the
High School’s mascot was a mystery to
Younker as well. After being referred to
by the principal of Sparta High, Betsy
Braden, owner of Dogwood Printing
and long time member of the community, informed me second hand that
“the cheerleading squad of 1939 chose
[the Trojans] over the Bulldogs.” One
can hope that the mascot was chosen
for the sake of irony, but unfortunately
their intentions may never be known.
CLASSIC HALLOWEEN JOKES
Julius: Did you hear about the frog
who learnt Latin prose composition?
Brutus: No, and I don’t really care.
Julius: The other frogs said of him,
“Scribit, scribit...”
Credits to conejito and ender835
Cicero: What did the noun say to the
verb?
Hercules: ...What are those?
Cicero: I’d ask you to conjugate, but
I’m afraid you’d decline!
(cont. from pg. 1) amendment to the
MOJCL constitution is the procedure
for state of emergency elections. This
is in response to last years elections of
Jeremiah Doyle and James Leahy for
the positions of tech coordinator and
secretary. For those who weren’t at convention last year, those positions were
unfilled. This set the race into a state of
emergency, opening up the position to
anybody willing to submit an application. Doyle and Leahy both ran unopposed and received votes from three
schools each. Disclaimer: they are both
doing excellent jobs and are beautiful
editions to the MOJCL executive board.
The most important part of the
meeting was the discussion over the
when and whereof the coming spring
convention will be. On the original
calendar, the date for conventioin was
set for April 19 and 20 taking place at
Hickman and Rockbridge; business as
usual. However, this year the convention weekend falls on the weekend of
Easter, causing a strong desire to move
it to a date that doesn’t conflict with the
two days before the holiday. Though
undecided by the end of the meeting, an
email was sent to tie up loose ends In an
emial, Denise Turner of HIckman High
wrote “We have been talking about this
for years and now we are going to try it.
April is too busy.” This could be a very
good change for Missouri’s convention
giving teachers breathing room during
the spring season.