This school year Brunswick High School introduced a new elective course—Greek mythology. While this course is not special in regards to other areas, for Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) this is the first time Greek mythology has been taught in high school.
Although it wasn’t a coincidence that Brunswick was selected for this, BHS has the largest percentage of students taking Latin in FCPS schools, and is in fact one of the only schools, aside from Urbana High School, that even teaches Latin. Greek mythology was originally a part of the Latin curriculum so it only made sense for one of the only schools to teach Latin to also begin to teach Greek mythology.
The curriculum specialist from FCPS hand selected Mrs. Bentley, Brunswick’s current Latin teacher to teach this class. Mrs. Bentley has been teaching Latin for 10 years and is passionate about both Latin and mythology. Even visiting Greece before even planning to teach this class and bringing back souvenirs connected to the mythology in Greece.
This doesn’t mean FCPS made it easy on BHS to introduce this class. Mrs. Bentley had to write the entire curriculum herself and wait an entire year to get it approved after submitting it to the board of education. The process of creating this curriculum obviously included using her own time to do personal research alongside looking into the Frederick Community College Curriculum for Greek mythology. The FCC curriculum was made by Ms. Charlet Remus who was also a Latin teacher, teaching Latin at Thomas Johnson High School for 40 years and is now retired. Not only all of this but in planning for the next school year, Mrs. Bentley only had room to teach the class once per year.
Despite the struggle this hard work from Mrs. Bentley did not go to waste. The same year it was added to the application for classes, a large number of students selected it. Actually Mrs. Bentley had to reject over half of the students that signed up for the class just because there wasn’t enough room in the single block she teaches it. Mrs. Bentley states that despite any struggles the hard work was worth it and that she enjoys teaching the class, and that she also is happy to provide students with material that could be useful to know in a multitude of fields Students that are taking the class this year also agree that the class was enjoyable and would recommend it to other students.