Independent Study Proposal and Request for Civics Course Replacement Cicero's Civics: Speaking and Listening, from the Republic to Today Student: [Name], Grade 11 Term: Spring 2027 (one semester, 16 weeks) Request: That this independent study be accepted in place of the standard one-semester Civics / American Government requirement, with equivalent credit Supervising teacher: [Name, department] Outside mentor (optional): [Name, role] 1. Request I request approval of this independent study as a substitute for the required semester of Civics, with equivalent credit. The course covers the core content of the standard course — citizenship, the nature of a republic, the limits on power, the duties of citizens — through its classical source, Cicero, and organizes that content around a single thesis: a republic is governed by public speaking and listening, and its health depends on the health of its public speech. The student has five years of Latin and is reading Cicero's Orator on his own initiative. This proposal converts that reading into a supervised course with defined outcomes, weekly accountability, written and spoken assessments, and original-language work. 2. Thesis, aims, and value For Cicero the republic is the forum. Laws are made by debate in the assembly, justice by argument before a jury, and leaders are held to account in public words. His works on oratory describe what a self-governing people requires from the people who address it and what those speakers owe in return. His last work on the subject, Brutus, records the end of the republic as the end of oratory: when Caesar closed the forum, public speech lost its purpose. The course pursues this one thesis through the semester. A two-week primer from the Greeks establishes the vocabulary — the citizen, the three settings of political speech, and Plato's charge that persuasion is manipulation. One week on Cicero's foundations establishes the three ideas the student carries through everything after: the definition of a republic (De Re Publica), speech as what binds a society (De Officiis), and law as the constraint on those who speak for the state (De Legibus). Twelve weeks then cover the theory and practice of public speech in De Oratore, Orator, and the speeches, read throughout as civics. The listener's side of the exchange has its own text in the study of the Roman assembly, where citizens could hear but could not deliberate. The course closes on the present. The student attends a real public meeting and analyzes it with Cicero's categories, and the capstone is a deliberative speech written for delivery at such a meeting. The concluding commentary answers whether Cicero's account of speech and the republic holds today. The value of the course over the standard one lies in three things: it teaches civics from primary sources in the original language; it requires the student to practice the civic act the course describes, by writing and delivering speeches to real listeners; and it gives him a single durable idea about political life, tested against ancient and current evidence, in place of a survey. 3. Learning objectives By the end of the semester the student will be able to: Define citizenship, the republic, and the rule of law from classical sources, and explain how each depends on public speech. Describe the three settings of political speech — assembly, court, and civic ceremony — and map them to the legislative, judicial, and public functions of a modern state. Analyze any political speech using Cicero's categories: the three styles, the three duties of the speaker (to prove, to please, to move), and decorum. Explain the civic role of the listener, using the Roman assembly and the modern public meeting. Explain how a republic handles emergencies and the danger of concentrated power, using the Catilinarian crisis and the fall of the republic. Articulate the duties of a public speaker — honesty, service, restraint — from De Officiis and Quintilian. Deliver original speeches in the deliberative and judicial forms and defend the choices made in them. Read assigned passages of Cicero in Latin with grammatical and rhetorical commentary. 4. Texts Greek primer (in translation) Aristotle, Politics 1.1–2, 3.1–5 Aristotle, Rhetoric 1.1–3 Thucydides, History 2.35–46 (Pericles' Funeral Oration) Plato, Gorgias 452–466 Cicero (Latin with facing or interlinear translation; Loeb or Oxford) De Re Publica 1.39–45 (Latin) De Officiis 1.11–14, 1.85–89 (Latin) De Legibus 3.1–11 (selections) De Inventione 1.1–3 De Oratore, Book 1 §§ 1–95; Book 2 §§ 114–216; Book 3 §§ 1–125 (Latin: 1.30–34, 3.1–6) Orator (full; Latin: §§ 69–74, 168–174) Brutus §§ 1–23, 330–333 In Catilinam I (Latin, full) and II Pro Archia (Latin selections) Philippic II, selections Other classical Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 12.1 Secondary Mary Beard, SPQR, chapters on the late republic Robert Morstein-Marx, Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Late Roman Republic, one chapter on the contio (chosen with supervisor) Kathryn Tempest, Cicero: Politics and Persuasion, or Anthony Everitt, Cicero — chapters on 63 BC and on Cicero's last two years Optional American supplement (if required by the department) Federalist 10 and 51, read alongside Week 3 5. Sixteen-week schedule Unit 1 — Foundations (Weeks 1–3) Week Theme Reading Civics content Due 1 The citizen and the city Aristotle Politics 1.1–2, 3.1–5; Thucydides 2.35–46 What a citizen is; what a free city claims for itself Journal 2 Speech as the tool of self-government Aristotle Rhetoric 1.1–3; Plato Gorgias 452–466 Assembly, court, ceremony; the charge that persuasion is manipulation Journal 3 Republic, society, law De Re Publica 1.39–45 (Latin); De Officiis 1.11–14 (Latin); De Legibus 3.1–11 Definition of a republic; speech as what binds a society; offices and limits on those who speak for the state Journal; Latin Unit 2 — The orator as civic function: De Oratore (Weeks 4–7) Week Theme Reading Civics content Due 4 Speech founds the city De Inventione 1.1–3; De Oratore 1.1–34 (Latin 1.30–34) Origin of civil society; free speech as the condition of a republic Essay 1; Latin 5 What the orator must know De Oratore 1.35–95 Law, philosophy, and the state as the speaker's equipment; Crassus vs. Antonius Journal 6 Character and emotion in public persuasion De Oratore 2.114–216 Credibility, feeling, and humor as civic tools; their abuse Journal 7 Style, delivery, and the people De Oratore 3.1–125 (Latin 3.1–6) The speaker and the crowd; Crassus's death and the republic's crisis Journal; Latin Unit 3 — Orator: the three styles as three civic duties (Weeks 8–10) Week Theme Reading Civics content Due 8 Prove, please, move Orator 1–74 (Latin 69–74) The three duties of the speaker; the Atticist debate as a debate about what a republic needs Essay 2; Speech 1; Latin 9 Decorum Orator 75–139 Matching speech to audience, forum, and moment; respect for the public Journal 10 Rhythm and credibility Orator 140–238 (Latin 168–174) Why form affects trust; sound and persuasion Journal; Latin Unit 4 — Speaking and listening in the forum (Weeks 11–13) Week Theme Reading Civics content Due 11 Speech and the emergency In Catilinam I (Latin, full), II; Beard on 63 BC Emergency powers; the final decree of the Senate; security against liberty Journal; Latin commentary 12 The listening public Morstein-Marx on the contio; Pro Archia (Latin selections) The assembly that could hear but not vote; who counts as a citizen; the court as a civic forum Essay 3; Speech 2 13 Speech against a tyrant Philippic II selections; Brutus 1–23 Holding power to account; oratory under a strongman Journal Unit 5 — What the speaker owes, and what is lost (Weeks 14–15) Week Theme Reading Civics content Due 14 The speaker's duty De Officiis 1.85–89 (Latin); Quintilian 12.1 The common good; honesty in public life; the good man skilled in speaking Journal; Latin 15 When the forum closes — and today Brutus 330–333; attend one public meeting What a republic loses without public speech; local government as it actually speaks and listens Public-meeting report Week 16 — Capstone Week Theme Due 16 The citizen speaks Capstone speech delivered and commentary submitted 6. Assignments Weekly reading journal (16 entries). 300–500 words. Summarize the argument, identify the civic principle at stake, and raise one question. Weeks marked "Latin" include a translation of the assigned passage with grammatical and rhetorical notes. Unit essays (3). 1,200–1,500 words. Suggested prompts: Plato says rhetoric is flattery; Cicero says it founded civil society. Who is right, and what does the answer require of a republic? Cicero argues the plain style cannot do what a republic requires. Test the claim against one political speech from the last five years. The Roman assembly could listen but not deliberate. What does a public owe its speakers, and what happens when it can only listen? Argue from Morstein-Marx and the Catilinarians. Speeches (2). 6–8 minutes, delivered before the supervisor and at least two other listeners, with a one-page commentary identifying the style chosen, how the speech proves, pleases, and moves, and why the choices fit the audience. Speech 1, deliberative: argue a specific policy before an imagined assembly. Speech 2, judicial: prosecute or defend a historical figure (not Catiline) before an imagined jury. Public-meeting report. Attend one town council, board of education, or public hearing. 1,000 words analyzing who spoke, who listened, in what style, to what effect, using Cicero's categories. Capstone. A deliberative speech, 10–12 minutes, on a current local or state issue, written for delivery at a real public forum (town meeting, board hearing, or public-comment period) — delivered there if permitted, otherwise before a panel. With a 2,000-word commentary applying Orator and De Officiis: the style and why, the three duties, prose rhythm in key passages, the duty owed to the audience, and a concluding answer to the course's question: is Cicero's account of speech and the republic timeless only, or also timely? 7. Assessment Component Weight Reading journal (incl. Latin work) 25% Unit essays (3) 30% Speeches (2) with commentary 15% Public-meeting report 10% Capstone 20% Rubrics for essays and speeches to be agreed with the supervising teacher in Week 1. 8. Supervision and accountability Weekly 30-minute meeting with the supervising teacher to review the journal and discuss the reading. Journal entries submitted every Friday. Essays returned with written comments; one revision permitted per essay. Speeches recorded and kept in the portfolio. Mid-semester check-in (Week 8) to confirm pace and adjust readings if needed. 9. Coverage of standard civics content Standard civics topic Where this course covers it Citizenship: who is a citizen, what it means Weeks 1, 3, 12 Foundations of republican government Weeks 3, 4 Structure of government; limits on office-holders Week 3 Rule of law and the courts Weeks 3, 12 Rights, due process, and limits on power Weeks 11, 13 Executive power and emergencies Week 11 Political speech, participation, and public discourse Units 2–4; all speeches The role of the public and the listener Weeks 9, 12, 15 Accountability of leaders Week 13 Civic responsibility and the common good Week 14 Local government in practice Week 15 and capstone [Supervising teacher to add the specific Connecticut Social Studies Framework or district standard codes here.] 10. Portfolio at semester end Journal (16 entries), three essays, two speech recordings with commentaries, public-meeting report, capstone speech and commentary, and a one-page reflection on what the classical material showed about modern public life that the standard course would not have. Student signature: ______________________ Date: ________ Parent signature: ______________________ Date: ________ Supervising teacher: ____________________ Date: ________ Department chair / administrator: ______________________ Date: ________