Historical linguistics for high school students

The Linguistic Society of America’s “Linguistics in the School Curriculum Committee (LiSC)” has inspired the content in recent years of two outreach projects in Central Ohio: the already-existing Summer Linguistics Institute for Youth Scholars (SLIYS) at Ohio State University and a pilot program at Metro Early College High School (MECHS). We provide a brief history of these programs and the ways in which historical linguistics has been embedded in them, starting from the directive from the LSA and continuing on to the development of these programs and their execution. In doing so, we reflect on the unique considerations one needs to take, and the creative thinking involved, when implementing a High School ((HS) linguistics program, and we discuss our successes and our failures, as well as the future of these programs. Some practical pointers about incorporating historical linguistic material into the classroom are included as well.