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Peter Cohee

Peter Cohee is a seasoned classicist and educator with decades of experience teaching Latin, ancient Greek, and classical humanities. His academic background and professional journey reflect a deep commitment to both scholarship and student engagement, particularly in bringing ancient languages and cultures to life in the classroom and through one-on-one instruction.

Peter holds a Ph.D. in classics from the University of Colorado Boulder, where his dissertation explored the bureaucratic structures of Roman public religion. He has taught at the college level, including at Ohio University, as well as in public and independent schools. He also served as program director of the classics department at Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in the United States. There, he led curriculum reforms, introduced national Latin exams, and established a student Classics club that became a consistent presence at state and national competitions.

Peter’s academic achievements include a fellowship from the American Philological Association to work at the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich, where he contributed to the definitive lexicon of the Latin language. His scholarly publications address topics such as Roman sacrificial practices, priesthood terminology, and textual issues in authors like Livy and Gellius.

Now retired from classroom teaching, Peter continues to teach Latin, ancient Greek, and classical humanities. He brings both rigor and enthusiasm to his sessions, helping students navigate ancient texts with confidence and curiosity. He gets rave reviews from Cicero students.
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Teaching Philosophy & Approach

As soon as I could read with any fluency, I made words, stories, and books my solace and refuge throughout my very disrupted early years. My love of languages and literature guided me then and has not waned in all my life. And I know certainly that the humanities, more broadly speaking, can be, are, and should be a source not only of comfort but also of happiness to young people, whatever their individual lives.

To teach, really teach, you must know, without doubt, that your subject is important, valuable, teachable, and learnable. You are convinced that the young man or woman seated or standing in front of you must know, to the best of his or her ability, the subject you are professing. Since that is so, you must, on your part, make the subject as accessible as possible to that young person so that he or she feels the same love of it that you yourself feel. If a student is not properly helped to know a subject, that subject can have no value at all to him or her.

My pedagogy is simple: all new learning is based on all prior learning. That obligates me to find out just what each student already knows—or does not know. Can they differentiate parts of speech? Do they know another foreign language? In every case, I must build on a foundation that is already there, if only partly, or I have to pour the foundation myself and then construct the edifice.

I know certainly that the humanities, more broadly speaking, can be, are, and should be a source not only of comfort but also of happiness to young people, whatever their individual lives.

Teaching Level:
  • Middle
  • High School
Teaching Type:
  • Full-Year Classes
Teaching Subjects:
  • Latin
  • Greek

Testimonials

Courses that Peter Cohee Teaches

  • AP Latin
    Our AP Latin course offers a captivating exploration of the…
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