Going Back to Classics To See How Words Work  Published: March
18, 1992  Ted Nellen is an iconoclast when it comes to Latin and
Greek. That's "iconoclast," from the Greek "eikon," a figure or
image, and "klaein," to break. As Webster's New World Dictionary
defines it, "one who attacks and seeks to destroy widely
accepted ideas, beliefs, etc."    But he is not a teacher of
Latin and Greek. Mr. Nellen is an English teacher. And he does
not exactly teach Latin or Greek to his students, either; what
he does is show them the Latin and Greek roots found in so many
English words. Keeping a Sense of Fun   "It makes a puzzle, but
a solvable one," Mr. Nellen said of his method, which teaches
students 300 Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes by the end of
a semester. "They learn not to be afraid of the big words,
because they can break them up into related parts. And even if
they don't always get it right, they have fun figuring it out."
The students write the words on an index card and are
responsible for learning t