Friday, July 17, 2009Let Them Learn Latin!
Marlith/Flickr
For most of us, the idea of Latin class conjures images of prep-school boys in blazers reciting Julius Caesar, or Catholic schoolchildren memorizing noun forms. It's a dead language, the conventional wisdom says, and not worth studying unless one's privileged background or religious convictions demand it.
But Latin is worth teaching to all students, regardless of background. And in fact, despite its reputation as a language of privilege, Latin is as well suited to helping students who are struggling with literacy as it is to serving as a feather in the cap of Ivy League-bound prep-schoolers.
Why? Latin helps build an English vocabulary, which is critical for students from underprivileged backgrounds. As The New York Times Magazine reported in a 2006 article about the nation's achievement gap, children whose parents are on welfare enter school knowing half as many words as do children of professional parents. By providing a grounding in the prefixes, suffixes, and roots that serve as the building blocks for so many English words, Latin enables these disadvantaged students to catch up.
In addition, Latin's grammar, unlike that of English, follows reassuringly predictable rules. Each part of speech is quickly recognizable; you can look at a sentence in Latin and instantly see what the subject, verb, and object are, even if you don't know what the words mean. And in Latin, the verb, noun, and adjective forms are, for the most part, regular, so one isn't constantly faced with mysterious new permutations.
Learning Latin can thus instill confidence in students who may be struggling with written English; mastering this straightforward language makes our own amorphous one feel less daunting. And Latin gives students a conceptual understanding of grammar that can easily be transferred to the study of English; once one understands the difference between, say, a direct and indirect object in Latin, one can understand the distinction in English as well.
Best of all, a student who has mastered the language and enjoyed the benefits of a wider vocabulary and greater proficiency with grammar also gains access to the world of Latin literature. The epic tales of the classics contain characters and plot lines that all students can relate to. Take Virgil's Aeneid, for example, whose hero sets out with trepidation on a voyage he's not sure he'll be able to complete. Or the works of the poet Catullus, who wrote freely about everything from sexual frustration to the pain of unrequited love--subjects that would set any hormonal teenager's heart on fire. All our nation's children deserve to become familiar with these writings, not just a privileged handful.
Some schools and school systems have already dedicated themselves to bringing Latin to a broader range of students. Last year, a young teacher named Austin Walker began teaching Latin in an underprivileged high school in rural Mississippi. His efforts were such a success that two-thirds of his students ended up winning awards on the National Latin Exam. And in Brooklyn, New York, a public charter school, Brooklyn Latin, opened three years ago, with a mission to teach the classics to all its students. In London, too, 20 inner-city schools have begun teaching Latin. Their goal is to increase literacy.
These promising stories are a start, but it's time to build on these examples and give every child in America the opportunity to learn Latin.
I am actually in agreement with the idea behind the post, though, as a predictably anal former Latin student, I have to make a couple tweaks.
First, Julius Caesar was a play in English by Shakespeare. Julius Caesar was the legend to whom you refer who was fond of ablative absolutes in Commentarii de Bello Gallico. A minor point, yes, but Latin does ingrain an annoying attention to detail.
Second, the bit about limited permutations is technically correct, but the first verb a Latin student has to master is "to be" (sum, esse, fui), and it is anything but a regular verb. Latin can be frustrating for anyone, so those who have particular trouble with English or studies generally, like the kids I grew up around, could have those frustrations exacerbated, not alleviated, by Latin studies.
So while I understand what I'm about to say wasn't necessarily the point of the post's author, it should be noted that you can't just re-institute Latin into the general school curriculum and expect marvelous results. You must first identify the kids who are willing to work harder and then apply these lessons.
But yes, I think--for the right students in these disadvantaged situations--Latin could work wonders.
"For most of us, the idea of Latin class conjures images of prep-school boys in blazers reciting Julius Caesar, or Catholic schoolchildren memorizing noun forms."
I think the author meant reciting lines of the original Latin, not lines from Shakespeare...
Also, the author was right that Latin has an extremely limited number of irregular verbs (8, to be exact: sum/possum, eo, volo/nolo, malo, fero, fio, edo, and do), whereas French, for example, has over 100, and English verbs have no set endings. And since Latin isn't a spoken Language, ELLs are less likely to be frustrated by pronunciation. Finally, Latin spelling is much simpler than English. All these factors make Latin the ideal second (or third) language for students of all backgrounds, not just prep school students.
I worked with a group that tried to start a charter school after Katrina hit New Orleans. We worked on a "classical" model. Didn't happen.
However this was transformed into a child development center. Guess what...still commited to a Latin/Greek vocabulary development program. Not quite there yet....but still trying. To hell with prep school students these are low income preschoolers.
Patricii plebem dicere semper conantur quid optimum illis sit sed omnibus optime non agunt.
...Did you just watch Rushmore?
Hic, Hic, Latin may be a dead language but it is a language upon which many "living" languages are based. As these "living" languages become abbreviated through "texting" an understanding of their origins may be wise.