Latin Comes to Life at Corona del Mar High School : Toga-Clad Classical Language Students Converge to Renew the Past With Gusto

A half-dozen high school boys were making last-minute adjustments to the white bed sheets artfully draped around their bodies when another boy joined the group.

“Hey, where’s your toga?” asked one of the toga-clad teen-agers.

The latecomer, wearing regular clothes and looking as conspicuous as a galley slave in Cleopatra’s boudoir, smiled sheepishly.

“You mean you didn’t bring one?” the other boy gasped. “You’re gonna feel like a fool! Everyone’s going to have one on.”

Indeed, “When in Rome. . .”

--or, in this case, Newport Beach where Corona del Mar High School hosted the 30th California Junior Classical League (JCL) convention last weekend.

More than 700 Latin language students, teachers and chaperones, representing 25 schools throughout the state, converged upon the Corona del Mar campus for three days of academic contests, art and classic Olympic competitions and seminars on such topics as “Mythology From Vases.”

But don’t think the Latin convention was all labor (work) and no ludus (play).

A bazaar in the school’s quad, which had been decorated to resemble a Roman square, featured booths offering palm reading, T-vestes (T-shirts) , Simulacra et Effigies (photographs) and printed missives on parchment paper bearing such sentiments as De Te Cogitans (Thinking of You) and Totam Noctem Saltemus (Let’s Dance All Night), which many students delivered to potential dance partners for the dance that night.

A makeshift carcer (jail), sponsored by University High School in Irvine, also did a booming business. For 25 cents, a student could buy a ticket to have vigiles (policemen) arrest a friend. (Those who were arrested either paid a ticket to get out or remained incarcerated for 15 minutes).

As state JCL president Bill D’Angelo, a fourth-year Latin student at Corona del Mar High School, defined the goal of the convention: “Corona del Mar’s point of view, is to have fun and in that promote Latin and Greek and their culture.

‘Carnival-Like Atmosphere’

“This convention has almost a carnival-like atmosphere, and it’s purposeful: We want people to come here and be motivated and excited about Rome. Rome was like a carnival-like atmosphere itself.”

And togas were definitely the order of the day.

By 7:30 Saturday morning, the quad resembled a January white sale as the horde of toga-clad students made its way to the Commons for the first general assembly. (The Pledge of Allegiance, naturally, was recited in Latin.)

The togas ranged from the makeshift bed-sheet variety to custom-made, pastel-colored outfits adorned with sashes, capes and decorative stripes. There were togas with long, flowing sleeves, short sleeves and, for the immodest, no sleeves.

Footwear ran the gamut from authentic leather-strapped sandals to red tennis shoes. Headwear was optional: Some students wore ersatz laurel wreathes made of everything from cardboard to Boston fern fronds.

Standing out among the crowd were a smattering of vampish Cleopatras and breast-plated Roman soldiers--contestants for a costume contest later in the morning.

Large Turnout

“The convention is one time to come out here and just throw away any inhibitions you may have, hide behind the toga and have a lot of fun,” observed James Chang, a fourth-year Latin student from Hoover High School in Glendale. “The people who take Latin are a little different than the people who take Spanish or French--it’s more of an outgoing crowd.”

The large turnout--nearly 300 more than have ever attended a JCL convention--symbolizes the nationwide renaissance of Latin in the nation’s schools in recent years, a response, in part, to the back-to-basics movement. Surveys show that students who have studied Latin average about 150 points higher on the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

“I think one main reason for taking Latin is that it helps you in English,” said convention chairman Kristan Bentley, a second-year Corona del Mar High School Latin student. “I learn more about English in my Latin class than in my English class. You learn vocabulary much better by learning the roots of the words.”

“Latin is a different type of discipline,” observed D’Angelo, who plans to major in Latin and Greek in college. “It’s difficult, but it gives you a feeling of triumph when you translate 100 lines of Virgil in a night.”

The budding Latin scholars were given an opportunity to show off their command of the language throughout the day, particularly during the certamen (struggle) contests which resembled the old “College Bowl” show on television.

Enthusiastic cheers from each school’s rooting section greeted a team’s winning answers to such questions as, “What movie would you be seeing if you went to ‘Umbrarum Fractores? ‘ “ (“Ghostbusters”); “What form of literature did the Romans call their own?” (Satire), and “Distinguish these verb forms: docet and ducet” (He teaches; He will lead).

Schools Sweeps Contests

(Corona del Mar High School, as it turned out, swept all three of the certamen finals (first year, second year and advanced.)

Students’ knowledge of the customs of ancient Rome surfaced during the costume contest, in which the Cleopatras and Roman soldiers, wearing homemade costumes, had to describe who they are historically, what they do and what they’re wearing.

“This purple, it’s a dye, “ said one gum-chewing Cleopatra with braces while showing off her veil. “It’s very expensive and only royalty like me can afford it. Isn’t it lovely?”

The emphasis on learning not just the language but the culture of the ancient world, reflects the more innovative approaches to teaching Latin that have surfaced in the past decade and also helps explain the rebirth of the “dead” language, which is the basis of five modern languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian.

Latin teachers now incorporate mythology, history, literature analyses, daily life, philosophy, religion and science into their classes.

And the students enjoy the interdisciplinary approach.

“It’s just real interesting,” said Kris Sanderson, a second-year Latin student at Troy High School in Fullerton. “I found out the Roman life is so much like us. They wore bikinis; they had water pipes for the houses, and they had shopping centers. I just think that’s amazing.”

From about 1900 until the past 10 or 15 years, Latin was usually “taught as a grammar separate from its culture, its daily life, the religion, the philosophy, the science--all those things that make it alive,” explained Michele Cella, Corona del Mar High School’s Latin teacher.

Cella, who has seen the number of Latin students in her classes grow from 41 students eight years ago to 143 today, said Latin typically attracts the top 1 or 2% of the student body.

10% Taking Latin

“But right now I have 10% of the school taking Latin,” said Cella. “As the language has become more popular, it has appealed to other students besides just the cream of the crop.

“I think parents are beginning to realize we’ve raised a generation of functional illiterates and the pendulum went too far to one side. I think people want their children to go back into more basic subjects, and Latin is the best language builder we have, not just for other languages but for English.”

She added that “colleges are very competitive nowadays, and I think parents are realizing in order to compete with the 4.0 (grade average student) coming from New Jersey, you’ve got to have something that is a little different on your record, and Latin has always been considered the language of the elite so they figured that would give them the edge.

“It has been shown to improve your board scores about 150 points over normal students. The more that gets around, the more people who are upwardly mobile want to give their kid that extra edge.”

Cella said that studying Latin “also gives you a greater awareness of anything in the humanities--all of Western Civilization--so you usually find that Latin students are more sensitive. They’ve seen things through someone else’s eyes, and they realize that nothing is new: Everything is just footnotes to Plato.”

Although high school Latin clubs now rank among the most popular clubs at many schools, Cella said that because Latin students usually represent a minority in a school, “the students feel isolated; they feel ignored, and the convention gives them a chance to see there are 600 or 700 other kids in the state who are just as bright and just as motivated and just as interested in Latin as they are.”

Roman-Style Banquet

At the conventions, she noted, “we try to give them an awareness of Roman and Greek activities and at the same time have fun.”

And a Roman-style banquet, which preceded a dance, provided a fitting way to end the day.

The boy’s gym was transformed into a Roman banquet hall that would have made Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry, proud.

Romanesque statues, columns and fountains, which were rented from a Hollywood prop house, set the mood in the dimly lit gym, which was filled with rows of long banquet tables laden with bread and fruit and, serving as centerpieces, plaster-of-paris volcanoes.

(Although togas were derigueur at the banquet, they have been banned from the after-banquet dance for about five years. A convention official explained: “Ever since the ‘Animal House’ movie, if they wear a toga to a party they start dropping their drawers.”)

Catering to the whims of the revelers were student volunteers from Corona del Mar High School who served as “slaves” for the evening.

“We the slaves have to tend to them: feed them, give them water--whatever they want,” “slave” Jeff Ryan, a third-year Latin student, explained before the doors to the gym were opened.

At each banquet table, Ryan explained, are note pads. Whenever a diner wants to send a note to someone at another table, all he or she has to do is summon a slave to make the delivery. Usually, Ryan confided, the message goes to someone the sender wants to meet later at the dance.

“Basically, we do anything they ask,” said Ryan.

But that doesn’t mean the diners take advantage of the situation. As Ryan observed, the slaves have the upper hand: “We are in control of their food, sending their letters and everything’s that’s vital to them.”

With the movie sound track albums from “Ben Hur” and “Cleopatra” providing background music, the horde of Latin students swarmed through the doors at 6 p.m., and D’Angelo officially declared that the 30th California Junior Classic League banquet had begun.

Simulated Volcanoes

With that, the slaves poured vinegar into the table-top plaster-of-paris volcanoes, activating baking soda inside and causing a red lavalike ooze to pour over the sides of the centerpieces.

The slaves then began scurrying up and down the long rows of tables, delivering food, drink and messages to the teen-age revelers.

“Torrance High School! Torrance High School!” cried one slave messenger above the din.

“Torrance High School over here,” responded a girl.

From his head-table vantage point, D’Angelo surveyed the proceedings.

“It’s kind of docile,” observed D’Angelo, recalling past conventions where food fights have erupted.

But, he added, “It’s still early; It may get worse.”