Passing Grade for Latin

As many Orange County students are discovering, reports of the death of Latin as a language were premature. Alive and well, it is making a strong academic comeback at Corona del Mar, University, Troy, Dana Hills and many other high schools in the county.

In the 19th Century, Latin was the second language for students in most public high schools in the United States. Students read Latin, wrote Latin and sometimes spoke Latin. Over the generations, Latin steadily lost favor to modern languages on the dubious grounds that they were more utilitarian. A few diehards protested that Latin was a necessary base for the logical construction of sentences in English, and that the decline in clarity in term papers accompanied the decline in the study of Latin. They could scarcely be heard over the din of the modern languages.

But the salutation Salve amice, quid agis hodie? (“Greetings, friend, how are you today?”) is heard more and more at some county high schools, where about 10% of the students are enrolled in Latin classes. The number of Latin students might be higher except that the supply of teachers is limited. If the law of supply and demand prevails, the shortage may well be remedied soon.

One reason for the reappearance of the so-called “dead” language and the renewed interest among students is a new teaching approach. In its heyday, Latin was pounded into the memories of students by rote, as was grammatical structure. Under new curricula, students learn not only the language but also the culture, literature, mythology, history and religion of the people who bought figs in Latin and who used the language to tell one another that it looked like rain.

Students are discovering that Latin, which is the root of five modern languages, has made a major contribution to English and that studying Latin produces marked improvements in their other language skills. As one teacher noted, when students can trace the origin of words and see how old language is recycled into new, they develop an awareness and appreciation not only of language but also of history and the humanities. For students who can find a teacher, Latin often becomes as important as anything that they will learn in a computer course.

If it all seems rather academic, consider some early evidence that there are practical reasons for enrolling in Latin classes, along with glimmers of vindication for the diehards who warned against letting Latin studies decline. Latin scholars recently have been scoring about 150 points higher in the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Tests than other students.

Satis verborum. “Enough said.”