Not Teaching Latin? You Are Not Alone!

[Beircheart]

I struggled with the Latin issue for quite some time. Sometimes I would think it should be a cornerstone to my homeschooling and would beat myself up for not incorporating it. Other times, I simply could not justify it. I am currently in the anti-Latin mood and honestly believe that’s where I’ll stay.  My problems with it are, while any knowledge is useful and precious, its overall relevance in the modern world has diminished to the point where, in my mind, it simply doesn’t add enough value to justify its inclusion.

 

Latin was once the language of science. Scholarly papers were written in Latin, symposiums held in Latin, and so on. That simply is not the case any longer. If it were, my kids would have been studying Latin since kindergarten!  As it is, the only places I can point to where Latin mastery remains essential is Law, though from discussions I’ve had with lawyers it seems debatable how essential it is there anymore, Theology and Classics. Even in those pursuits Latin is critical only if they be taken on as life callings; at the doctorate levels. In all other pursuits, even acknowledging many terms have Latin origins, the need to study the language in depth is no longer critical. It is hard for me to justify wrestling with a language which less than 1% of vocations require fluency or even proficiency.

 

The most common reason I hear cited for Latin is its positive impact on vocabulary. I appreciate that as truth, but are the gains really that significant? There are studies showing Latin trained youngsters typically do better on SAT tests. No argument here! I do have to wonder, though, if the difference is due to the language being studied or more to the level of effort students need put into learning it and, still more importantly, the investment in education parents need posses to ensure it happened.  To my mind, that is critical! I have no doubt that non-Latin trained youths who worked hard at their studies and who had invested parents holding high expectations and standards also typically score higher than average on these tests.

 

I personally don’t know any Latin at all, but I still have an ample armament of words in my vocabulary arsenal. My spelling is typically better than most and I have been told that I write rather well, too.  All the aforementioned skills were gained in the greatest part from my love of reading.  My daughter also has an immense verbal store and she, too, is a voracious reader. My son’s word-bag is much lighter because, I feel, he does not enjoy reading near as much as we and avoids it when he can.  My point is, reading is at least an equal if not a greater vocabulary-building exercise than is the study of Latin and when it comes right down to it, I’d rather my kids be well read than possess a smattering of Latin.

 

The final pro-Latin argument I want to address is the critical thinking nature inherent to the language. Again, there can be no denying that is true.  My counter to that, however, is that math, chemistry, physics, and biology all depend on critical thinking and analysis. These courses are intimidating to many and oft are marginally taught. If the same level of effort is put into self-learning and subsequently teaching these as Latin requires, anyone can hold court, so to speak, at a very demanding level in those hard science fields. For those of us who are teaching philosophy, rhetoric, and theology, critical thinking skills are honed there as well. In truth, the ability to critically think, speak, and write should be such a foundation to all class work that what Latin could add to an already brimming cup seems trivial.

 

In the end I realized, and this is simply my personal perspective as, in truth, has been all the preceding, that my emotional tie to Latin was simply that. It was a romantic sentiment paid in homage to what the language once was. My idealized notion of what it meant to be a well-educated person changed. I grieved. Then, I moved on.

 

By no means am I belittling Latin or trying to discourage anyone from personally pursuing it or from introducing it to their children.  No harm has ever been done in the growth of knowledge! My purpose is not to dissuade but provide an alternative view regarding including Latin in any curriculum for those who may want to exclude it.  There are very few leave-it-out perspectives floating around as I discovered from my own investigations. I simply wanted to share one man’s perspective. I want to reassure others who decide to leave it out that just as no harm can be done from including Latin, none will be done by excluding it either.

 

[TyraTooters]

We're not doing Latin...and as of right now I don't have any plans to!

[HS Mom in NC]

We opted to do Latin and Greek word roots instead of Latin or Greek as a language.  That way we get its influence directly on English without spending time on Latin or Greek as a whole.  I think people that aren't getting Greek word roots because they're only studying Latin as a language are not getting the full benefit of vocabulary word root studies.  Although, to be clear, reading excellent literature aloud for up to a couple hours a day beginning in the preschool years through high school  is the way I think humans were designed to expand their vocabularies, so I'm not an advocate of typical canned vocabulary curriculum. 

 

I think studying Latin as a source of comparison and contrast when it comes to English Grammar is a very high investment for a very low pay out.  You can teach things like subjective and objective cases in English without a grammar background in Latin, you just have to look harder through English Grammar curricula.  If I were planning on my kids reading great works in Latin or Greek in high school, then I would choose to study the languages as a whole, but since I'm not, the study of Latin and Greek are not all that compatible with our educational goals.

[3girls4me]

What do you use to teach the Greek and Latin roots?

[mom2bee]

I'm all for studying Latin and Greek roots for vocabulary purposes. I'm not sold on the idea of investing time into Latin as a language when there are a thousand other languages out there that will have the same benefit on a persons mind/education.

 

I would love to read some articles comparing grammar of various languages, if I had the patience to do a linguistic major, I think that it would make an interesting project!

[Lawyer&Mom]

I agree there are lots of ways to practice critical thinking. Latin is a really good way to study critical thinking and gain awareness of language structure, mechanics and usage. Could you get similar results from studying a modern foreign language plus Grammar and Rhetoric? Sure. Latin just packs a lot of good things into a single subject.

[HS Mom in NC]

I start with Rummy Roots and More Roots and then move to English from the Roots Up books 1 & 2.

[IsabelC]

Interesting post. 

 

I *love* the idea of learning Latin, but it's not going to happen around here in the near future. It's a matter of priorities: while we still have kids who can't read and write in English, don't know arithmetic, can't act appropriately with other kids, can't manage their own personal hygiene and toileting, and so on, nice-to-do 'extras' like Latin are going to remain on the back burner.

[HS Mom in NC]

Just in case some readers are unfamiliar with the arguments for studying Latin as part of a Classical Education, here are places to go to get up to speed on that discussion:

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=why+study+latin&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb

[Syllieann]

I agree. I have no plans to study it. If kids enjoy latin, great, study latin, but the benefits of latin can all be gained in other ways. My kids do learn the bits that are relevant to Mass, and the stems as they come up. Tbh though, I don't think the time and effort required to become fluent in a foreign language (living) is worth it either. Unless one actually has an opportunity and need to use it regularly, I don't see it as super beneficial. The cultural appreciation and vocabulary benefits can be reaped in a much more efficient manner.

[mathnmusic]

We started Latin as part of CC, and our year of doing "CC at home" with another family, but couldn't justify all that time spent on a language that's not being spoken anymore - so we're planning to continue with it only as part of our study of Greek and Latin roots, and going to learn Spanish instead.  We'll get a lot of practical use out of Spanish, living in California!

[momacacia]

Viva Latina!

Lol.

We'll see how far we get. I think #2 will love it but #1's heart isn't in it.