Latin

Stu slighted America's Latin abilities in a comment on my last post, and I could not let that challenge pass, so I went looking for some answers. I found three pretty good articles:

Teaching of Latin in Schools

School Latin rise 'an illusion'

A Dead Language That’s Very Much Alive

I studied French in school, not Latin. French seemed like it might be more useful. I do not use Latin. The only Latin phrase I can think of off the top of my head is E Pluribus Unum, which is printed on USA bills or coins. It means something about "people". People United, maybe? Lots of gun bloggers have a Latin mottoes posted on their blogs, and I know there are lots of Latin phrases in medicine and law. Sometimes when I encounter a Latin phrase I will look it up, but I soon forget. I suspect I forget because, one, I won't see the same phrase again for a long time, and two, because it is usually does not have anything to do with the topic under consideration. It is usually some pithy and/or profound statement that governs the overall subject, but does not really inform the particulars.

We should continue to support the study and teaching of Latin because it gives us some continuity with the past and because it gives people in law and medicine a level playing field. Left to their own devices, and cut off the from outside contact, people will develop their own dialect, which may allow them to communicate with their neighbors, but can just as easily prevent them from talking to outsiders.

Most everything that is happening in our world today, has happened before, and some of those who experienced these things spoke Latin, and some of them recorded these events and their thoughts about same in Latin.

It is one thing to have knowledge recorded on a durable medium. It is quite another to have it be in someone's head where they can actually use it.

Should everyone study Latin? No. Should it be a requirement for a public office? No. How many Latin scholars and / or teachers do we need? I would say about one for every hundred doctors and lawyers.

Latin is kind of like classical music and art. People in the past have created some very beautiful things (really nice stuff) and I while I do not worship at the altar of all things classical, I think everyone can use a little history, and to that end we need people who are conversant with the subject.

But the ultimate goal of Roman education was the enarratio poetarum [narrative of the poets], and to this day most claim that the sole aim of studying Latin is to acquire a proper appreciation of the Latin classics. Roman students were expected to be able to read, aloud and with expression, a given passage from the works of a poet. Then they were grilled, line by line and word by word, on the many intricacies of the grammar, rhetorical figures, and mythological allusions. Advanced students went on to rhetorical studies to prepare them for public life. - Teaching of Latin in Schools