CLASSICAL LANGUAGES

Why study Latin or Greek?

Studying a classical language helps hungry learners. 

1. Learning any foreign language is helpful.
   1. Your brain builds capabilities beyond its first language.
   2. You gain new perspective on the human experience.
   3. With Latin and Greek you see the world from another time.
      
       
2. Increase English vocabulary
   – each simple word in Latin can be part of many English words.
   1. 60% of English words have Latin roots, 10% have Greek roots.
   2. Even never-before-seen English words become understandable.
   3. Knowing Latin or Greek thus improves spelling in English
      
       

3. Understand the roots of our civilization 

   1. Greece and Rome invented democracy, philosophy, science, drama, history, and critical thinking. 
   2. Greek and Roman literature is the story of our origins.
   3. The Renaissance is based in Latin and Greek study.
   4. Many paintings and sculpture in art museums only make sense when you know the classical stories.
   5. It’s on our money.  It’s in our churches. 
       
4. Latin and Greek represent the true “classical education.”
   1. Most educated people over the last several centuries learned Latin and Greek. 
   2. Schooling traditionally began with “grammar school” where Latin grammar was learned.
   3. Universities like Oxford required all incoming students to know Greek through 1920 and Latin through 1960.
   4. It can be argued that the fading of Latin and Greek study are part of the “dumbing down” of the modern world.
      
       
5. Knowing Greek or Latin clarifies English (and other) grammar –
   1. Greek and Latin nouns show gender and case inflection (unlike
      English).  Learning inflection clarifies parts of English grammar that’s difficult for English-only speakers to understand (e.g., who vs. whom, that vs. who).
   2. Knowing Greek or Latin helps clarify other grammatical issues, like split infinitives and dangling participles in English.
   3. Facilitates learning other inflected languages, like German or Russian.
      
       
6. Non-spoken languages –
   Classical Greek and Latin are today literary languages rather than conversational languages.
   1. They do NOT require daily instructor-lead pronunciation practice – a primary feature of most language study. Thus, they’re better suited to weekly tutorials than are modern languages.
   2. As literary languages, students quickly begin reading texts of great poetry, philosophy, and history rather than practicing dialogues about travel arrangements.  This should appeal to precocious and inquisitive gifted students. 
      
       
7. Any study of Latin and Greek is helpful, even just a year or two.
   1. Modern language study, on the other hand, is best undertaken in multi-year sequences needed to reach fluency and should persist without interruption.  Students who quit studying modern languages after a year or two frequently forget almost everything learned.  Such “language amnesia” is less pronounced with classical literary languages. 
   2. In other words, even a short dose of Latin helps.  Two years Latin during middle school will have enduring benefit, while a couple years Spanish may evaporate over time. 
      
       
8. Latin knowledge facilitates learning other Romance languages .
           French, Spanish, and Italian evolved out of Latin and have many
           similarities. 
   
    
9. Bright kids can do more than regular students. 
   1. Modern foreign language study is mandatory for all college-bound students.  They should learn a modern spoken language such as Spanish, French, or German. 
   2. A bright student, however, by definition can do more.  Bright students should do more.  Adding Latin or Greek is a logical step in distinguishing oneself from the hoi polloi (Greek for “the many”).  It adds breadth of study and the depth of a classical education.
      
       
10.   Latin and Greek help with admission to better colleges and universities.
    1. SAT and ACT scores go up for all of the above reasons. 
    2. Latin or Greek on college applications shows an above average breadth of education and a connection to the classical studies of our founding fathers.

Stanford University’s Dean of Admissions, Rick Shaw, reported in April of 2006 “What are our criteria for evaluation? First we focus on the academic rigor of the coursework that students take.  This is the highest priority.  This is the foundation for what we’re looking at.  The number of courses they took, the rigor of their courses” … followed by class rank, SAT scores, etc. 

http://facultysenate.stanford.edu/2005_2006/minutes/04_20_06_SenD5831.pdf

 

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