Proposed charter schools include all-boys Latin prep

[Christina Paulston]

How about a word for Greek?  I think I have had more joy of my high 
school Greek than my Latin .
And like it or not, the US can use some elitism in academic 
achievement.  Christina
On Oct 18, 2005, at 11:53 AM, Kephart, Ronald wrote:

>>  >From the Philadelphia Enquirer, Thu, Oct. 13, 2005
>>
>> "When you look at SAT scores, the kids who take Latin, as a group, 
>> score the highest," Hardy said. "Latin puts an academic tone on the 
>> school that gets people serious from when they come in the door."
>
> Well, I don't have anything against Latin, but I bet a program 
> centered on the rigorous teaching of any language would accomplish 
> similar results.
>
>>  He said Latin also helps students with English grammar...
>
> The study of any language would help here, seems to me, because what 
> we're looking for is the metalinguistic toolkit that enables students 
> to reflect back on English.
>
>> ...and vocabulary...
>
> OK. This is probably true, because the prestige vocabulary, the 
> vocabulary likely to be tested on SAT, is largely Latinate. The SATs 
> represent a sort of ongoing colonization of the mind; does the year 
> 1066 mean anything?  (How many native Anglo-Saxon words are 
> specifically tested for on the SAT, I wonder?)
>
>> ...and provides a pathway for learning other languages. "Latin is 
>> something that takes some effort to master," he said. "If you can get 
>> kids to fight the fight to master it, they won't be afraid to do 
>> anything."
>
> Any language well-taught takes "some effort to master." The prestige 
> Latin holds in this regard is, in my view, still more 
> mind-colonization. Again, recall 1066 and then think of the folk 
> notion of French being harder to learn than Spanish.
>
> Anyway, as I tell my linguistics students, there's nothing special 
> about Latin that isn't true of every other human language.*
>
> Ron
>
> *No Latin teachers were harmed in the writing of this email.
>