| Why Your Kids Should Learn Latin | ||||||||||||||||
| Vocabulary, Logic, Human Similarities | ||||||||||||||||
Language should facilitate -- not eliminate -- communication. However, an enhanced vocabulary willl help in reading and conversation. The study of Latin does confer certain benefits. First, Latinate vocabulary is very important in English, it is widely used both in literary contexts and in modern scientific nomenclature, to the extent that a person with a good knowledge of Latin automatically has an extended English vocabulary. Greek along with Latin is the basis for virtually all English scientific terms, both languages have been used for scientific vocabulary for centuries and dozens of new terms which are being coined from Greek and Latin roots every year. Behind this lies the need for standardization in a world which employs many languages. Since the Classical languages claimed universality for hundreds of years, their use has been accepted throughout the world as the basis for a standard scientific vocabulary.
Since language affects how we think and perceive, it is likely that elements of the Greek language led Aristotle to logic. So perhaps this is really an argument for studying the other Classical language. However, logic can be a tool of rhetoric -- a skill in which the litigious Romans excelled. Arguably, in a society as bent on ascribing blame as the modern US, a skilled rhetor would be a valued commodity.
Latin was once seen as the model for logical thought, even Logic itself, and some teachers still cite this argument as a reason for studying Latin. Nothing could be further from the truth, since all languages contain an inner logic of their own.
Second, there is another reason: the social documentary approach. Terence said long ago that nothing human was uninteresting to him, and now that we have a developed sense of social relevance, we can find fascinating information about that elusive fellow--Man----in all ancient documents. Human condition two thousand years ago was similar to our world but very different, and it is the varying formula for the degree of difference which makes social studies in ancient society fascinating. Derk-Michel Strauch describes the surprise with which his students greeted this revelation: The high school in which I teach Latin has a student population which is about 95% African-American and Hispanic. We were recently viewing a video about the Romans (Romans: Life, Laughter and Law) in which there was a scene of the slave market. My students gasped when they saw the scene and were perplexed to see that slaves were white! They had real trouble grasping the idea that slaves were a race other than Africans - in their concept of the world only Africans were ever slaves. What a shock it was for them to learn that the Romans made slaves out of person of their own race - hard to say that slavery is a universal form of racism. Four weeks later, this concept still perplexes them. Yesterday we were reading a story in which a Greek slave is bought to tutor the children and again the whole question of white slaves emerged. Next page > Differences, Prestige, Fun and Phonics > Page 1, 2, 3, 4 The URL for this feature is http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa031798b.htm Why Your Kids Should Study Latin - Vocabulary - Logic This feature is copyright � 1998-2003 N.S. Gill.
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