Latin - Why are you teaching it? or Why not?

[kizudo]

Recently, I was asked what I was using to teach my son Latin.  It was presumed that I was.  I am not currently teaching him Latin and, frankly, didn't have any plans to - for no other reason than that I hadn't thought of it.

So, I have two questions:

My first question is for all of you who are teaching Latin to your little one(s) - Why?  Why have you chosen to teach this language?  What are the benefits of teaching them a language that is not particularly popular?  I know it's a classic, but it's not something common.  So, what are your big reasons?

My second question is for those who DON'T teach Latin - Why aren't you?  Specifically, if you've thought it out already.  I'm interested in what you think are the cons of teaching a language that provides understanding to the history of the English language.

[Mela Bala]

I took Latin in high school by my father's guidance that it will increase my vocabulary. 
I have not located any language programs that teach latin to babies but I do plan on introducing my son to Latin when he is around 4 years old.
I plan on using Rosetta Stone.

Here is a link to BrillKids member DadDude's blog about teaching his son Latin.
He explains why Latin is beneficial in detail.

[DadDude]

Did you mean to link to this one?

http://larrysanger.org/2011/05/ask-daddude-learning-a-second-language/

Let's be honest.  There are a few people, like me, who want to teach their children Latin, and probably the reason many of us do is that we have a glowing, perhaps romanticized idea of the benefits of classical education.  This might, to a certain extent, be an essentially conservative reaction to the many disasters of 20th-century public education, especially in the United States.  So, to be honest, I must admit that some of this be little more than looking for reasons for what I want to believe.

On the other hand, when I look at the more substantive reasons, I find them to be very compelling.  Here are some:

1. Learning any foreign language disciplines the mind in somewhat the same way that math and music do.  This is surely more the case with grammatically difficult languages, like Latin, Greek, and Russian, than with relatively grammatically simple languages like French and Spanish.  (I'm afraid I know very little about Asian languages.)

2. Latin, Greek, and French all enjoy special historical relationships with English, so for people whose first language is English (as my boy's is), learning these languages (and, I would argue, especially Latin) provides special insights into not only the vocabulary but also the syntax of English--as well as Romance languages, of course.

3. While there are great and influential classics in many world languages, Greek and Latin are the home languages of the truly seminal classics, the classics the acquaintance with which gives one some of the oldest and most influential insights into how we think, even today, about history, politics, philosophy (especially ethics), psychology, literature, and other subjects.  Reading these classics in any language is very beneficial, but reading them in the original language gives one a deeper, more intuitive understanding of them (of course that can be said of reading original source texts regardless of language).

4. This might sound a little silly in this day and age which scorns any reference to tradition in argument, but for centuries, being educated in Latin (and to a lesser extent Greek) was considered essential to being liberally educated.  This is why, until about a hundred years ago, scholarship was sprinkled with quotations in both Latin and Greek.  You might well argue that both the standards of education and the nature of scholarship has changed.  But if you are, like me, trained especially in the humanities, this shouldn't seem like such a stretch.  Basically, I'd like my boys to be as well-prepared to get into the humanities as they can be.  Obviously, this argument doesn't carry much weight with many people, but it does for me.

5. As an even more personal sort of reason, I expect my boys will be reading a lot of philosophy.  I think that copious reading of philosophy makes a person more intellectually sophisticated, mature, and critical.  (If they really hate it, I won't make them...much.)  Much excellent philosophy was written in the combination of ancient Greek and Latin.

I look at it like this.  The chances that my boys will go into a profession that requires them to speak a language other than English fluently are very small.  The chances that they will want to travel in foreign countries speaking the languages of those countries fluently are also small, although not as small.  I've studied five foreign languages now, and while I have had practical (travel, professional, and personal) reasons to know the modern languages, I can't say that my relatively small experiences using the languages in practical situations really, honestly justified my having learned the languages.  Similarly I would advise adequately prepared high schools students to learn calculus, despite the fact that I have never once used any calculus outside of the classroom.  Learning Latin (and maybe Greek) will prepare them very well to learn other languages, if they want to; and putting aside the practical (vocational and travel) reasons that people study foreign languages, which again turn out not to apply to most people who study foreign languages other than English, Latin and Greek would give them more insight into, well, everything than any other language.

Of course, if it turns out that H. or E. develops an absolute hatred of Latin, I'll probably relent.  This isn't a problem now with H. though.

[Skylark]

Dad Dude, if there was a "like" button, I would have clicked it. Liked your reasons. Don't necessary relate to your position on modern foreign languages, -- used all the ones I have learned, a lot, and wished would have learned more as a young person ( when had more chances and time).  But I also learned latin, and definitely would want my children to know it enough to be able to use and recognize famous sayings and expressions, at least

[Kimba15]

I do not know much about the benefits of teaching latin. Mind you I have not read anything on a classical education.

I have chosen to teach my daughter chinese mainly because Australia has such close ties with China and if her future job or business requires her to know a second language I  would like it to be chinese.

Although now that I am reading this thread and have thought about introducing French, Im beginning to think a basis of Latin might help. Thank you Dad dude for the info.

[Tanikit]

I did Latin in high school and we were the last class it was offered to - there were only 5 of us in the class and because of that we didn't always do Latin in class - sometimes we watched Asterix or watched English literature movies. I remember singing "Latin is a language as dead as dead can be, it killed off all the Romans and now its killing me."

Nonetheless I enjoyed the vocabulary and having done a medical degree the terms popped up a lot, but I would have managed to figure it out even without 5 years of Latin. Will I teach my child - probably not unless things become easier and cheaper to get hold of where I live. I am more likely just to tell her that "haem" means "blood" or whatever words we happen to come up with. The main reason that I am unlikely to teach it is purely a time issue - I cannot teach everything so unless she shows an interest I think I'd choose something else first.

[waterdreamer]

I haven't started yet because the package just came in the mail , but I plan on using Classical Conversations Foundation program.

[TracyR4]

Well, here are a few reasons that Latin is important for my family and why I teach it.
Though many say Latin is a dead language it really isn't.  Its very much blended in with the English language. If you plan on going into fields like archeology, medical , law they are really helpful to know. Colleges don't require you to learn them but really it only benefits them to know it anyways because medical, and law terminology is full of latin terms. Even dinosaur names have Latin in them : Tyrannosaurus Rex ( Rex is Latin meaning King).

Anyways here are our reasons:

1. We are Catholic. Though its not permeated into the faith, at least here in the US not sure if it is elsewhere. It is part of our faith. Up until Vatican II the mass was said only in Latin.  It seems as its slowly coming back and there still are churches that give Latin only Masses. Plus its the hope and dream of my oldest to visit Rome. Learning about Latin brings you closer to and helps you understand the history of Rome.

2. To build vocabulary. Our English Lanugage is full of Latin terms.

3. To help understand other languages. If you plan on teaching the Romance Languages( French, Spanish, Romanian, Italian), and even English as a second language,  they are full of  Latin terms. Don't think so?  Casa means house in Spanish. Casa is also house in Latin

Ever since studying Latin myself I see the correlation with Latin and our current languages. I don't think Latin is dead at all. Its still alive and kicking. Just not so obvious.

The only program that I know of currently that is close to teaching little ones Latin would be Song School Latin. I think toddlers would get more out of it than an infant but the songs are fun and it would give the infant exposure to the language as the program uses fun songs to learn the words.

[annisis]

In our house, we are in love with language ( Ok, maybe more me than hubby. ) I plan on teaching several modern languages as well as the ancient languages, specifically Latin and Greek. We may also dabble into heiroglyphs, and other ancient writing that was the basis for a culture and eventually, a religion. Religion is also a big deal for study in our home from a secular viewpoint as religion closely correlates with psychology and philosophy... and culture... and literature ... and science... and the list goes on. So, by association, language can open many worlds of opportunity for understanding.

As many have said, Latin lays foundation for modern language study. It also allows understanding of science nomenclature. Latin gives us a wonderful link to history. Rome did practically rule the "modern" world for a time. Catholocism, which also was a great power of the world, held great value in Latin.

And, of course, Latin had a lot to contribute to English. Studying latin will lead to better understanding of English ( I hope!). And will also be one of the many links between all languages. And I personally believe that seeing connections in all the mysteries of the world is the key to peace, both within and out.


I can't imagine a wholistic education without Latin!

[TracyR4]

Here is a good article on why to teach Latin :

http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/whylatin.html

[mom2bee]

My second question is for those who DON'T teach Latin - Why aren't you?  Specifically, if you've thought it out already.  I'm interested in what you think are the cons of teaching a language that provides understanding to the history of the English language.

I'm planning to not teach Latin. I want my children to have advanced skills in multiple languages and don't plan to mandate Latin study at all. When they are older, if they show any interest at all in Latin, I'll be happy to enable them, but I'm more interested in my children knowing Esperanto than Latin. I intend for my children to grow up trilingual in Arabic, Spanish and English and I plan to make languages a big part of their home education. They will study Mandarin Chinese, ASL and another spoken language (most likely French) pretty much all their young life. During middle school, I would like for my children to self study Esperanto for 3 years, to build a good level of ability in that language as well.

If they can keep up their abilities in seven (6 spoken and 1 signed) languages then I'm happy to let them do whatever they want linguistically, but unless my children really want to learn Latin as a language, I wont be teaching it and I have a hard time imagining why I'd buy any Latin materials just in case. I would love for my children to dabble in a few other languages too, but I have no personal draw towards Latin, so unless they or their father does, I don't see why it would be studied in our household.

[kizudo]

Phew...some good stuff to think about here.  Once again, I am happy for this forum.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts and viewpoints.  I will be taking a deeper look into this subject, but frankly, am a bit overwhelmed right now. 

[lois1]

Anybody have any more thoughts on this? Or how they are progressing using any of the resources that they bought a few years ago?

We are doing well with 3 languages (English, Spanish, French) a bit slow on the 4th (Kuna). I don't plan on pursuing mandarin now. But I do "worry"     that I'm not capitalising on these wonderful years when everything is just so EASY to absorb.

I was seriously considering introducing Latin until I realised that there were quite a few Greek resources available too. It's modern Greek but that would give you access to understanding ancient Greek. (I haven't specifically looked for resources teaching ancient Greek, there may well be.) Perhaps what sways me in that direction is that it is still a widely spoken language.

Look forward to hearing from you!

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