Latin has a long-standing presence in any classical education curriculum, as it served as the lingua franca throughout the Western world up until the 18th century. But why continue to study it today?
In this episode of the Clapham School Podcast we sit down with Mrs. Susanna Etzel to discuss the virtues of Latin study and to understand the central—even daily—place Latin holds in our curriculum at Clapham. We discuss how we teach Latin, how we onboard new students transitioning into our program, and the multiple benefits Latin provides for every student.
Far from an irrelevant, esoteric vanity project, Latin study equips our students with the basic toolkit of language learning alongside the virtues of grit, perseverance, and attentiveness. As Mrs. Etzel points out, acquiring a language takes patience and a tolerance for ambiguity. Inevitably, it requires students to think carefully about words: what they mean, how they function, and what they imply.
For students struggling to understand the logic of grammar and syntax, Latin study provides a bridge of comprehension for these concepts, not only in English but in many other languages as well. A foundation in Latin gives an immediate advantage when learning vocabulary for any Romance language, and it also benefits those learning other inflected languages. (Listen to the podcast to hear an anecdote about a current student’s advantages in language learning due to her early foundations in Latin at Clapham).
Dorothy SayersThe sort of argument which continually crops up in correspondence upon the teaching of Latin is: “Why should children waste time learning a dead language when Spanish or what-have-you would be much more useful to him in business?” The proper answer, which is practically never given, is the counter-question: "Why should a child waste time learning half-a-dozen languages from scratch, when Latin would enable him to learn them all in a fraction of the time?”
Beyond Latin, Mrs. Etzel provides a compelling case for language learning in the age of readily available translation technologies. She offers a theological basis for respecting language—after all, when God created the world, He spoke it into being. She also highlights the nuanced interpretation that idioms require in translation, providing concrete examples for her argument.
We close the discussion by exploring the unique, whole-language approach Clapham takes to teaching and learning Latin. We also celebrate the effectiveness of our program by recognizing our many ULE (Universal Latin Exam) award winners. Thankfully, newcomers needn’t be intimidated by Latin at Clapham; our faculty have worked hard to develop accessible onramps to our program (even new students won ULE awards this year!). Regardless of how our students perform on this assessment, we are confident that the fruits of Latin study will serve all of them well throughout their education.