Why Latin?

I was asked to write a blog on why students should learn Latin. More generally, I believe, the question was, “Why Latin?” And it’s a good question. Latin is not technically a ‘dead language,’ though it may as well be. It does have some modern users, the most famous, of course, being the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church. Certainly, classical professors will know Latin in order to read famous Roman poets, orators, and the like. But why learn Latin unless you are going to work in the Vatican or become a professor of the classics? Only a relative handful of people speak it, and English has become the lingua franca of the modern world. Other language study may seem unnecessary at first glance.

First glances, like first impressions, are often deceiving. I believe there is not a single language, and perhaps, no single subject, that any student can study that will enhance his or her general studies more than Latin (of course, having a good grasp on English should go without saying). Studying Latin is beneficial to students even of elementary school age in numerous ways, but we can mention only two here without making this blog too long. First, Latin has had a profound impact on English vocabulary. There are thousands and thousands of words which come from Latin with little mutation. Knowing some of these in the original language can help us understand our own English words. At the same time, study of Latin can increase English vocabulary significantly. If you look at the previous sentence, eight words come from Latin (including the word “Latin”). That’s eight out of twelve in just that sentence alone. Think, also, of the legal, medical, or scientific fields (to name only a few). Much of their terminology comes from Latin directly. Knowing Latin before professional training begins can only be to the benefit of the student.

Second, most students in private or public education will begin learning a foreign language in high school. Almost all of these students will study one of the Romance languages. The Romance languages are those languages which have descended directly, with more or less purity, from Latin. French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian are the most widely spoken of the Romance languages. Mastery of one can actually greatly aid study of the others. The study of Latin, however, increases basic knowledge of any of them. Latin is the grammar and vocabulary base for all five of the languages. If the student wishes to study German, even here there is some aid from our friend Latin. While not sharing much in common with German, Latin nonetheless introduces the student to languages which rely heavily on inflection. An inflected language is one in which the forms of words are morphed to give them new meaning. For example, the word “God” in Latin can take several forms, depending on its function in the sentence. “Deus” is the way you would write “God” as the subject, but “Deum” is the way you would write “God” as the direct object. German is also an inflected language, so learning how a morphing language works can aid the student in this way as well.

By no means do these two reasons exhaust the benefits of learning Latin, but I believe they are compelling enough to stand as sufficient answers to the question “Why Latin?” A better question might be, “Why not Latin?”

Mr. Matthew Gore; Teacher of Latin and Logic at Palmetto Christian Academy of Greenwood

"No way....my kids won't wear school uniforms."

We are the parents of three children who now attend Greenwood’s newest school, Palmetto Christian Academy of Greenwood (PCAG), whose students wear school uniforms. As our family prepared for school this summer and discussed the school with other families in the community we heard many parents say “My child won’t want to wear a uniform and I do not want to fight that battle.” Our doubts about the uniform policy began to build. Had we made a mistake? Was the uniform battle one we were willing to fight? The school policy was set so we knew we would have to bite the bullet and go with uniforms if our children were going to attend PCAG.

Our first pleasant surprise was how much money we were saving on back to school clothes as we bought the PCAG uniforms both online and at local retailers. Simple golf shirts and khaki shorts and pants are much less expensive than jeans and designer t-shirts. It is also much easier to pick out clothes when the options are limited to simple color choices of golf shirts and khaki colored shorts versus blue colored shorts. The kids were a little more accepting of the idea of school uniforms when we explained about how much money our family was saving.

The second big surprise was how easy it is to pick out clothes on school nights. The choices were easy, “What color golf shirt for tomorrow kids?” That was it. Decision made…..time for bed. The battle melted away before our eyes. The kids did not protest because they knew that all the other students would be wearing the same style clothes.

The third surprise was how much the children enjoyed being dressed like all the other students in the school. Our children are developing a certain esprit de corps and have quickly resolved themselves to the fact that being a student at Palmetto Christian Academy means you will wear a comfortable uniform of golf shirts and khaki shorts or pants. We have experienced no complaints since school has begun from our three kids about their school uniforms. Life is good!

School uniforms at Palmetto Christian Academy have resulted in three things for our family. First, we have saved significantly on back to school clothes purchases. Secondly, the time spent picking out what clothes to wear to school has been reduced to virtually nothing. Thirdly, it has helped our children develop pride in their school and contentment about their appearance. “Yes, our children do wear school uniforms and we love it!”