I rarely skip chapters when I am reading. The pedant in me likes to think I have read the whole book from cover to cover before I count it as finished. However, in my early years of home educating and researching the subject, I deliberately dimmed my reading switch to “skim” whenever the author started talking about Latin. Here are some of my excuses: I have enough to do, I don’t know any Latin, I don’t know how to teach Latin, Latin is a dead language anyway, I have survived life so far with no Latin.
All I can say is that God must have warmed my heart to the subject over time. About three years ago, I bit the bullet and decided that if we were going to classically educate the children, then it was “all or nothing” and this meant taking the plunge and teaching my children Latin. We had a few false starts, but now I can safely say that I have discovered my favourite subject to teach!
Why Learn Latin?
Latin is the old friend that appears by my side whatever book is open in front of us. It consistently reinforces other knowledge and creates connections across the curriculum. If I stumble across a word ending in -a, -ae, -um, -us or -i I have almost certainly identified Latin-based vocabulary and already knowing a bit of Latin helps in the retention of new knowledge. Here are a few select glimpses based on the little bit of Latin I have learned:
1. Science – Did you know that the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere is called the “corona” which is the Latin word for “crown”? Incidentally, the corona virus was so-named because the virus looks like a crown under the microscope? Did you know that “bacteria” is the plural of “bacterium”? Did you know that the correct plural of “octopus” is “octopi”? Did you know that “herba” is the Latin for “plants” which helps to understand what “herbivores” eat?
2. Maths – Did you know that many months of the year are based on Latin numbers? “Decem” means “ten”. You are right, December is the twelfth month, but that is another interesting story for you to look up! Did you know that the word “radius” in Latin means “rod, ray, or spoke of a wheel” which explains why we use the term to measure the distance from the centre of a circle to the circumference?
3. Grammar – If you would like your children to understand how parts of a sentence function, then Latin is an unexcelled tool. It forces the learner to be able to identify and truly understand the direct object, indirect object, genitive and other parts of the sentence. The student becomes confident in identifying prepositions, adverbs and sentence patterns. If I had to choose between teaching my children grammar and teaching my children Latin, I would choose Latin every time because the grammar would be taught incidentally as would a wider range of vocabulary.
Above all, Latin is a FORMATIVE subject. It literally trains the brain to think logically and pay attention to detail.
Taking the Plunge
The decision to teach Latin meant that I needed to set myself up to win.
First of all, I tracked down Memoria Press’s article “Top 10 Reasons to Start Studying Latin”, hand-copied the highlights and stuck it inside one of my cupboards to pick me up when I am down. I began by teaching my two boys who are fairly evenly-matched academically. We study Latin for about 20 to 30 minutes around four times a week in the morning. This means that we learn when we are fresh and it is not one of the subjects that might be abandoned in haste and weariness at the end of the day. A few months later I began with my three older girls, who are also fairly academically matched. My boys are the guinea pigs. They learn from the excitable teacher. The girls profit from a teacher who has learned which parts to emphasise and is more confident in what she teaches.
More than any other subject, Latin has helped to hone my teaching skills. It is a mastery subject which means we make an absolute priority of memorising endings, even if in the beginning we have absolutely what they are for! A few moments spent at the start of the lesson running through verb and noun endings means that we cut the work of the lesson in half. Moreover, making this a priority with my boys means that my girls are already familiar with the chants ahead of time by osmosis. Half the job is already completed and we find that understanding slowly catches up with lists of endings!
The Last Thing I Want to Do is Scare You!
I want to sound the drum for Christian home education first and foremost, and for this reason I have avoided writing about Latin over the years. However, posting articles on Facebook gives me some “behind the scenes” insight: I can see how many people read what I have written! When I posted a link Dr. Tyler Flatt’s talk “Living Latin” last week, I was surprised by the unusual volume of people who clicked on it. I wonder whether perhaps the Lord is stirring up a desire in families to explore the benefits of Latin. After all, we need to have a long-term view of education. My children learn Latin faster than I do and will probably outpace me one day. I am not expecting to excel myself (although I am having some fun along the way). However, I am so glad to think that I have set something rolling that might impact my grandchildren and even my great-grandchildren.
Ultimately, we are holding in mind a higher purpose. We pray that God might use our efforts at teaching Latin to help our children and grandchildren become more effective communicators of the glorious gospel of Christ. After all, Christ knows how to multiply the loaves and the fishes.
