Latin Lovers
'Tis the season, apparently, for Latin-themed newspaper pieces. The Washington Post recently published an article about the National Junior Classics League and the Virginia Certamen team (free login required). One of the team members is homeschooled. I particularly enjoyed this quote:
Some students like Latin because of Roman mythology and culture; others, believe it or not, love the grammar -- its consistency means that it's easier to master than modern English, and its strict rules can help students with their English language skills. "I think everyone in here will agree that they learn more English in Latin class than in English class," Husain says. (p. 4)
And you can give this 'graph to people who ask you "Why would you study Latin?":
But even if you ignore ( from ignorare -- to not know, disregard) the Romans' influence ( influere -- to flow in) on our culture ( colere -- to foster, cultivate or respect), architecture ( architectus, from the Greek arkhi -- chief + tekton -- builder, carpenter), literature ( littera -- letter), government ( gubernare -- navigate, pilot, govern), military ( miles -- soldier), legal ( lex -- the law) and judicial ( iudex -- a judge) systems and medicine ( medicus -- physician), there's still the fact ( factum -- something done, a fact) of Latin's presence ( praesentia -- presence) in English itself. Estimates ( aestimare -- to appraise) vary ( varius -- different), but somewhere between 60 and 80 percent ( per centum -- per hundred) of English vocabulary ( vocabulum -- word) can be traced ( trahere -- to pull or draw) back to the Romans' language ( lingua -- tongue). Subliminally ( sub + limen -- under the threshold), Latin is everywhere. (p. 4)
You can also view video interviews with some of the students and teachers mentioned in the article.