Letter to the editor: Save Lawrence Latin!

To the editor:

I was especially sad to hear that the Lawrence school board is considering dropping Latin from its curriculum. Inspired by the excellent educator, Anne Shaw, I went on from learning Latin at my alma mater, LHS, to obtain not only a bachelor’s degree in Classics but also a master’s degree in Latin. I now have been tutoring and teaching Latin for over 25 years at various schools in Washington, D.C. Latin certainly is my sine qua non and I would encourage you to nota bene (n.b.) the many reasons why Latin is important and why the school board and administrators could become personae non gratae for removing it:

• Latin can be an important alternative language for study, particularly for students with auditory processing issues and challenges with speaking modern languages. Latin may be a complicated academic exercise but as we Kansans know: “ad astra per aspera“!

• Latin grammar often helps students with English writing, id est (i.e.) the structure of Latin can help clarify English grammar

• Latin is the basis of innumerable terms from medicine, science, law, botany, music, philosophy, et cetera (etc.)

• Latin students usually also learn a great deal of ancient history and thus can understand the significance of and meaning behind the very recent uses in the U.S. Congress of “alea iacta est” and “quid pro quo” in addition to appreciating for how long and how often human behaviors repeat themselves.

• Latin words provide the key to understanding 50% of our English vocabulary – exempli gratia (e.g.): per centum (for percent)

• Latin is the root of all Romance languages — Spanish, French, Italian, et alia (et al.) — and thus can be a stepping stone for further language studies.

I urge the school board to sapere aude and reconsider this bona fide major decision lest you disrupt the status quo. A dead Latin program would not requiescat in pace (R.I.P.), particularly because it would have explained all of the bold words and phrases in this letter! quod erat demonstrandum (Q.E.D.) I rest my case.

Vanessa (Hill) Johnson,

Washington, D.C.

COMMENTS

Welcome to the new LJWorld.com. Our old commenting system has been replaced with Facebook Comments. There is no longer a separate username and password login step. If you are already signed into Facebook within your browser, you will be able to comment. If you do not have a Facebook account and do not wish to create one, you will not be able to comment on stories.