On the benefits of learning Latin -
University of Kentucky https://mcl.as.uky.edu/benefits-latin
Protestant view https://davenantinstitute.org/benefits-learning-latin/
Catholic view https://lourdesclassical.org/why-latin/
In the third entry, we hear from Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) on the importance of Latin. She was a poet and the author of detective fiction from England, as well as a student of classical and modern languages who refused to call herself a feminist, instead believing in practicing women’s rights more than in preaching them. Sounds like my mother.
Wikipedia quotes Sayers: “Indeed, it is my experience that both men and women are fundamentally human, and that there is very little mystery about either sex, except the exasperating mysteriousness of human beings in general...If you wish to preserve a free democracy, you must base it—not on classes and categories, for this will land you in the totalitarian State, where no one may act or think except as the member of a category. You must base it upon the individual Tom, Dick, and Harry, on the individual Jack and Jill—in fact, upon you and me.” Sounds like me.
Fact is that shortly after her death in 1957, Latin instruction in schools was scaled back everywhere, as demonstrated by my high school. My cousin was required to take four years of Latin and graduated in 1957. I graduated in 1970 and was required to take two years. Not long after that, the Latin imperative was dropped altogether in favor of modern languages.
Sayers was an Anglo Catholic friend of C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton. The following essay, published on January 1, 1940, reveals how prescient she was.
University of Kentucky https://mcl.as.uky.edu/benefits-latin
Protestant view https://davenantinstitute.org/benefits-learning-latin/
Catholic view https://lourdesclassical.org/why-latin/
In the third entry, we hear from Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) on the importance of Latin. She was a poet and the author of detective fiction from England, as well as a student of classical and modern languages who refused to call herself a feminist, instead believing in practicing women’s rights more than in preaching them. Sounds like my mother.
Wikipedia quotes Sayers: “Indeed, it is my experience that both men and women are fundamentally human, and that there is very little mystery about either sex, except the exasperating mysteriousness of human beings in general...If you wish to preserve a free democracy, you must base it—not on classes and categories, for this will land you in the totalitarian State, where no one may act or think except as the member of a category. You must base it upon the individual Tom, Dick, and Harry, on the individual Jack and Jill—in fact, upon you and me.” Sounds like me.
Fact is that shortly after her death in 1957, Latin instruction in schools was scaled back everywhere, as demonstrated by my high school. My cousin was required to take four years of Latin and graduated in 1957. I graduated in 1970 and was required to take two years. Not long after that, the Latin imperative was dropped altogether in favor of modern languages.
Sayers was an Anglo Catholic friend of C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton. The following essay, published on January 1, 1940, reveals how prescient she was.
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