The debate regarding the benefits of teaching Latin to school children has raged for decades. Some argue even since the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet a recent survey by Cambridge University shows that the teaching of the mother of all modern western European languages has actually risen dramatically since 1999. What’s really surprising however is that the rise is not taking place in private schools but in state schools.
What makes this even more impressive is that the government are reluctant to give Latin a similar kind of status to say French or German as it doesn’t qualify as a modern, foreign language, thus meaning raising funding for it is difficult. The rise therefore in the popularity of the subject has to be attributed to students themselves who are keen to learn it. A recent article in the Guardian newspaper spoke of how ‘guerilla efforts by lone classicists’ in schools have helped enlighten students to a language, which despite being classified as ‘dead’, can no doubt ease the difficulty of learning other languages as it provides a linkage of sorts.
Is the government right in encouraging schools to teach more modern European languages in an age when Britain is becoming more and more segregated from the rest of the continent? Or should the dying breed of classicists be resurrected, just like the language itself in state schools over the last 10 years?
Ref: Guardian on-line – 22nd May 2009