Latin in high school

[Anonymous]

Pros and cons? Kid is aiming for Ivies.

[Anonymous]

Latin is known as the white boy's path to harvest.

[Anonymous]

To harvest...acceptance at Harvard

[Anonymous]

Yes it is a solid class if taught well. Also good for pre-med.

[Anonymous]

My Asian son picked Latin at Walter Johnson. He did not have the profile for any Ivy - he's a history nerd and was just interested. Went on to Elliott School of International Affairs at GW.

[Anonymous]

I’m old now, but regret taking it in high school 20+ years ago. I did not get into an ivy (though did get into good schools, but probably not bc of the Latin). I wish I had stuck to the actual useful living language I had been studying in middle school. Not having a solid foreign language hurt me a bit later in my career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Asian son picked Latin at Walter Johnson. He did not have the profile for any Ivy - he's a history nerd and was just interested. Went on to Elliott School of International Affairs at GW.

Me again. I have to add that he had his own native language, taught at an area weekend school for years, with certificate and everything. The Latin was just a fun add-on.

[Anonymous]

My daughter took Latin, loved it, and is now a Classics major in college. Got a perfect score on the Reading/Writing part of the SAT. Didn’t get into an Ivy but is at a top SLAC. She’s an excellent writer (works at the College writing center as a tutor) and I think Latin helped a ton.

[Anonymous]

I took Latin in high school (because my parents made me) as well as Spanish and found Spanish to be far more useful and with enough Latin roots to still help with vocabulary. Take it because you love it, not because you think it affords a leg up.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and my daughter also speaks conversational Spanish well after some self study and spending one summer living in a South American country. She’s teaching herself Italian now to prepare for a semester in Rome. She absolutely credits taking Latin with her ease in learning Romance languages.

[Anonymous]

I loved Latin in high school. My teacher was the president of the Virginia Classical League and a Rome Fellow late in her career. She loved the language and that rubbed off on the students.
One doesn't just learn the language, but the techniques of poetic writing, Roman history and its later influences on Western European culture, definitely touches on Greek history and through the writers one learns about early military history and strategies. And there is no way around learning about the early Middle East too. I had a great Latin teacher.
In college I studied German though.

[Anonymous]

I took it in college, and I still like to dust it off every now and then. It's a beautiful language.

[Anonymous]

My mother taught Latin, as well as French and Spanish to high schoolers. Her vocabulary, due to the Latin, was incredible. She knew the meaning of practically every word because of it (and she'd studied Greek at university too but didn't teach that).

[Anonymous]

My kid likes it a lot. He’s not Ivy material but is smart in liberal arts type stuff. I’m so happy I suggested it.

[Anonymous]

Which MCPS offers Latin?