Latin in high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which MCPS offers Latin?

Walter Johnson. I don't know if there are others.

[Anonymous]

I took Latin back in high school.

One of the main reasons was because it was known that it was an easy A due to the teacher.

The other reason is that I had no interest in the other languages offered at my school at the time (Spanish and French) and I think the thought was that a lot of the English language derived from Latin. So it would help with things like the SATs back when vocabulary was a part of it and as the other poster mentioned it helps with medical terms. Doing a quick search now, I see that English isn't directly derived from Latin like I thought back then.

Also there's the National Latin exam, which is something that you can put on your college applications and resume to help pad things if you do well in it.

In hindsight I think it would've been useful to learn a language that's pretty common in our area(Spanish). But as mentioned, I think part of the reasoning was that Latin would help more with academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pros and cons? Kid is aiming for Ivies.

When you can focus time on a dead language, got to do it. Will prepare you well for a future in time traveling.

[Anonymous]

My kids didn't apply to any Ivies, but both took Latin and a modern language (one studied two modern languages). It's always worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pros and cons? Kid is aiming for Ivies.

When you can focus time on a dead language, got to do it. Will prepare you well for a future in time traveling.

Learning useless skills is a good signal of excess wealth and full pay tuition.

[Anonymous]

The average American high school student doesn’t learn any language well enough in school to be considered even conversational, let alone fluent. Literally every American going through the public school system took YEARS of foreign language, but I would bet serious money that the only bilingual (+) Americans learned their second language almost entirely outside of school.

In other words, Latin is just as useful in the context as French or Spanish, and will significantly help with English. Bonus if there is any culture or history studies thrown into the class, particularly to help understand the times we’re living in now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average American high school student doesn’t learn any language well enough in school to be considered even conversational, let alone fluent. Literally every American going through the public school system took YEARS of foreign language, but I would bet serious money that the only bilingual (+) Americans learned their second language almost entirely outside of school.

In other words, Latin is just as useful in the context as French or Spanish, and will significantly help with English. Bonus if there is any culture or history studies thrown into the class, particularly to help understand the times we’re living in now.

You forget there are a lot of bi-lingual American high school students, either the kids of immigrants from Europe or Asia, or South America. There's tons of us, with tons of linguistic skills. We're also Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average American high school student doesn’t learn any language well enough in school to be considered even conversational, let alone fluent. Literally every American going through the public school system took YEARS of foreign language, but I would bet serious money that the only bilingual (+) Americans learned their second language almost entirely outside of school.

In other words, Latin is just as useful in the context as French or Spanish, and will significantly help with English. Bonus if there is any culture or history studies thrown into the class, particularly to help understand the times we’re living in now.

You forget there are a lot of bi-lingual American high school students, either the kids of immigrants from Europe or Asia, or South America. There's tons of us, with tons of linguistic skills. We're also Americans.

No sh!t. Your English reading comprehension isn’t very good, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average American high school student doesn’t learn any language well enough in school to be considered even conversational, let alone fluent. Literally every American going through the public school system took YEARS of foreign language, but I would bet serious money that the only bilingual (+) Americans learned their second language almost entirely outside of school.

In other words, Latin is just as useful in the context as French or Spanish, and will significantly help with English. Bonus if there is any culture or history studies thrown into the class, particularly to help understand the times we’re living in now.

You forget there are a lot of bi-lingual American high school students, either the kids of immigrants from Europe or Asia, or South America. There's tons of us, with tons of linguistic skills. We're also Americans.

No sh!t. Your English reading comprehension isn’t very good, unfortunately.

Ha! It's a lot better than yours, moron.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+ I could have written this, myself. I nudged my kids toward Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Single sex Catholic prep schools used to require Latin, not sure if they do this anymore.