We Miss You Shane - Why Learn Latin? Should Latin be the Core of an Education?

The What are you reading section has become my favorite part of this podcast! I wish you would just discuss classic literature all the time! I'm finishing the Three Musketeers but I have East of Eden and will read it next!

Analysis: making distinctions Synthesis: seeing resemblances

That is such a great point about grammar. It has been dropped. Very little of it is taught, anyway. As an aspiring freelance writer, I can appreciate the importance of teaching Latin and grammar. But, when moral relativity is the new order of the day, it's not wonder why this is the new reality in most public school settings. I did not have the pleasure of learning Latin as a child and the best part for me, as a parent/teacher, is pointing out the derivatives. I only wish I could add Greek. Perhaps if we had started MP sooner... And Tanya, I certainly have felt like I was a weirdo, not only for teaching Latin, but homeschooling in general. I have met many other homeschooling families during my journey as a homeschooling mother, but, few of them purchased a curriculum. Most of them provided their children with an online environment and never touched physical books. I have always preferred a physical curriculum to the alternatives but sadly, few others feel the same. Another fantastic session. Thank you all!

I read "East of Eden" for my summer reading assignment before my junior or senior year of high school. It's back on my list to re-read this year after hearing it being brought up in this podcast recently. It's on my list of top 5 literary novels that I've read. Steinbeck has always pulled at my heart with his realistic, devastating, and beautifully written stories.

I graduated from a private Christian school where I attended for seven years. I did tons of sentence diagramming. I remember the basics, but if you asked me to diagram a sentence today, I would have trouble with it. I wish I had a foundation in Latin. Here I am, a 36 year old man, who is just beginning my Latin studies. I decided to go with the Zondervan curriculum Basics of Latin by Derek Cooper with the complimentary videos to go with each lesson. After I finish that, I will have my toe firmly dipped in Latin. I will then be in the position to really start my Latin studies.

I did Latin GCSE and got an A and it’s helped me throughout my life with medical and legal language amongst other advantages when learning other European languages

I am not proficient in Latin at all, but as a nurse, I have learned a lot of Latin and Greek roots via medical terminology. At the time, I was surprised at how many derivatives are in the English language. That sparked a love of etymolgy and languages. We homeschool and because I saw the value of Latin and Greek, we use your Latin program. We also have started Greek. Because of the Latin foundation, my daughter has been able to branch out to learn Italian. There aren't many Italian resources. We found one text book that has exercises incorporated, but between her and I, we are "creating" a curriculum. It is very rewarding to start something "hard" and feel accomplished as you understand and utilize it.

I feel through my limited (2 years in HS) Latin experience that unless a parent has been exposed to Latin, why would they seek out Latin for their children. I see the value and am in the midst of establishing my Latin skills/knowledge to the level of homeschooling my children (age 5 & 7). I am a lifelong student of GBWW and will be getting into Memoria College's MA degree. I just finished RW Livingstone's book and am inspired to pursue that type of educational life.

I grew up less than a mile from his childhood home and going to the library named after him (Steinbeck)!

I thought I hated grammar because I hated those sentence diagrams. I definitely enjoyed and understood grammar much more through Latin, even though I had far less of it than MP does - I took Latin 8th-10th. I enjoy your conversations. I’m using a Charlotte Mason approach for homeschool, so we will have Latin 5th-12th, somewhat less than MP, but I’m excited for it. We are learning French 1st-12th, which is for the students auditory-only while they are still learning to read English. They’ll begin learning to read it in 4th, then add Latin in 5th.

I am learning Latin as an adult because I enjoy it and want to read it fluently. In school, I learned French to a high level (after also continuing studies in France). Almost all the arguments presented here for why learn Latin can be applied to learning a living language (French will improve your English more than Latin, Russian case system a bit more complex for logic-if you truly believe Lana bush’s grammar will help with logic, Chinese characters will help with building memory. The only reason to learn Latin is if the course can teach you to read Latin fluently by then end and to connect with writers and cultures of past times, and not just have a narrow modern world view.

I never learned grammar graduated high school 2008 in Indianapolis.

Are you all talking about reading Latin or speaking Latin or both?

Grammar - they moved into 'functional grammar' approach, instead of explicitly teaching grammar, they believed that children would 'get the hang' of grammar by simply doing it. So the grammar taught is not intentional or explicit but incidental. This is currently being walked back as it obviously is flawed logic.

Why not teach a living language like scottish gaelic which is similar to latin and is still spoken in Canada