Why Latin?

For a start, how about improved SAT scores?

The mean Verbal SAT scores for 2000 were:

All students: 505

LATIN: 665

Spanish: 589

French: 636

German: 621

On an elementary level, Latin can be very helpful in improving the English reading skills of students. Because it is a phonetic language, its study, especially practice in reading aloud, often brings to students the basic understanding of the phonetic principles that they may never have mastered when first learning to read English.

The study of Latin can result in the broadening and deepening of students' English vocabulary and can impart an understanding of word formation, a most useful tool in approaching unfamiliar words.

When students study Latin, they enter the world of an alien (and for the most part ethnically neutral) culture, in some ways quite different from ours. Studying the language, customs, and world view of society from a different time and place is a mind-expanding experience. Conversely, focusing on the similarities between our culture and that of the Romans offers the opportunity to consider the Graeco-Roman contribution to American life in the areas of government, architecture, ideals and ideas.

The classics of Latin literature have had a significant influence on European, English and American literature and are eminently worth reading for themselves.

Sally Davis, Wakefield H.S., Arlington, Virginia. Teaching Latin in American Schools, Scholars Press, 1991, p.61.