Why Latin?

I once read that growing up learning English is like having a German mother and a Roman father. All the little words we learn as babies and toddlers tend to come from the German roots of the English language, but as we get older and begin to use bigger vocabulary the influence of our Latin-speaking father takes over. The immense cultural influence of Latin (remember, it was the common language of Western culture for 1500 years) still haunts us in the language of literature, theology, medicine, law, science, and philosophy.

On a practical level that means that learning Latin has a huge effect on our mastery of the English language. Just because we’re fluent English speakers from childhood, we aren’t naturally masters of it. But on the bigger, cultural level, learning Latin opens to us an immense treasure trove of stories, poetry, and ideas that have been handed down to us by our cultural and spiritual forefathers (such as Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Boethius, and Anselm). Just like it is still incredibly valuable to learn Greek to read the New Testament despite the gift of modern English translations, so also it is incredibly valuable for us to have immediate access to the cultural heritage of the West stored up in Latin.

We are not just 21st century Christians. We’re not just American Christians. We are Western Christians, who owe the robustness of our faith and practice to generations of those who came before us.

It’s true - Latin is “dead” in the sense that there are no native speakers. But there are still fluent speakers today. There are still writers today. And most importantly, the ideas stored up in Latin are ever living. And they come alive when your child encounters them once again through their study of Latin.

Latin is a language just like any other. You didn’t have any trouble learning your first one, did you? It doesn’t have to be painful. It doesn’t have to be dry. Otherwise we wouldn’t have success teaching Latin to kindergarteners! In fact, it’s pretty fun.

“Hardly any lawful price would seem to me too high for what I have gained by being made to learn Latin and Greek” - C.S. Lewis

“You will see at a glance… the unwisdom of choosing or rejecting this or that subject, as being more or less useful or necessary in view of a child's future. We decide, for example, that Tommy, who is eight, need not waste his time over the Latin Grammar. We intend him for commercial or scientific pursuits,––what good will it be to him? But we do not know how much we are shutting out from Tommy's range of thought besides the Latin Grammar.” - Charlotte Mason