Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
Barbara, on our last program we talked about Latin for elementary-school children. Now, tell our listeners something about the effect that Latin study has on the skills needed for success in college.

Barbara Beers:
Well, in the 23 years that I’ve been studying Latin, first with my own children, then in writing the Latin Road to English Grammar for other parents and teachers, I have experienced firsthand this quote from Dorothy Sayers, found in her article entitled “The Lost Tools of Learning” in 1947. I quote,

I will say it once quite firmly that the best grounding for education is the Latin grammar. I say this because even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labor and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least fifty percent. It is the key to the vocabulary and structure of all the Teutonic languages, as well as to the technical vocabulary of all the sciences. And to the literature of the entire Mediterranean civilization, together with all its historical documents.

End quote. Latin students not only have the areas of the sciences, history, literature, and languages opened up for them, but the discipline of translating stimulates such qualities as being observant, accurate, analytic, and even logical. Thus the mind is developed in demanding and practical ways.

Mike:
Barbara, thanks so much for sharing all that. I’m Mike Farris.