My son has the chance to drop Latin in Year 9 to study 'Classical Civilisation' instead. Is this dumbing down?

keep going with latin but read up on all things to do with classical civ. Think about doing ancient greek later on.

Don't take the post below as illustrative of my grammar and spelling skills! I have been up all night with a teething daughter so am drooping somewhat!

Latin Latin Latin.
I did Classical Civ A-level and we happened to get a good teacher who made us adore it (he also used the more obscure texts on offer), but I wish I had done Latin as well. I went on to study Ancient History at university and we had the choice of four other modules each semester. I chose two in Latin and ended up getting to degree level in two years and definitely wouldnt recommend that, that was blinking hard work. It would have been much easier if I had had some Latin beforehand. The other modules I took were in the Classical Civilisation degree course and they were so much easier than the other two subjects I was doing. I used to catch up on my Latin during the CC lectures and still consistently got higher marks than in the other subjects.

As others have said, reading things in the original Latin is so much better, a lot less sanitised for a start!! I have moved to another country and have found it so much easier to pick up French (which I had very little of before) thanks to the Latin. I also found it helps with my general spelling and grammar, whihc is very useful.

I would say keep doing Latin....I did O grade and Higher Latin, and in 5th year did a "crash" course o grade in Classical Studies, which i imagine was similar to what your Ds wants to do? It was fairly straightforward to do as a one year course instead of a two year one. In syth year i also did a crash course in o grade Ancient Greek. Latin is probably a bettr grounding with the other coarse a nice to have....but there again i am biased!

I went the whole hog and did a degree in Classics. Stick with the Latin as long as you can pleeeease - it opens up so many other subjects. Yes it is more demanding, but that's no reason not to do something. All languages require some rote learning at first, but once you have that foundation you'll be reading history, science, poetry (some of it pretty filthy), epic, political speeches, philosophy... all in the original language and it's such a different experience to reading things in translation.

So yeah, what everyone else said!

Agree with all the pro-Latin points.

Also, if you know some Latin, it adds a whole new dimension to the Harry Potter books. Loads of the spells and names are based on Latin - makes it much more fun.

Are you sorry you asked yet

Anyone want to start a new thread to talk about the Cambridge Latin course? Grumio est coquus...

My dh, Latin is part of his job, was well impressed with the Keep on Latin lobby. My kids are lucky, they have no Latin but compulsory Irish instead...

Keep doing the Latin unless the teaching is poor/DS finds it too difficult. Class Civ is interesting but it is less academically challenging. And, yes, it really does help with other languages and understanding grammar. In DS's school class civ was the choice of those who found Latin too difficult.

Fab to be able to do both - very complimentary. I loved doing latin and did it to Higher. Really helped in terms of grammatical constructs not only in English but also did French and German. Would have loved to have done a bit more than we did on the classical history side to marry with the pure language side. It helps that we had the most fantastic teacher as well.

Also, forgot to mention, but when schools get stricter about swearing, as they are bound to do soon, Latin will be the only way you will be able to get away with it at school - 'pedicabo vos et irrumabo' anyone?

They did this at my school but classical civ. was for the ones who couldn't handle latin - i joined the school in yr 9 with no knowledge of latin so i did class.civ. with all the - how do i say this nicely - less bright children!

i am so glad i studied latin at school and would be thrilled if ds and dd had the chance to study it. sounds as though you could do both...?

Stick with the Latin, Tigermoth's ds.

This is because:
1.If you do want to take your history further, eg do it at university, a bit of Latin could be quite useful.

2.What everyone has said here about how much it helps with other languages is absolutely spot on. The vocab helps with French, Italian and Spanish, as well as English, and the grammar helps with practically any other language (because it improves your ability to think about language in an abstract way).

3.Latin is hard but it is also respected. An admissions tutor or employer may be just as impressed by a B in Latin as an A in Classical Civilisation.

4.If you're interested in Classical civilisation in general, rather than just wanting the easy option at school, Latin will actually give you more ability to understand it. You can also follow up this interest far more easily by yourself than you could learn Latin by yourself.

I did a Classics degree myself and it was absolutely ace - doing Latin at school was the best decision I ever made. You are really lucky to have the opportunity to Latin - don't waste it.

Another vote for the Latin here!

Does your son realise he'll get to read something interesting (sex and death, lots of teenage interest ) if he sticks with the Latin?

Well, everyone else has made a lot of serious pro-Latin points which I utterly agree with.

I didn't do either. So asked DH. He says that switching to classical civ is not dumbing down, but that latin gives you marginally widers options. However, he also says that if you're more interested in classical civ (which is likely to be more fun to learn) then you're far more likely to do well.

Tigermoth, I think your DS has asked a very good question and although most of the posters here have suggested he continue with latin, I'm inclined to say go for the one he's going to enjoy the most.

Will he put the effort in?

What a mature ds. FWIW yes I think classical civ would be dumbing down, does he understand/agree with the schools reasons? However, how important do you feel good marks are? (I'm not a uni admissions tutor ) but would they prefer a B in latin or an A in classical civ? What does he see himself studying in the future? Latin really is good for the brain, I'm thinking about trying to learn it again people with a good classical eduation can be so clever.

Ecce Romani - better than Sunset Beach

Just googled it - says "old fashioned but still usable" lol

YES! bobsmum. there was a bit of raciness in book 3, when Cornelia was going to marry Valerius IIRC.

Found book 4 in the loft the other day - must've nicked it from school

Ah - those vocab lists and lovely line drawings !

Bobsmum YES! It was great wasn't it?! We always used to snigger at Sextus

Did anyone use Ecce Romani? I loved that - better than Neighbours any day.

Gripping stuff, like, when Sextus and Marcus, like, totally, ran away from their tutor in the town

Ecce in pictura est puella nomine Cornelia...