classical education/trivium/Latin/Greek

[ZZZenAgain]

Am thinking of asking MN to set up a sub-topic in education on classical education but not sure if there would be enough interest to warrant a separate topic.

Is there anyone who is strongly for or against classical education?

(Am currently reading "Climbing Parnassus" and thinking about this whole thing a bit.)

I think learning latin in your formative years helps wire the brain a certain way...a bit like maths...the top City law firms like recruiting classics grads...not for their latin per se but for their mental agility and logic - you have to have great attention to detail. I think learning Sanskrit would also achieve the same kind of "wiring"...in a way it'a a bit like learning a complex code..even more so than I think MFL which is obviously more oral.

IMO, Education in the classics is important to understand European history, art, literature and how we got to our current state of civilisation. Its a holistic rather than utilitarian approach to education.

Chances are, those who studied Classics at university already had their brains wired in a certain way to have decided to take it that far .

And even if you were looking at it from a purely utilitarian approach, here's a quote from a humanities professor in Oxford:

Prof West said they had conducted interviews which show that employers are looking for candidates with "succinct and persuasive written and verbal communication skills and the capacity for critical analysis and synthesis".

She added: "Anyone who has written a critical analysis of Plato's Republic in less than 1,000 words, or defended their interpretation of the French revolution under questioning from a top historian in a class or tutorial, will know that studying the humanities gives you an excellent grounding in all of these skills."

Whilst I very much doubt that it is in the head of anyone choosing to study it at school, it is one of the easier routes into Oxbridge in the sense that there are so few pupils who study it to any significant degree at school, and relatively so many places for classics at Oxbridge. Certainly is was held in some regard at Oxford where it was known as "Greats" and at colleges such as Merton scholars were given senior status based on how old their subject was (So Greats was most senior, maths next, and anyone doing maths and computing was bottom of the list!).

I think only 400 odd 6th formers study Ancient Greek, and whilst it isn't strictly a requirement for Oxbridge classics, given that there are 200 odd places across the 2 universities, you probably have a better chance than if you were offering maths say.