Latin and Greek

[PowerPantsRule]

My Year 7 boy is demonstrating a real talent for Latin and Greek. And what's more he loves it (to my surprise as I loathed Latin with a passion).

Are there any senior schools that sort of specialise in this area or are well known for it? And has anyone's son or daughter gone on to do this at university - and if so what sort of jobs would be attracted by Latin specialists, if any? My mind is boggling!

Most decent private schools will offer Latin and most of them also Greek.

Some state schools offer them as well. My DC got a GCSE in Latin last year (in a Free school, not a Grammar), absolutely loved it. Well worth doing. Also studied Greek but didn't go on to do exam in it.

I am sure like any good rigorous academic degree from a respected University it would serve you well in many professions.

The thing to look for is whether they teach Greek to A level as well as Latin (based on the experience both of a friend who teaches classics and friends whose DD like your son wanted to study both - it seems that not many schools even in the private sector offer this).

I did Latin to degree level. I don't think any of the rest of my class do jobs using their Latin, although I do occasionally.

My DD's comprehensive school offered both Latin and Greek at GCSE (not sure about A-level) - both had to be studied as twilight subjects, though, not part of the normal school day. I know two (both privately educated) who did classics at university. One, now in his 40s, is a copywriter, but finds it hard to make a living these days. Another, in his late 20s, taught for a few years at a private school, then gave it all up to learn a trade - he's a plumber now. I don't think you'd need to necessarily have Greek to be able to study it at university. They'll teach you that, I'd assume, just like many universities will teach you Russian, say, if you go in for a joint degree in French and Russian, for example.

I did classics - I ended up teaching English; my university friends who also studied classics ended up as lawyers, a publisher, a banker, accountants. Standard graduate recruitment jobs mostly. I taught Latin for a while and ex-pupils have gone on to be lawyers, doctors, oil company engineers, accountants and just one eminent archaeologist/academic. It was great fun as a degree.

DC state school offers something like Classical Civilisations, which is a GCSE combining both Latin and Greek. Is that worth much?

Classical Civilisation doesn't include a language element unless you deliberately choose that option and most schools don't offer it. CC A-level is not necessarily seen as a serious subject, but I took that (with Eng Lit and French, plus a GCSE in Greek) and it was a gateway to the Classics II course at Oxford, which was an accelerated language option for those without A-levels in classical languages. Learnt both Greek and Latin at uni as part of the course. I don't know whether that course s still running, however.

It is still running.

DD would love to have learned Latin at school. She has offers to do Classical Civilisation at uni. You do need Latin or Greek for a few Classics courses.

This is brilliant information thanks so much. Really good advice to see if they do Greek to A level too - just had a quick squizz and so many don't!!

Jobs that actualy use latin and greek are out there too: museum curators, librarians, archivists; orthopaedic surgeons, anatomists; as well as the more obvious "classics teacher" variants. I know librarians and archivists who use latin and greek all the time, and I found having done latin in particular meant learning anatomy was very easy.

Keep in mind that latin was the lingua franca of educated Europe for a very long time - so the primary sources of pretty much anything historical prior to the C18th will use it.

There aren't many jobs that give direct employment simply because of knowledge of Greek and Latin, but employers hire people who hold degrees in Classics (in both languages) because of the same transferable skills they value in other arts degrees. Classics degrees are also perceived by certain employers, rightly or wrongly, as less frivolous than many other degrees. I wouldn't stress too much about finding secondary education for both languages. Students who do Classics usually come in with either only one (usually Latin) or neither language. There is not enough time in high school to learn both languages thoroughly, beginner students in university catch up with high school veterans in a single year (at least, in theory they do)! If they are sent to a Scottish university they will get 4 years of it!

Also, at Cambridge they run a foundation year for people who come from backgrounds that mean they only have a bit of Latin and no Greek. Everyone we know who's done it has ended up using it directly at least until the end of their PhD; some became librarians at famous historical libraries, some became archivists, some became teachers...

Many Christian ministers do New Testament Greek as part of their training though I think you can qualify without these days too.

Classics and English (at Oxford) requires only Latin or Greek at A-Level - so if you have only one or the other and love both subjects (as I did) you can study it - without doing the Lit Hum II course mentioned above which is pure Classics, a four year course and is done by those with neither.

It's a brilliant course. I did it (from a comp). Don't use Latin every day, but it has helped me tremendously with other things - including my day job as a journo and writer.

DS is doing Latin GCSE at state high school. There are 14 in his class. The school offers Classics A-level (if he still loves it)

Lots of lawyers and bankers have Classics first degrees. And the richness of the literature stays with you whatever you end up doing.

I think many private schools do not offer Greek. Far more offer Latin but even then not all by any means.

I think if you phone a few local schools you may find one that offers it. Latin is pretty useful if you have a passion for modern languages. E.g. German syntax is similar to Latin and most of the roots of romantic languages like French, Spanish and Italian have their vocabulary still tied to Latin roots. I did lit.hum ii at Oxford with just Latin A-level and I wasn't alone, that's for sure!! Great course, and all the usual grad jobs open to you.