Latin

[fatjac]

Is Latin taught at your childs state school?

If so do you think it is useful.

If not do you think that it should be.

Just curious

lol @ neigh delighted

I was taught compulsory Latin for 3 years at a state grammar, if we failed the Latin exam in the third year then we took classics instead. Rather a lot of us failed . I struggled horrendously as I have never been taught English grammar, so was lost from day one.

No, it isn't around here.

Is it useful? Depends what DCs want to study later. If they want to go into sciences (esp zoology, biology) or medicine then it is very useful. Also if they want to study languages. Otherwise, probably not.

I loved Latin at school, and so does DS.

It's not taught at the state schools round here.

I studied it to O level standard and really enjoyed it.

We did a course that didn't involve rote learning of verbs and included lots of Roman hiatory. I recall there were some rather racy poems by Catullus that we translated which kept things interesting.

I think it is useful -it helpedf both with English and French and I have recently been learning Spanish and it helped with that too.

My dh didn't do it at school so I sometimes get to say things to him like " Do you really not know what pulchritudinous means "

no, only in private schools in this county.
I thought it was useful and interesting. Wel, maybe not useful, but neither is my A level maths, French, chemistry, physics etc useful for me these days...

95% of what you learn at school is useless, but the difficulty is knowing what 5% you need.

I did Latin at school and although it was intellectually challenging and enjoyable at times, I haven't used it in adult life. However I have never used what I learnt in CDT, Art, Geography or History lessons in a job.

School is more than just merely gaining knowledge for the work place. Being mentally challenged by something difficult trains the mind. The brain is like a muscle and needs a workout. I think latin is a great idea for gifted and talented children.

However many children have poor numeracy and literacy skills. It would be silly to have complusory latin lessons for all children.

Learning any other language is great because of the lack of grammar instruction in most English classes. I wouldn't say Latin is better or worse than any others. DS does Latin and loves it because it doesn't sound effeminate (his view of French). The point of learning anything at school is really that you use your brain at something that's challenging, and that you develop the discipline of thinking, not necessarily that you'll end up actually using your knowledge of karst landscapes, for instance, when you eventually become a personal trainer

Yes... taught at our local comp.