Why Study Latin? By Rev. John Nordling
hy study Latin? Everyone knows Latin is a difficult subject (like higher math or physics), and the only thing one could possibly do with Latin is teach it others.Thus the poem:
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Latin’s a dead language, as dead as dead can be. First it killed the Romans; Now it’s killing me!
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But Latin doesn’t kill. In fact, there are some practical benefits. Some point out that Latin could help high school graduates get much higher SAT scores. Consider that the mean verbal SAT scores for all students in 2002 was 504. But for those who had studied Spanish, the score was 581, German 622, French 637, and Latin 666.1 Latin could help one score 162 points higher on the SAT than the typical American student who has not studied Latin! Still, there’s more to Latin than SAT scores. Other arguments made for Latin are that it • •
develops proficiency in English; provides a solid foundation for the acquisition of related languages; • stimulates cultural diversity; and • sharpens the mind. The overall effect of Latin is that by studying it, students may appear more attractive to potential employers:
Classics majors are hired by firms that need personnel who can define and identify problems, think on their feet, and arrive at sound and creative solutions.2 These are all selfish reasons for studying Latin, however. Might there be better reasons for studying Latin than simply to get ahead and find a better job? Well, Luther supposed that education ought to do more than “feed the belly.”3 Otherwise, he believed, education is worse than useless—the tool of the devil, fit for “swine and dogs.”4 And if a young person could study nowhere else than in the monasteries of medieval Europe, Luther supposed that students should not study at all “but just remain dumb.”5 Indeed, education ought to matter to society. Luther argues, in effect, that a city’s worth consists not so much in its cash vaults, walls, buildings, guns, and armor.“Indeed, where such things are plentiful, and reckless fools get control of them, it is so much the worse and the city suffers even greater loss.”6 Instead, society’s greatest treasure consists in having “many able, learned, wise, honorable, and welleducated citizens.”7 That’s the reason why Rome succeeded so brilliantly as a civilization.8 But there is more to education than producing good citizens for secular society. We are Christians, and so education—particularly the study of the ancient languages—can strengthen our grasp of the one true faith. First, the Holy Spirit is conveyed to the world through the medium of “other tongues” and
