[net.nlang] usefulness of Latin

dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (02/27/84)

I agree. I have often found my high school Latin (4 years) useful
in many ways. Meaning of words is one. Understanding grammar and
relationships between words in a sentence is another. Spelling is
yet another. (E.g., "separate" not "seperate". Why? It's from
the verb "paro".)

Dave Sherman
Toronto
-- 
 {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave

julian@deepthot.UUCP (Julian Davies) (03/04/84)

I've just been reading a book about the underlying principles of
Waldorf Education, and came across the interesting claim that given a
choice it would be better for children to learn Greek than Latin.
The primary reason is (paraphrase) Greek was the lingua franca of
culture philosophy religion arts and feeling, as oopposed to Latin
which was the language of the sciences and intellectual/rational
thinking.   This is bound up with the Waldorf philosphy of redressing
an imbalance perceived in our modern Western society of being too
oriented towards the intellect and too little towards the rest of the
psyche.   Among corrolary reasons were that Greek was the original
language of the original synoptic Gospels, and reading them in the
Greek would be of interest if not value.  (Also that becoming
acquainted with a different alphabet is of intrinsic interest and
excitement for children.)
		Julian Davies