What Happened to Latin Among the Romans?
Douglas Domingo-Forasté, California State University Long Beach
Broadcasting the Beginning of the End
On New Year’s Eve, 1971, the American Broadcasting Company television network comedy/drama “Room 222,” first broadcast an episode of particular interest to classicists. The series, which ran from fall 1969-1974, was an “issues show” set in Los Angeles and normally dealt with social problems of the period. It used Los Angeles High School for its exterior shots and some of the writers’ inspiration as well. It was a precursor to the popular serial format of many television dramas like “ER” and “Law & Order.” But this particular episode heralded the problems of Latin teaching in the period. Episode 66, “The Fading of the Elegant Beast,” depicts an aging Latin teacher reassigned to teach something else because insufficient students have enrolled in Latin. This episode of Room 222 was a harbinger of difficult times for Latin in the Los Angeles Unified School District high schools generally and Los Angeles High in particular. It was not simple coincidence that the shows writers used an educational trend that matched a trend at Los Angeles High.
While Los Angeles’ first public school opened in 1855, eventually given the creative name of “school number 1” (followed by school number 2), the first public high school in the city did not open until 1873. A Catholic college and high school, St. Vincent’s College, later renamed Loyola, had preceded it in 1868.
