What Happened to Latin Among the Romans?
Douglas Domingo-Forasté, California State University Long Beach
Instructive Lessons 1-3
What lessons can we learn from the rise and demise of Latin at Los Angeles High? Why is it particularly instructive? After all, the western and mountain states share some problems with New England and the mid-Atlantic states. But other problems, a rejection of educational tradition, a concomitant fascination with educational fads, and an emphasis on technical training are stronger in the West and particularly in the Pacific states. But the situation at Los Angeles High offers some instructive lessons and also some reasons for optimism in all regions of the country. Many dedicated teachers and professors have put various lessons Los Angeles High School provides into practice already, but the discipline requires a concerted and consistent effort on the part of the whole classics community if Latin is to survive at the secondary level.
First, Los Angeles High initially was a Latin school because the University of California demanded it. There was no other option for students interested in college. But by 1907, the year Manual Arts High opened, at least for some, Latin itself was no longer an option. We must make every effort to show the exceptional value of Latin to the general public and state and local education officials. Those groups often see American Sign Language and Japanese as conferring the greater benefits. Because of their putative economic and practical advantages Japanese and other Asian languages are popular choices for students and administrators. Rarely do politicians and educational bureaucrats cite the value of the study of Japanese poetry. Both administrators and students rightly see ASL as conferring some benefits of practical language training without the difficulties inherent in modern spoken languages and with the economic advantage of training translators for the hearing impaired. But the national obsession with school performance and the college selection and admission process presents classicists with an opportunity to show Latin’s practical value for not only excellent standardized test scores but for general success with language, writing and thought.
Second, a dynamic teacher and leader and promoter like Walter Edwards makes a decisive difference in the acceptance of Latin. We must push our best graduates to become not lawyers or even classics professors, but secondary Latin teachers. For many, teaching Latin in high school was what one did when she found she could not finish the Ph.D. if even then. The continuation and spread of Latin depends much more on great teachers in the high schools than it does in college. By the time college students reach author courses, Latin pretty much sells itself. Even a dreary teacher cannot diminish Catullus in the starry eyes of a young twenty-something. But the high school teacher must be exceptional to interest students from whom life has not yet demanded much memorization and discipline.
In that same vein, third, we cannot teach Latin the way Susan Dorsey learned it. Students who take any foreign language now must see its practical value, its intellectual excitement and its fun. No one can afford to teach hic haec hoc without the aspects of culture and orality and spontaneity that the Junior Classical League and Latin clubs provide. Latin must be cool, fun and hip, and that includes togas. Walter Edwards charitably said of his predecessors in Greek teaching at Los Angeles High that “more stress was laid on formal grammar than is now the case.” Yet his students were not only numerous, but they published a regular newspaper in Latin. Grammar is important but not at the expense of creating interest in the language itself.
