Dropping Latin instruction at Catholic HS

[ProVobis]

Yes… the Catholic translators better get busy! We Protestants are way ahead in Bible translations in different Chinese dialects.

When they get interested enough, maybe they’ll learn some Latin/Greek too. Many of them are more linguistically talented than we give them credit for.

 

[LucyLight]

This is the information age. If you want to learn latin you can learn latin. You could start a latin club. Get a group of kids together and hire a tutor to teach it once a week. Or buy some cds and books like rosetta stone. It certainly makes it easier if the school is offering it but we can’t rely on them for everything.

 

[psr13]

When I was in HS, the kids with the lowest grades in Spanish were from Hispanic backgrounds who already spoke Spanish. Never could figure it out. Meanwhile, I knew only English but was acing Latin.

It’s because they often don’t speak proper Spanish. One of my problems (out of many) with American education is that kids here don’t usually start a language until high school, often only take two years, and only take one language. It should start early, and kids should have the opportunity to take more than one language.

By the way, if you can get tones down Mandarin is actually quite simple. It doesn’t have much grammar at all, and a lot of the same characters (not really words but kind of words) are used in many different sayings, etc. The majority of Mandarin is very repetitive. Seriously, watch Mandarin (I watch Taiwanese) TV, and you’ll hear the same things over and over again in different combinations.

 

[psr13]

While I hate to see Latin dropped, I have to laud the insight at adding Chinese. English is the international language of commerce because of the place of American in the world economy. America is now a debtor to China. Europe is in financial chaos. I believe knowing Chinese will be profitable in the future.

China will probably not be able to sustain itself. The only reason it does so well now is that it manipulates its currency.

 

[ProVobis]

China will probably not be able to sustain itself. The only reason it does so well now is that it manipulates its currency.

So do other countries, including the U.S.

But currency is a false god.

 

[psr13]

So do other countries, including the U.S.

But currency is a false god.

China manipulates it much differently, though. It’s all a farce.

 

[PacoG]

I am growing frustrated by the overall attitude toward education as a tool for better jobs and not for personal enrichment and growth.

You live in the wrong state. Sadly, our aggie governor comes from an educational perspective that education–both public and higher–serves to advance economic and vocational goals. That permeates the State. Essentially, he would be happy to make the whole state like agricultural/vocational college he attended.

There used to be a time that the primary purpose of education was to build students into good citizens and people. Hence mottos like that Disciplina Praesidium Civitatis (a cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy).

 

[PacoG]

And to my Aggie friends and fellow Texans out there…Things would be much better if Perry listened to the people like William Bennet (the former Reagan education secretary) who argue for a traditional education that is aimed at developing citizens instead of the people who just see education as providing a workforce.

 

[Baelor]

Do they think that seminary is sufficient to really become fluent in a language?

Even priests who know Latin and started early are not likely fluent. Can they hold a conversation in Latin? Can they construct grammatically correct and stylistically beautiful sentences in Latin? Some can, but hardly all, nor are such skills necessary. I agree with your post, I just wanted to push back on this one point.

I have had the opposite frustration for the last 50 years. Taxpayers make great sacrifices for education, and there should be some return on their “investment”, as it is called by øbama, et al.

I would think that students who are capable of critical thought would constitute “return on investment.” Having 1.4 million students chemical engineering majors does nothing if none of them can think about social issues, values, history, etc.

In freshman literature and composition, we were required to analyze a Thomas Hardy novel…Consequently, I considered “personal enrichment” courses as hurdles to be overcome as opposed to learning opportunities.

I am sorry that that one class you took was unsatisfying. I hardly see how that single experience should justify the elimination of departments you find unworthy.

I am a student of Latin and Greek. I came from a math/science high school. Studying the Classics has changed the way I think irreversibly. No math/science course has come close to doing that.

 

[Cristiano]

This is the information age. If you want to learn latin you can learn latin. You could start a latin club. Get a group of kids together and hire a tutor to teach it once a week. Or buy some cds and books like rosetta stone. It certainly makes it easier if the school is offering it but we can’t rely on them for everything.

Specific schools have specific missions, if they depart from their mission they are going to compete more in a general area with other schools and their shortcomings become more evident. Your comment about the information age is correct and considering that everything is readily available you must stick to your mission for growing withing a specific niche.
Why do people prefer homeschooling to a lot of Catholic schools? Because they are not sticking to their Catholic mission, on top of that they are expensive and they are not far superior in term of academics respect to protestant or for profit private schools.

 

[Portrait]

They are doing a great diservice to their students. Latin was,is, and will remain the language of the Church.

I think too many Catholics today, when they think of “the Church”, they go no further than their parish and their diocese. Of course, they recognize the Holy Father. But, they think that everyone should speak English, because “the Church uses English now”… When that couldn’t be further from the truth. ALL official documents of the Church are still in Latin… And even the new Mass translation… it is just that a TRANSLATION of the original LATIN.

Dear AdDeum,

Cordial greetings and a very good day. Jolly well said and my sentiments entirely.

One often hears nowadays that Latin is a dead language and that there is no valid reason for Holy Mother Church to continue to cling on to it. However, it is precisely because it is a dead language that we ought to cling on to it.

Latin is indeed, dear friend, the traditional language of the Latin Rite and the faithful should remember that the Mass is not a sermon but a sacrifice. Thus it is incorrect to say that the use of Latin in the services of the Church is an impediment to participation and worship, as some contemporary Catholics are wont to do. Indeed, if it were such an impediment, then there would be no obligation to attend Holy Mass either at home or in foreign parts, unless one knew the local language or the language of the liturgy.

The use in Catholic rites of ancient tongues no longer in use springs from a desire to preserve ancient prayers in their original form and so maintain a universal, timeless and transcendent ritual that connects men to their ancestors in the faith, and is beyond cultural tampering, manipulation and deviations for spurious ideological purposes.

An ancient tongue such as Latin expresses the inherently ‘traditional’ (that is to say, handed-on) nature of the scared liturgy, and commands the respect and adherence of the faithful (unlike the vernacular translations, which become an incessant source of division). The Latin Rite is beyond partiality, trivialisation and vulgarity and rises above the ceasless changes iin living languages, thus rendering it apt to express those eternal verities upon which the liturgy depends. Moreover, my dear friend, its mysterious and venerable character aids in transporting men’s minds beyond the limits of the present moment to the contemplation of the divine and the invisible.

God bless.

Warmest good wishes,

Portrait

Pax

 

[Cristiano]

China manipulates it much differently, though. It’s all a farce.

That is only one of our problems with China that will not be resolved by learning Chinese.

Security backdoor found in China-made US military chip.

 

[annspazz]

Dear AdDeum,

Cordial greetings and a very good day. Jolly well said and my sentiments entirely.

One often hears nowadays that Latin is a dead language and that there is no valid reason for Holy Mother Church to continue to cling on to it. However, it is precisely because it is a dead language that we ought to cling on to it.

Latin is indeed, dear friend, the traditional language of the Latin Rite and the faithful should remember that the Mass is not a sermon but a sacrifice. Thus it is incorrect to say that the use of Latin in the services of the Church is an impediment to participation and worship, as some contemporary Catholics are wont to do. Indeed, if it were such an impediment, then there would be no obligation to attend Holy Mass either at home or in foreign parts, unless one knew the local language or the language of the liturgy.

The use in Catholic rites of ancient tongues no longer in use springs from a desire to preserve ancient prayers in their original form and so maintain a universal, timeless and transcendent ritual that connects men to their ancestors in the faith, and is beyond cultural tampering, manipulation and deviations for spurious ideological purposes.

An ancient tongue such as Latin expresses the inherently ‘traditional’ (that is to say, handed-on) nature of the scared liturgy, and commands the respect and adherence of the faithful (unlike the vernacular translations, which become an incessant source of division). The Latin Rite is beyond partiality, trivialisation and vulgarity and rises above the ceasless changes iin living languages, thus rendering it apt to express those eternal verities upon which the liturgy depends. Moreover, my dear friend, its mysterious and venerable character aids in transporting men’s minds beyond the limits of the present moment to the contemplation of the divine and the invisible.

God bless.

Warmest good wishes,

Portrait

Pax