Young Catholics Causing Rebirth of Tridentine Mass

  • Thread starter Thread starter yankeesouth
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A lot of kids in high school with me in the 1980s also had zero knowledge of academic effort. That’s not new.

I hated calculus. It almost killed me. I took two years of it including a year in high school because I thought I wanted to go to pharmacy school. I don’t regret it even as I physically hated the class. I made low Bs in it and worked my behind off for them. I had to take more of it when I got to college because I did so well on placement tests I couldn’t take anything else other than statistics, which I also needed. (You can imagine my reaction.)

I didn’t need Latin to learn these things.
 
Last edited:
I hated math and foreign languages. I loved history and social studies and psychology and subjects like that. I still love history and still hate math. 😦
 
Last edited:
I’m out of likes, Jack, or you’d get one.

Oh man I still chuckle when I remember how I wanted to cry when I realized I’d over-scored on the placement tests to just skunk by with Pre-Calc and Calc I again (my Calc wasn’t AP in high school because we didn’t have it, but a good chunk of what I was taught in high school I saw again in college, verbatim - not bad for a high school in a tiny NE NC town with about 400 students, eh?). I had to take Calc I and Calc II…kill. Me. Now. LOL.
 
Canvas said:
I hated math and foreign languages. I loved history and social studies and psychology and subjects like that. I still love history and still hate math. 😦
Click to expand...
I can quote all sorts of stuff from history myself. I like that kind of thing as well.

But I still did more with the calculus that made me want to die than my mother has ever done with Latin. In 2003 I took the GRE. I hadn’t sat in a math class in about ten years at that point. I won’t say the math part was easy, but I did far better on it than I would’ve if I hadn’t nearly hanged myself in Calculus. The algebra made far more sense than it had all those years before (and I basically blew off the studying for the math part because I knew my verbal score would carry the total, as it did for the ACT and the SAT years before). It made the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test easier because there’s a lot of logic on that - reshaping boxes and predicting how the plane is flying (yeah, you need to know that even before they send you to flight school or even if you’re not going to flight school). You need solid logic skills for all that. Math teaches you that, even if you don’t get it at the time. And it’s useful in the long run.

The point was made that not everyone is great at languages. Not everyone is great at math - but it’s about what you “do” do with something, and not what you can do.

Same principle.
 
Here’s a link to the top Catholic high schools in America. I only checked the first ten. The top nine offer Latin. I guess some CAF members need to write and let them know that studying Latin is a waste of time. They’d better write the AP College Board folks too, and tell them that offering AP Latin is a waste of time. And write to all the top universities in the world and tell them to stop accepting kids from all the top high schools where Latin is taught…and stop teaching Latin in their universities, because it’s just a big waste of time. 🤣
 
I wonder how many fewer poems I’d have published, if I didn’t know my Latin root words and affixes? Oh well, who needs an expansive vocabulary these days, anyway? Just Google it!
 
Right. Moral corruption and swarms of immigrants had nothing to do with it…
Hey, that sounds eerily familiar!
 
The best was in High School I managed to take guitar class almost every semester, if not every single semester of HS. I don’t remember exactly. But that class was great. Most of the time you ended up jamming with your friends.
 
anon10271182 said:
Here’s a link to the top Catholic high schools in America. I only checked the first ten. The top nine offer Latin. I guess some CAF members need to write and let them know that studying Latin is a waste of time. They’d better write the AP College Board folks too, and tell them that offering AP Latin is a waste of time. And write to all the top universities in the world and tell them to stop accepting kids from all the top high schools where Latin is taught…and stop teaching Latin in their universities, because it’s just a big waste of time. 🤣
Click to expand...
Again, you’re comparing apples to oranges.

You can laugh all you want, but I can assure you that for secular high schools and your average public high school, it’s a waste of time. No funding, no available teachers, no interest. No time when you have to ensure these kids can graduate and be competitive to get into colleges with kids who had seven and eight languages at their disposal before they even got out of high school.

For the average person who has other things they actually do need to fulfill prerequisites and complete programs, it’s a waste of time. If someone wants to study it in college, great. As I said, get that languages degree if it floats your boat.

For an educator you’re coming off as a bit elitist. Quoting top Catholic high schools tells me absolutely nothing about your recognition of the needs of a high school in a small town in Montana.

I can pop off the name of the very prestigious university I graduated from with honors without one speck of Latin on my record. You don’t need it for success; it’s not indispensable. Like I said, laugh away - but it doesn’t paint you favorably to do so. It’s 2018. Latin is not the be all and end all.
 
Last edited:
So what? I seriously don’t care about fancy parochial high schools. If you can afford one, great. Most cannot.

I’m more concerned with average Jane and Joe and what they need to get ahead. Not the elite. The elite can always do well and get more.

Jane and Joe just need to get to college with the resources their schools can offer.

Latin is not essential for success. You don’t need it to get ahead. It’s not a core topic that you cannot live without. It’s not required anywhere.
 
Last edited:
Why care about the AP exams, either? They’re just elitist, for the brightest and hardest working kids. We need to level everyone to mediocrity, after all.😉
 
My friend, we didn’t have AP exams at my high school. No funding. No teachers qualified to teach them at the time.

Still got a good degree.

You don’t need those either. You cannot get what you don’t have. There are MANY poor school systems in this country that have none of this stuff. They’re luxuries.

You are being deliberately obtuse, and it’s quite unbecoming.
 
Last edited:
angel12 said:
40.png
Pup7:
You are being deliberately obtuse, and it’s quite unbecoming.
Click to expand...
He goes on sarcasm binges every once in a while. Quite tiresome.
Click to expand...
Clearly. Thanks for the tip. 🙂

I hope he tolerates that same behavior from those he claims to educate. Otherwise it’s just unfair.
 
Last edited:
No AP exams…hmmm. No Honors classes either?

p.s. some find my feigned obtuseness endearing. Well, okay, I have to buy them lunch. But still…
 
Last edited:
No, not in rural North Carolina in 1987. I think my junior and senior English carried an H designation, but that’s awarded by the state based on curriculum. It doesn’t take additional training or funding.

You do realize how old I am, correct?

Universities know what’s available at your school. When your high school transcripts are submitted, they get a short explanation and overview of the credits that school can award from that school. Then they measure what you took against what was available.

Many states also have prescribed diplomas for high schools that fulfill specific course requirements. NC has the NC Scholars Diploma, and every high school is required to offer the minimum for that diploma. That’s how I had advanced trig and calculus in high school - the state says to get that diploma that has to be offered. The program is overseen by the UNC system - so when you show, say, a 3.9 GPA with an NCSD, they know what that means.

I learned a lot during my work study in the admissions office. 😉
 
Last edited:
I can honestly say I wouldn’t be a writer today if it weren’t for the passion for literature instilled in me by my high school Honors English teachers. And a particular college professor or two. Writing is my charism, my own apostolate. I thank God for those teachers!
Of course one can be very successful without taking a single Honors or AP course. But I’m a big believer in their benefit. I believe in separate GATE classes, too, because I’ve seen how bright, motivated, potential high achievers are held back by being mainstreamed with kids who couldn’t care less.
But I’m just crazy like that, lol!
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top