![]() Latin nouns also change their endings depending upon their role in the sentence the six cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, and ablative) explain these different roles and the cases also change depending upon the number, singular or plural, and gender, masculine, feminine or neuter. This is important because Latin often has a different word order from English. In order to construe and read original Latin texts, pupils need to analyse each word in the sentence carefully. Latin develops problem solving skills, which I believe is the most important reason for teaching Latin at preparatory school. This gives them the opportunity to study a fascinating, shocking and surprising past while using transferable skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation. ![]() Through other significant Roman events, developments and people, pupils will also assess Roman slavery, marriage, citizenship, wealth and property. Soon, they will be able to make their own informed judgements about Caesar’s rise and fall. Their knowledge of the three major political phases and the different classes in Roman society is helping them to question the motives of Caesar’s rivals. Form 4 is currently analysing ancient sources to explain why Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Many ageless social, political and moral issues can be explored through Roman history. For example, the Latin word civis meaning citizen, can be transformed into a handful of English derivatives: civic – of or pertaining to citizens, civility – politeness civil rights – rights of a citizen and civil law – law protecting the private rights of citizens.Īnother argument for studying Latin is that the Romans did not only influence our language but also our culture, literature, architecture, and political and legal systems. By having an understanding of Latin vocabulary and the principles of grammar, it will be easier for pupils to learn other modern foreign languages. It is the ancestral language of the Romance languages: French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish, and over half of the English language derives partly through these and partly directly from Latin. Many know that Latin is the building block for many other languages. But if Latin is perceived by so many in a negative light, why do we still want our pupils to master the subject? Interestingly, since the second half of the 20th century the importance placed on Latin in the education system has been in decline because of its perceived lack of relevance, difficulty, as well as it being thought of as socially elitist. As a result, many easily dismiss Latin as a subject that has little relevance to their own lives or is only accessible to the most academic pupils. Moreover, a lot of pupils often believe that learning Latin is too demanding and difficult. It is common for pupils to respond in a disgruntled fashion when they have to translate or read long texts, especially when they are in a language that is not even spoken anymore, nor has been for a very long time! Indeed, pupils will never even have to do a Latin oral examination in school or ask for directions to the train station in Latin. However, as teachers we cannot assume that pupils will find our subject interesting just because we intrinsically enjoy studying it. I do believe, or secretly hope, that most of my pupils actually enjoy reading about the household of Caecilius and finding out what silly things his slaves, Clemens and Grumio, have been up to or what happens to his dog, Cerberus, at the end of Book One. They know how much I love all things Latin and especially the stories about Caecilius, a character from the Cambridge Latin Course. This rhyme is known by many Latin pupils and teachers and I have heard my own pupils cheerfully chant it a few times and my dramatic reaction to it gives them a good old laugh. It killed the ancient Romans, and now it’s killing me! Latin is a language, as dead as dead can be.
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