Sunday, January 24, 1999
Latin rises from grave in local schools
Students hear language may help careers
BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
There's Virgil, Cicero and Julius Caesar, and, to become part of their world, there's the need to be diligent, have a good memory and to not shy away from grammar.
In Northern Kentucky, plenty of high school students are willing to make the sacrifice if it means they'll learn Latin, the language of the Roman Empire.
Some hope the studies will aid their performance on standardized tests, others hope they will help in future medical and legal careers, and some just like the history, mythology and culture that is inherent in Latin studies.
“You feel special when you speak Latin because it's a different language that all these great people spoke,” said Ashlie Reker, a 14-year-old sophomore at Covington Latin School. “It makes you feel like you're a part of that.”
Latin enrollment in high schools nationwide grew 15 percent between 1990 and 1994. Enrollment is not tracked statewide, but some Northern Kentucky teachers of the language sense that its popularity is on the rise.
The instructors, who generally teach at private schools, say the proof is in their class enrollment.
“Maybe because (the students) are more conscious of college and (that Latin) helps in (standardized test) scores,” said Sister Clarita Anneken, who has been a teacher for almost six decades. She has taught Latin for most of that time and now instructs students at Villa Madonna Academy in Villa Hills.
This year, she noted, a third of the freshman class chose Latin over French or Spanish.
“Two-thirds of the words in the English language are derived from Latin, so it helps in their vocabulary,” she said. “If anyone goes into any kind of career in law or medicine, you're really miss ing out if you're not taking any Latin. (But) maybe it's just the mystique of a dead language.”
Kelly Kursch, a Covington Latin instructor, noted that Latin was commonly used in academic journals around the turn of the century. The use of the language began to wane in the 1920s, '30s and '40s. And, in the 1950s, the age of Sputnik and the Cold War meant that many students were turning to more modern languages, such as German.
Sister Anneken noted that, in the mid-1960s, the Catholic Church's decision to no longer offer Mass in Latin was a big blow.
The study of Latin fell to the wayside until the late 1980s, when it began to make a comeback, Mrs. Kursch said.
She, herself, was introduced to the language as a teen, when she was attending a college prep school in the Chicago area. She had notions of becoming a doctor. After she majored in classics at the University of Chicago, she decided she'd rather teach Latin.
She has been at Covington Latin for nine years.
“I tell (the students) all the time that it isn't dead,” she said. “How can you say the language is dead, when (certain) terms exist. It's just changed a little. It's evolved, like languages need to do. The language is not dead. And, if you look hard enough, you'll see it.”
For example, there's habeas corpus, which is a modern legal term used to describe a written order for a person to appear in court to determine whether his detention is legal; e pluribus unum, which is on $1 bills and means “one out of many”; and carpe diem, which means “seize the day.”
Deus ex machina is the
term Mrs. Kursch translated for a group of sophomores earlier this week. The phrase literally means “god out of a machine.” She tells the students that theatrical productions used to feature huge props that would be used to represent gods. Unearthly voices often came from the props.
Over the centuries, she said, the meaning of the literary phrase has come to describe a dilemma that is resolved by some outside force.
She explained a scene in the movie Jurassic Park — T. Rex is the deus ex machina, she said, when it storms into a cafeteria and eats a raptor that has been terrorizing the protagonists.
She also spends the hour helping them translate about four paragraphs about a young Roman girl, Cornelia, who's feeling melancholy because she's not in school. Translation relies on grammar, and the students often are asked for the tenses of many words.
“Latin really gets to the bare bones of an English sentence,” Mrs. Kursch said. “If you know what every word is doing in a Latin sentence, then you know what every word in an English sentence is doing.”
Claire Beimesch, 15, of Taylor Mill is a senior at Covington Latin. When it comes to Latin classes, she truly can say veni, vidi, vici — or, “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
The teen signed up for four years of Latin. Only two were required.
“I thought Latin was a good springboard to the romance languages (like) French and Spanish,” said the teen, who would like to enter the medical field.
She thinks a knowledge of Latin will help in her career pursuits, and she enjoys studying the language more than she does Greek and German.
Beechwood Independent Schools in Kenton County also offers Latin courses.
Instructor Jane Coyle said she is teaching a class of 22 — one of the biggest ever.
“I tell the kids that it helps them so much,” she said. “There's a sense of accomplishment because it's not spoken generally. (But) it's a lot of drudgery. It does take time.”
Dixie Heights High School in Kenton County offered Latin courses until about two years ago. A lack of interest was the problem. The school also offers French, German and Spanish.
It would offer Latin again if students stated interest, said Doris Strilka, who heads the high school's foreign language department.
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