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I wish I had had a teacher like that when Latin was being shoved down my throat. I so rebelled, I knew less Latin in my sixth year than I did in my fourth. The

I wish I had had a teacher like that when Latin was being shoved down my throat. I so rebelled, I knew less Latin in my sixth year than I did in my fourth. The wasted hours of rosa, rosam, rosae, rosa. However, it did enable me to become fluent in Spanish in two months. Fluent enough to teach high school physics, in Spanish, at the Instituto Americano of La Paz.

dkarl 9y ago
I wish I did, too, but I think instruction in all the other languages was even worse, at least in my school. While my class was memorizing charts like -r -ris -tur, -mur -mini -ntur the students taking Spanish and French were learning the "better" way, but their results were worse. Language instruction in the U.S. is just shit all around. (I remember one of the smartest kids in my school took four years of Spanish, and by his senior year, he was the only kid taking Spanish who wasn't a native Spanish speaker. So the teacher spoke English with him and Spanish with the rest of the kids....)
coldcode 9y ago
My favorite teacher ever was my high school latin teacher. I took latin for 3 years, each class was packed as everyone loved being there. In a public US high school at that. Today I doubt there is a single public high school in the US teaching latin.
- dhosek 9y ago
  Northside College Prep in Chicago has Latin (and my nephews actually took it at the K-8 level in public schools as well). If you read the story, you'll find that many of Foster's former students are teaching Latin, and Santa Monica High School (another public school) is given as an example of where his graduates teach. My local public high school also offers Latin (as does the Catholic high school half a mile down the street). There's been a bit of a renaissance of Latin in the schools of late.
- tzs 9y ago
  One of New York's special public schools not only teaches latin, they require everyone to take four years of it: Brooklyn Latin School [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Latin_School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Latin_School
- wyclif 9y ago
  It's increasingly rare. I had 4 years of Latin in HS, in public school (N.B. tax-funded government sponsored school for you non-American readers). I think I was the last student in the school district to do that, because after the teacher retired, who was exceptional, they cut the program from the curriculum.
- jjtheblunt 9y ago
  We had it in Wheaton, Illinois, in public school. Sort of just depends on the school district.
throwaway91111 9y ago
Latin is a lot more fun if you don't focus on the grammar, and perhaps ironically, you may pick it up faster. Unfortunately, grammar is super easy to test.
jeremyis 9y ago
no te creo que lograste fluencia en dos meses incluso con el conocimiento de latin...

dkarl 9y ago

I wish I did, too, but I think instruction in all the other languages was even worse, at least in my school. While my class was memorizing charts like -r -ris -tur, -mur -mini -ntur the students taking Spanish and French were learning the "better" way, but their results were worse. Language instruction in the U.S. is just shit all around. (I remember one of the smartest kids in my school took four years of Spanish, and by his senior year, he was the only kid taking Spanish who wasn't a native Spanish speaker. So the teacher spoke English with him and Spanish with the rest of the kids....)

coldcode 9y ago

My favorite teacher ever was my high school latin teacher. I took latin for 3 years, each class was packed as everyone loved being there. In a public US high school at that. Today I doubt there is a single public high school in the US teaching latin.

dhosek 9y ago
Northside College Prep in Chicago has Latin (and my nephews actually took it at the K-8 level in public schools as well). If you read the story, you'll find that many of Foster's former students are teaching Latin, and Santa Monica High School (another public school) is given as an example of where his graduates teach. My local public high school also offers Latin (as does the Catholic high school half a mile down the street). There's been a bit of a renaissance of Latin in the schools of late.
tzs 9y ago
One of New York's special public schools not only teaches latin, they require everyone to take four years of it: Brooklyn Latin School [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Latin_School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Latin_School
wyclif 9y ago
It's increasingly rare. I had 4 years of Latin in HS, in public school (N.B. tax-funded government sponsored school for you non-American readers). I think I was the last student in the school district to do that, because after the teacher retired, who was exceptional, they cut the program from the curriculum.
jjtheblunt 9y ago
We had it in Wheaton, Illinois, in public school. Sort of just depends on the school district.

throwaway91111 9y ago

Latin is a lot more fun if you don't focus on the grammar, and perhaps ironically, you may pick it up faster. Unfortunately, grammar is super easy to test.

jeremyis 9y ago

no te creo que lograste fluencia en dos meses incluso con el conocimiento de latin...