Sodomy non sapiens

[andrewducker]

A friend of mine has a daughter at school and is wondering whether they should take Latin - whether they would find it actually useful later on for other subjects.  They think that it would be useful for science, and also for wanting to be a doctor or a vet.

Anyone got any opinions on this?

Comments

[makyo.livejournal.com]

I did Latin GCSE and although it's been of little or no practical use to me in my mathematical or computing careers, it has been a positive addition to my life, and if I had to go through school again (god forbid) I'd still do it.

On the practical side, I have a better idea how English grammar works, it's enhanced my spelling ability (on a few occasions I've found myself thinking "oh, it'll be spelled like this because it's derived from that"), and I'm sometimes able to guess what an unfamiliar English word means by thinking about what Latin word(s) it might be derived from.

But most of all, as with anything else we learn, it's added a kind of overlay to the way I look at the world, and increased the number of connections I see between things I experience. It's enriched my life in numerous interesting ways - and I think that's the point of education. So I think I'd advise your friend's daughter to have a preliminary look at it, decide if it's something she'd find interesting (rather than necessarily useful) and base her decision on that, because I think interesting things are always useful in some way.

[kashandara.livejournal.com]

iawtc