Vivat Lingua Latina!
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| Fifth-grade students at Covenant Day School get a taste of Latin language and culture once a week. Pictured are (front row, left to right) Octavian (Parker Medlin), Rufus (John Warren), Augustus (Wesley Parnell), Tacitus (Thomas Nations) and Titus (James Burrows); and (second row, left to right) Maria (Mary Elizabeth Cash), Hostilius (Kris Madden), Marius (Mark Melton), Davius (Brennan McCarthy), Brutus (Andy Dinsbeer) and Octavia (Emma Smith). |
Does it make any sense to you?
Sherri Madden, who teaches private Latin lessons and has studied the language and its culture for more than 25 years, thinks you should know it. The translation from Latin to English is “Are you able to read this story?” The headline translates to “May the Latin language live!”
“You didn’t just call Latin a dead language, did you?” Madden laughingly reprimanded a visitor during a recent interview. “My kids in my classes are not allowed to say that. There are so many benefits from learning Latin. How is it fair to call it ‘dead’?”
For the past five years, Madden has worked as a private Latin teacher, most recently opening her own school, Master’s Academy, where she teaches Latin to more than 65 children three days a week, with one afternoon of tutoring offered.
Yes, Latin, a language that has not been spoken regularly in nearly 1,000 years. According to Wikipedia, “Latin ... gained wide use as the formal language of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire and was also later adopted by medieval scholars, as well as the Catholic Church. Although Latin is now widely considered to be a dead language, with very few fluent speakers and no native ones, it has exerted a major influence on many other languages that are still thriving and continues to see significant use in science, academia and law. Latin is still the official language of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, and Ecclesiastical Latin remains the official language of Vatican City.”
But Madden stresses the importance of the language. “Learning Latin strengthens a child’s vocabulary in a way that you cannot even imagine. About 60 percent of our English language is derived from Latin. And of three-syllable words, more than 90 percent of them are derived from Latin,” Madden said. “Once students have Latin basics, learning everything becomes so much faster. And it’s vital for those interested in the sciences or law or even romance languages.”
Many area high schools and private schools offer Latin, but Madden caters mainly to homeschooled students and to high school students who aren’t offered Latin as part of their own school’s curriculum.
She also teaches the language – and bits of history and culture – to elementary school-age and middle school-age children in the area.
Latin goes to Covenant Day
Her venture has inspired a group of her homeschooled high school students to bring the language and its culture – from dress to food to sports – to a group of youngsters who don’t attend Master’s Academy.
Fifth-graders at Covenant Day School are getting a weekly dose of the language. Every Wednesday afternoon for nine weeks, Madden and her team of high schoolers offer a Latin enrichment program at Covenant Day, where Madden’s own children attend school. “I saw a blurb in the school newsletter about fifth grade enrichment days and I called the principal and just asked ‘Would you like a Latin enrichment day?’”
Madden was anxious, however, when she saw the list of other offerings – sewing, flag football, crafts and more. “I was so concerned that no one would take Latin, but we ended up with 11 students, and they are so excited they are just sopping it up,” she said.
Each of her privately taught high school Latin students at Master’s Academy helped develop the curriculum; each student selected a topic and developed ideas for activities, handouts, crafts and more. So far the enrichment program has covered history, clothing, architecture, Roman religion and games that were played by Latin students long ago. Up next? An Olympic game day and a genuine Roman feast.
Other activities that Madden tackles with her students include annual Latin holiday caroling and a stargazing night. “We always pick one night and the students help identify constellations in the sky,” she said. “We also end the evening with a bonfire and lunar treats – Mars candy bars, Starburst candies or marshmallow treat meteors.”
Madden began studying Latin in the eighth grade when her family moved to Memphis, Tenn. She majored in Latin, technically earning a degree in the classics, from Rhodes College in Memphis. It is a passion that earned her a Fulbright scholarship to study Roman history while she traveled through Rome this past summer.
“There are so many benefits of the language that it would take me forever to list them,” she said, reflectively. “But to me, the biggest benefit is that when you stick with it and get to the authors who originally wrote in Latin, you see the wisdom and the beauty of it all. You are transformed into an eloquent thinker and speaker. You absorb that into your soul and it makes you a better writer. You can read Cicero in English but it is not the same. That’s like asking you to translate Shakespeare into German. Something is lost.”
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