I received several
questions that center around the theme of why we learn Latin or
history, when very few students will use them.
Students often
have a utilitarian view of education; if a class can be applied to
your career, then there is a good reason for taking it – otherwise,
no. For example, if you were planning to repair watches for a
living, then a bezel-polishing class would be just the thing; if you
were planning to be a police officer, it would be a complete waste of
time. Likewise, very few students are going to “use” Latin or
history (although definitely those who are going into medicine or
politics clearly might), so what is the point of taking them in
school?
The beauty of a
liberal education is that it is not strictly utilitarian in intent.
The word “liberal” comes from the Latin word “liber,” which
means “free.” You would know this if you had spent as much time
studying Latin as you do kvetching about taking it. In this case, a
liberal education was created for “free” citizens – meaning
those who are wealthy enough that they are free from having to have a
vocation. Therefore, the object of a liberal education is to learn
for the sake of learning, not to hone skills that a person needs in
the workplace.
The subjects of
Latin and history are important to free citizens because they connect
us with our roots; they allow us to explore the great ideas of the
past and to come to a better understanding of the foundation of our
culture. They also give us a peek into the human mind. Everybody
knows who Julius Caesar was, but who can tell us what he thought?
What assumptions did he make about the people he fought against?
What was his understanding of fate? Nobody can really think like
another person, but reading Caesar in Latin can – to a certain
extent – give you the ability to step outside of yourself and come
closer to understanding somebody from a time far removed from our
time.
The questions that
a scholar of Latin and history studies are important because they
give us a better perspective on truth itself, not because they are
particularly useful in a specific job.
That being said, a
liberal education has been shown to be a great foundation for further
education in all fields. Every year graduates from our school get
accepted to the most prestigious and competitive schools in the
world. The upper echelons of scientists, artists, writers,
mathematicians, engineers, and entertainers are populated by numerous
people who have a classical foundation. The Latin Language Blog put
together an interesting little
list of people in various fields who studied Latin. Some of
them, such as J.K. Rowling, use Latin in their work, while others
merely use the intellectual tools they developed in the study of the
classics and apply them in other fields.
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