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We are all created for the sole purpose of spending eternity with God in heaven, yet the culture around us constantly pulls our minds and hearts towards the things of the earth. An essential part of our children’s education as well as our own continued learning should be knowledge which truly nurtures our souls and educates us for the right reasons.

Dumbing us Down

John Taylor Gatto’s 1991 book, Dumbing Us Down famously exposed how the education system is designed to create compliant consumers who lack critical thinking skills. As an experienced teacher, he challenged the education culture of his day and suggested alternative forms of schooling.

Gatto wanted to help his students become independent and resilient, using their natural creativity which he believed was largely stifled by a ‘cookie-cutter’ education. He also identified too much television screen-time as a great harm for children and adults and recommended finding other activities to replace the ubiquitous black box.

Digital Technology de-educates

Now that we adults have passed through the education system, for better or for worse, we are faced with an even worse enemy of our intellectual development – digital technology – which many of us are noticing has a negative impact on our own thinking skills.

We often notice in ourselves, or see in others, poorer concentration, weaker memories, inability to make connections, a lack of critical thinking skills and a herd mentality, as well as a widespread inability to read and comprehend long-form text. Much of this can be attributed to the education system, but it also suggests that the use of technology, although exposing us to more information than was previously available to any other generation, actually destroys many of our mental faculties. In other words, the digital world de-educates us.

It might seem as though there is no alternative to this downward spiral in our intellectual development, given that most of us rely in some way on digital technology to make a living. Yet, all is not lost, because there is plenty of evidence to show that the study of the Latin language is a perfect antidote to those shrinking brain cells: instead of ‘dumbing us down’, studying Latin ‘educates us upwards.’

How Latin educates us

This is a list of some formal studies which concluded that adding Latin to a curriculum shows general improvements in intellectual skills:

• One study of over 50 schools investigated the benefits of Latin and concluded that students of Latin ” …demonstrate advantages in intelligence measures, enhanced native language proficiency and increased meta-linguistic awareness, compared to their non-Latin peers.“
• Another study indicated that , due to its inherent logic, Latin was among a very few languages which were appropriate for teaching to high-school students with dyslexia.
• According to the University of Kentucky website, “Studying Latin, a highly organized and logical language, much like studying math, sharpens the mind, cultivates mental alertness, creates keener attention to detail, develops critical thinking, and enhances problem solving abilities.
• A Latin teacher at the Providence Classical Christian Schools wrote that “Studying Latin trains the brain by fostering analysis, precision, and attention to detail. Latin students develop study skills and strategies which apply to other disciplines. Latin is like math in this respect. Some students find Latin challenging because it stretches all their mental capacities, but this exercise makes subsequent learning easier.
• Dr. Arlene Holmes-Henderson, a researcher with the Classics in Communities project in the UK, found that studying Latin helped children improve their critical thinking and literacy skills. The project tracked primary school children throughout the UK, comparing their proficiency in language arts before and after the introduction of Latin to their curriculum. The results indicated that there as a marked improvement due to the study of Latin.

But that’s not all. Universities and educators have observed other benefits which show that Latin study is an educational powerhouse:

Language Arts

• The University of Illinois Classics Department states that “The study of an inflected language with a very different sentence structure than English is an excellent introduction to how languages work.
• and that “Latin students have a huge advantage in learning other inflected languages, such as Russian or German. Conversely, speakers of Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Rumanian) have an edge in studying Latin“
• The University of Kentucky claims that “Studying Latin, with its highly organized grammar, makes us coordinate ideas, reflect on the various ways to say the same thing, and thus to write and speak better in English.”

General Knowledge

CSU Sacramento says it is important to study Latin

• ” … because no other language and no other city have had so much influence–and for so long a time–on our own culture.
• Students of ancient, medieval, or early modern history should be able to study the original Latin documents, many of which (archives, local histories, inscriptions) have not been translated;
• students of English literature should be familiar with the ancient authors who were used either as models or objects of emulation by the great English writers of earlier ages;
• students of philosophy or religion should be familiar with the Latin sources in their fields. 

Higher Test Results

The University of Kentucky has looked into the link between the study of Latin and better academic results:

• Studying Latin leads to an increase in scores on standardized tests, such as the GRE.
• Studying Latin and Classics in general can boost the chances for a successful medical school application: “According to Association of American Medical Colleges, students who major or double-major in Classics have a better success rate getting into medical school than do students who concentrate solely in biology, microbiology, and other branches of science” (Princeton Review).
• Studying Latin and Classics helps maximize LSAT scores. According to The National Jurist (April 2014), “The law school applicants with the highest grade point averages and LSAT scores studied the classics in college.”

Latin educates us in another vital way

There is one final way in which Latin educates us – and this is lost on many of the secular sources cited above. By studying Ecclesiastical Latin specifically, our minds and hearts will be brought into contact with the most sublime truths known to mankind: the doctrines of the Catholic Faith, the treasures of the traditional Liturgy and the Word of God in the Vulgate Bible.

I hope this brief article encourages you in your study of Latin, no matter how informal that may be. If you’re ready to plunge in to a formal course then click here for more information on our introductory Ecclesiastical Latin course or fill in the form below if you’d like a free mini-course as a taster!