What is a teacher? What is the point in learning Latin?

I was asked these questions a couple years back by a colleague in grad school. I recently dug up my response, which I thought might serve as an interesting discussion-starter.


So, you posted this a while ago. Back then, I felt like writing a reponse, but didn't. Now, I don't feel like writing a response but will anyway.

A teacher is, simply put, an extension of the parent. Basically, it takes a LOT to raise up a human and halfway-decent child, and most parents don't have what it takes. Among the skills that most parents don't have, usually, education tops the list. Some parents are excellent teachers, but most aren't, so they ask other people to give 'em a hand. 

Now, there are higher, deeper meanings for the word 'teacher.' A teacher in the truest sense is someone who has ideas of their own and wants to share them with others. But most of us aren't that, and if we were when we started at UMASS, it is likely that the reality of the job quickly crushed any such idealistic notions. And, basically, it's an impossible ideal, because there's only one fellow who ever came up with something truly new, and we aren't Him. 

Now, let's get back to the other half of your question. "What is the point of learning Latin?" The fact is, in my humble opinion, there ISN'T a point for most people to learn Latin. The point of learning Latin, in its most limited academic sense, to gain an in-depth understanding of the Romans and subsequent Latin-speaking cultures. That limits the academic need for Latin to a few archaeology geeks and a few anthropology majors. 

But there is a wider, non-academic need to learn Latin. Latin is the language of a culture (actually, multiple cultures) which continues to have significance for SOME of the world's population today. Connection with that tradition allows those people to root themselves and develop a deeper sense of self-identity ("autochthony" in Heideggerian terms). For some people, e.g. Roman Catholics, that cultural heritage is so significant that the language remains in active use even to the present day.

To me, however, that makes teaching Latin in most public schools (I would except those in Europe) the equivalent of forcing students in Antarctica to take lessons in water skiing. Learning an ancient language is simply too difficult to be justified, when such brain power could be used on something more applicable or local, such as regional languages. 

As for the notion that learning Latin helps with a plethora of other skills, the evidence is too questionable. I am comforted everyday by knowing that the students to whom I teach the "Lingua Latina" also use it everyday, or at least have the opportunity to do so, in the context of the traditional Roman Liturgy.