How far to go with Latin?

[Angela in NC]

DD does not want to continue Latin after Henle 1. Dh supports her. DD wants to put all her efforts in becoming fluent in Spanish; as she aspires to become a MD and knows this would be beneficial for her. I had always planned on an ancient and modern language through the HS years, but I have reached the point of needing to farm out, and this is costly and time and energy consuming. Should I allow her to drop Latin after Henle 1 or should we keep plugging along? Guidance is appreciated. Thank You, Angela Thomas

[Michelle in MO]

SWB recommends at least two years of h.s. level Latin, which is what our family also did by completing Henle I. I would say if by then the child has not developed a strong inclination to keep studying Latin, I would switch to Spanish. It sounds like your daughter has goals in life, and learning Spanish would be definitely very beneficial to her, almost no matter where she practiced medicine. If you can find a tutor, I would go ahead and let her do Spanish. Is she old enough for the community college? If so, they would probably have some classes as well.

HTH!

[Laura in OH]

However, if she wants to be a doctor, I think knowing Latin would be very helpful in getting through medical school :)

[Jane in NC]

DD does not want to continue Latin after Henle 1. Dh supports her. DD wants to put all her efforts in becoming fluent in Spanish; as she aspires to become a MD and knows this would be beneficial for her.

As one who enjoyed her high school Latin studies and has a son who is enjoying his, it would be hard for me to say forsake Latin. Yet given that we are following what had been your intended plan (two languages--one ancient, one modern--in our case Latin and French) I know how challenging this is.

Further, I see the pragmatic case for Spanish.

Yet there is this part of me that would want to hold on to the Latin for more than vocabulary roots. Latin is a highly structured language that requires logical analysis in its study. Studying Latin requires mental discipline. These seem like good qualities to develop in an aspiring doctor.

Hard call. Why does your daughter wish to terminate her studies?
Jane

[burdeesrule]

I did Henle 1 and I wanted to quit too. I was so tired of Gauls and Romans and I just wanted to drop it. Don't quit though; it's only Henle. I went on to Wheelocks and started to love Latin again. It gets alot harder at the end, but looking back, I now see that it was completely worth it and I am glad I didn't quit. Keep plugging along...you won't regret it in the end.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I plan for her to be done. I'm tired of the struggle with her. She does not like it, so I plan to concentrate on a foreign language. I think 1 year of Wheelock is enough. She has learned quite a bit of grammar and vocab.

We did Henle last year. My dd hated it. She also was tired of the Gauls. I understand why they use a limited vocab, but it is boring. Wheelock is better, but it is hard work.

Kim

[Begonia]

is that your dd has already spent a year or two cementing the fundamentals. Why not continue, work through another couple of years and then have her take the Latin AP exam? My 13yo dd is doing Latin I (Wheelocks through Scholars Online) this year in addition to Spanish I. Our current plan is to have her take Latin through the AP level. Once she has taken that Latin AP exam, we're hoping that she'll be able to fulfill her foreign language requirements for college. It's nice to be able to get college credit during high school. I tested out of foreign language in college and found that I had more time to devote to studying science (I was a pre-med biology major).

My dd's taking Spanish because she likes it and because she wants to be able to converse in a modern language. Spanish is easier for her than Latin, but I've heard that it's hard to do well on the Spanish AP and SATII exams because native speakers skew the results. We're planning to move more slowly in Spanish (perhaps taking two years to complete Span II).

HTH.

[Beth in SW WA]

Angela,
How about introducing a new method like Lingua Latina by Oeberg to your Latin studies to shake things up a bit. I spent hours researching various Latin programs online yesterday. I keep hearing a common theme of adding the Immersion method in conjuction w/ or in place of the grammar/translation method (Henle, Wheelock) to study Latin as Latin (whatever that means). Students seem to really love reading Latin and it spices up the routine.

After LC 2 my ds 10 & 12 will be doing a mix of the 2 methods, per Drew's advice (Plaid Dad).

I hope Drew chimes in on this conversation.

I think it would be a shame to drop Latin after your dc made it this far in her studies. I can imagine in high school my kiddos might want to add a modern language. I'm thinking of adding in Rosetta Stone (Spanish "lite") Spanish in high school for exposure (maybe .5 credit per year). Unless you have a native speaker to converse in Spanish w/ on a regular basis, why bother w/ Spanish? Fluencey would be tough w/o that conversational aspect.

Sorry I'm all over the board here -- I'm down w/ a "bug" and my brain is foggy.

Let us know what you decide. I love these Latin conversations. So many options!