As soon as you start talking with someone about classical education, inevitably a discussion of Latin ensues. Are you teaching Latin? Why do students need to learn Latin? These are valid questions. And there is a very lively discussion within the broader world of classical education on this topic. The debate actually goes back generations--the Ivy League schools had similar debates about a century ago. Now, the goal here in this short article isn't to offer a definitive answer in the lengthy and scholarly debate about Latin's role in the curriculum and how best to teach it. The goal here is much simpler: To offer a brief introduction to the benefits of Latin and our rationale for including it in the curriculum here at All Saints Classical Academy.

Some say Latin is the sine qua non of classical education and that if we’re going to truly be classical, we must do so just as the ancient did--or as the medievals did, or as Martin Luther did, or as (insert your favorite figure here) did. There is no doubt that for about 1,000 years, Latin was the language of the academy. The gateway into the church’s writings, great literature, theology, philosophy, law, medicine, science, and mathematics, was indeed Latin. Some schools were conducted completely in Latin. We even have record that at some medieval universities your letters that you sent home had to be written in Latin!

All that is true. But the goal of the reclaiming of classical education today isn’t to repristinate or replicate exactly what was being done in any one era or place. Rather, it is to faithfully apply the principles, content, and methods to our time. None of us are precisely recreating the curriculum that Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, or Walther used. None of us are following exactly what the Greeks and Romans, the medieval schoolmen, or the Renaissance and Reformation educators did, and nor should we per se. Should we learn from those eras and strive to reclaim what is worthwhile and stand on the shoulders of giants? Absolutely. But this can quickly run off track. As Stratford Caldecott puts it, we should be “interested less in the historical realization” of the ideal of a specific era, “which was always far from perfect,” and more interested in how we can “derive inspiration from the liberal arts” through “a creative retrieval and development.”[1]

Thus, here at ASCA, on the one hand, we avoid making Latin a purity test for classical education. Yet, on the other hand, we do uphold it as a laudable and worthy pursuit. But why?

First, it is important to note that there is a lively debate within the big tent we call classical education as to the role of Latin and the purpose of teaching Latin. At risk of oversimplifying, there are two main schools of thought:

One camp, that seems to have been most common among early proponents of classical education as it was being recovered in the late 20th century, tends to teach Latin for its utilitarian or practical purposes: how it helps with your English grammar, how it helps with vocabulary for SATs, how it helps with logical thinking, how it disciplines the student, and so on. This school of thought tends to teach Latin through what we might call a "conventional" modern language approach. Very heavy on grammar, vocab memorization, tenses, cases, etc., eventually working toward translation. One of the most recognizable figures in this camp is Cheryl Lowe of Memoria Press, who has written numerous articles providing reasons why to learn Latin, like this one. We might call this camp the "grammar" camp. (This is not to say the other camp doesn't teach Latin grammar). And their argument has merit. Learning Latin does have practical benefits that transfer to other domains of knowledge. But in a certain sense, there are other ways one can become a disciplined thinker, learn English grammar and vocabulary, and do well on the SAT. Why learn Latin—a dead language after all—just to get those corollary benefits?

A second camp, perhaps surfacing more extensively in recent years as classical education goes through new iterations and more of the tradition is recovered, tends to teach Latin in order to understand it. Of course, that is also a goal in the other approach, but if you notice the article from Lowe linked above, most of the reasons she gives for learning Latin are not really anything to do with actually learning to read, love, and understand Latin itself and read the original sources. This second camp then asks the next logical question: If the rationale for learning Latin is to develop mental discipline, vocab, grammar skills in English etc., are there not other ways to achieve that than through the roundabout approach of learning a language for the purpose of not actually being able to communicate in that language? Hence, if we are going to teach Latin, we should do so with the goal of immersing ourselves in the Great Tradition in the original languages. As a result, this view includes more reading in Latin, more immersion in Latin (sort of like modern immersion methods of learning a language). Carter Ehnis has a helpful article summarizing this view here. We might call this camp the "communicative" camp. (This is not to say the other camp doesn't achieve an ability to comprehend and communicate in Latin).

Of course, these camps aren't mutually exclusive. There is some overlap and I acknowledge I've oversimplified here in order to try and bring the reader up to speed on this lively and current debate. The 2025 Lutheranism and the Classics Conference had this dialogue between college professors from the different camps.

All of this is to say, there are different approaches to teaching Latin and different goals for teaching Latin. Both have pros and cons, tradeoffs. We intend to glean the best of both. In the early years, we will build Latin exposure through songs, chants, and children’s books in Latin. We will also incorporate Latin prayers, liturgical canticles, and hymns to help build facility with and enjoyment of the language. Students will also memorize Latin grammar and vocabulary. In grades 3-6 we will utilize The University of Dallas’ Latin Curriculum, which falls more so into the second camp described above. In grades 7-8 we will utilize Wheelock’s Latin, a definitive text used for teaching Latin grammar. Then, in grades 9-12, we will move into more primary source work, which is where things really get fun! Where you can truly enjoy the language, its beauty, its idioms, its lyrical nature, and get into the mindset of a Latin speaker/writer. This is the whole purpose of learning a language, to be able to communicate and understand it. And that is a gateway into a whole new world for students.

As students gain facility in the language, they will come to experience new flashes of insight and new vistas opening up. Just like C.S. Lewis describes in Surprised by Joy when he read Homer's The Iliad in the original Greek for the first time. Likewise, we can bring students into this same experience, of reading the great authors in their original languages as we immerse ourselves in the Great Tradition. For a thousand years, Latin stood above all as the language of the church, the academy, and more. And we need to be able to tap into those treasures now more than ever. A robust understanding of Latin brings students further into the life of the church and her liturgy and theology (many great theological works are still locked away in Latin). This is our story. Might as well learn its language.

To learn more, see:
--Carter Ehnis, "On Teaching and Learning Classical Languages"
--University of Dallas Latin Curriculum
--The Ancient Language Institute

[1] Caldecott, Beauty in the Word, 10.