Any advice on convincing my principal to allow Latin courses to continue at highschool?

Question

Im doing some research on college requirements and graduating and stuff. He wants to cancel Latin at my highschool. And he's playing dirty. He's lying to the school board about how the middle schoolers have no interest in Latin when the language survey contained nothing about Latin. He says he wants to replace it with an ice hockey team. What should I do to convince him or the school board to let Latin continue to be taught

Answer 1

Try to assess student interest in Latin, then take your findings to the school board. Be respectful to the principal and the board. Point out that Latin is the basis for many languages, and that some 60% of all English vocabulary comes from Latin roots. Also, studying Latin helps in the understanding of English grammar, which is a challenge for many students. For people who want to major in history, English, philosophy, or biology in college, Latin is a good choice because of the historical importance of the language and its widespread use in science.

You may want to bring a visual aid to show the board. For example, make a model of the brain, label its parts, point out that several of the brain parts have names that come directly from Latin, such as the pons, corpus callosum, cortex, and meninges. You could do the same with a model of the skeletan and labels of the some of the bones with Latin names. Ultimately, I think if there's high student interest in Latin, that would sway the school board. When I was in high school I was the student representative to the school board and the members were always very concerned about what would be best for the students. If your school board is similar (and I'm sure it is) the members will sympathize with the students who want Latin.

If you can't convince the school board and your high school loses Latin, check with your guidance counselor about taking an independent study course. Brigham Young University has a great two-year Latin course (that's fairly inexpensive, I think it was $99 per semester, plus the book, when I was taking it) that prepared me very well for my college Latin study.

And good luck! I have been studying Latin for the past three or four years and I love it! It's hard work, but definately worth it.

Answer 2

It can be tough depending on where you live. If you're living in a town with all white people then say hello to hockey team. Or you can dig up some dirt on your principal, argue to school board that principal is pushing ice hockey team for personal interests and not for the students. Seem like Latin takes tiny tiny amount of resources compares to freaking ice hockey team.

Answer 3

My little high school only offered Latin. Since at that time two years of a foreign language was required for college admission, my sister, brother, and I all took Latin. We all did well on the vocabulary portion of the SATs and believe that knowledge of Latin prefixes, suffixes, and roots helped immensely. The Romance languages such as Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese are all based on Latin, and many English words came from Latin.

Answer 4

Latin is the basis for many English, legal and scientific terms and would give students more of a scholastic advantge than having a hocky team.

When you speak to the school board point out that Latin was not included in the language survey, but do not accuse him of lying.

Illigitimus non corobundum!

Answer 5

Involve the parents. If they know that their kids like it they will be your biggest ally. You can also pull up some of the stats about how kids who take Latin do on standardized tests and the quotes from college admissions officers about how much they like to see Latin on a student transcript.

Answer 6

Same idea, same problem in Texas. In order to fund women's athletics at the same level as men's athletics we have to drop courses like music or art classes. The best you can do is bypass the principal and give a speech at the school board. This might be something new for you. You can do it.

Inter faeces et urinas nascimur.

Ask your schoolmates if they will come with you if you find out the time and place a school board meeting can give you a hearing.

Answer 7

So you really want latin. I think more people would be interested in the hockey team. Stop trying to advance something because it benefits you. You're better off learning a romance language anyway.