I find the current debate about the teaching of Latin fascinating in
context of CP Snow's "Two Cultures."  All last year, when I researched
the history of grammar teaching and the emergence of linguistics, I kept
bumping into the problem that seems to be happening here--the literary
gang who cherish the past vs. the science gang who look to the future.
Surely we need both?  But as Snow says, each group finds the other
mutually incomprehensible.  And, he warned many years ago, what a
terrible thing this will do to our ability to learn.
 
I can't imagine that the linguistics gang would want the knowlege of
Latin to disappear from the planet, just as they would not want
linguistics and its insights to be inaccessible to our students (as it so
often is).  In the proposed Latin/English/Grammar class, why not give
students history, not just of Rome, but of language and language study?
You've got 4000 rich years to talk about!
 
Jeanie Murphy
Pierce College