Unless I'm mistaken, the suggestion about using
Latin to teach grammar was based precisely on the
fact that Latin is an inflected language -- seeing the
inflections might help students see the constructions.
Having learned most of my grammar from the study of
Latin, I like the suggestion. (I am, of course,
asssuming a course taught in the old-fashioned way --
with lots of grammar and vocabulary drill. That is also
the way I learned Russian, and, after a while, I got
pretty good at it.)
   The idea that all instruction needs to be utilitarian
reduces students to the level of ants. What's wrong
with writing a letter to the Pope? Or to Virgil, for that
matter. I agree with much of what Johanna said, but
I'm disappointed by the "It's hard to believe I'm seeing
a suggestion like this at the end of the 20th century."
Do we really need to stomp on somebody else's idea
in order to advance our own?
Ed V.