The Importance of Latin

Is Latin actually beneficial? Is Latin a dead language? Latin originated in the Latium region and was used during the middle 1900s, but eventually faded away. It’s now reappearing and providing many benefits to people around the world. More than half of the English words come from Latin roots and people are now realizing the Latin is useful. French and Spanish are taking a back seat as Latin is on the fast track, by attracting countless schools and students. The endless benefits of Latin include helping students with grammar, excelling in math and reading, and improving vocabulary and SAT scores. There’s a combination of benefits that overall lead to the higher SAT scores by taking Latin for at least one semester in school. Of course, the longer you take the course the greater the benefits. According to Adam D. Blistein, “It builds vocabulary and grammar for higher SAT scores, appeals to college admissions officers as a sign of critical-thinking skills and fosters true intellectual passion,” (2). Not only that, Max Gordan states, “he had learned more about grammar in Latin class than in English class,” (3). Latin class leads to easier learning in foreign languages like Spanish, Italian, or French. Furthermore, while most people think vocabulary and grammar is perfected in English class, Latin is also a major part in the process. Age doesn’t matter to receive the benefits provided by taking a Latin class.

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SAT scores are improved on average by 100+ points by students taking Latin instead of Spanish. The only foreign language that comes close to improving SAT scores is Hebrew but students who take Latin still out beat them on the verbal part by 50 point.
The studies by the Educational Testing Service has shown these consistent surpassing of SAT scores on the verbal part for numerous years. In addition on the math portion of the SAT students with a minimum of one semester of Latin scored a 549 and students who learned Hebrew only exceeded the score