The beautiful language of Latin has been undergoing an incredible revival of interest lately. Why has this formerly moldy language acquired a new luster?
What constitutes a “revival of interest”?
Last year 148,000 students applied to take the National Latin Exam, according to their website (www.nle.org). In North Carolina there was a 156% increase in the number of students taking the exam, in Nevada an 84% increase. You didn’t even know there was a National Latin Exam, did you? Get with the times! What’s old is new, and Latin is cool again.
Pop-culture has had a big hand in this. The Harry Potter books and movies — insanely popular with adolescents — feature Latin prominently as the language of magic. There is even a complete Latin translation of the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone. If your child is reading “Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis” you can feel pretty confident about the quality of instruction they’re getting at school.
The more serious side of Latin has been in the movies recently, too. Mel Gibson’s controversial film The Passion of the...