Kathryn: That was a nice piece about Latin in The Economist.

A

very good book setting out the case for teaching classics is Climbing Parnassus, by occasional NR

contributor Tracy Lee Simmons. Brining back the classics is uphill work in

the current educational climate, though. Tracy told me that when he visits

high schools where Latin is being taught, he often finds that students are

still struggling with basic declensions and conjugations well into their

second year. Why is their progress so slow? I asked him, and what are they

doing in class all that time? Tracy: “Toga parties.”

The Economist author also missed one of my favorite specimens of Papal

Latin. Pope John XXIII was the first ever to ride in a helicopter.

Approaching the thing, it was plain that he wasn’t too happy about the

adventure. He stopped before climbing in, made the sign of the cross, and

improvised: “Sancte hoc helicopterum.”