The Life Box (Part 14)

By the time I enrolled in high school, the parochial curriculum no longer carried a Latin-language requirement. The school offered four languages: Latin, Spanish, French, and Italian. Most Catholic schools offered German instead of Italian; my high school taught Italian because it had a substantial enrollment of first- and second-generation Italian students. I'm sure my Parents would have directed me to study German if that language had been available.

My Parents decided I should study Latin. I wasn't thrilled about Latin because it was not a spoken language. But I came to love Latin for several reasons. First, the Dominican Sister who taught the course—Sister Mary Hope O’Brien—was a delight. She was elderly, and she wore full habit, in the pre-Vatican II style. She had me with that from the outset. Sr. Mary Hope was a tender, thoughtful person. When I had an appendectomy in the winter of my freshman year, for example, she sent some fellow sisters to deliver a care package to me at the hospital (this was back when an appendectomy resulted in a week-long hospital stay). Sr. Mary Hope also taught me the discipline of memorization, drilling, and repetition.

Second, studying Latin led me to appreciate grammar. I only approached grammar with discipline after I had studied sentence structure in the Latin language. My understanding of Latin grammar made it easier for me to study English. It also strengthened my Lithuanian because the Lithuanian language—like Latin—not only conjugates verbs but also declines nouns.

Third, Latin was a foundation on which I built my post-graduate education. I studied medieval history. It would have been difficult to pursue that field without a basis in Latin. Latin, in turn, made the study of French and Italian—also part of the medieval history program—much easier.

Here are some views of my Latin notebook:

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How did a sticker from my Animal Kingdom scrapbook make it into a high-school notebook?

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The drills begin. Here, the drills focus on vocabulary.

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We completed a translation exercise early in the school year.

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Vocabulary and conjugation drills.

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My handwriting doesn't look anything like that any longer.