Teaching and Learning Latin at St. Bernard’s

 

Currently Mr. Clements, Mr. Hauser, and our headmaster, Mr. Johnson, all teach Latin.  In an attempt to better understand why Latin has been taught and studied at St. Bernard’s over the years, we spoke with Mr. Hauser, who has taught Latin for over twenty-five years.

 

Mr. Hauser strongly believes that one cannot fully understand language without knowing Latin.  He feels that studying Latin is essential to know the roots, history, and structure of language.  Other benefits include a better understanding of cultural and political history.  Mr. Hauser also believes that Latin teaches discipline.  It trains the mind to slow down, recognize patterns, notice details, and see connections.  It requires the student to be immersed. 

 

At St. Bernard’s the study of Latin begins in Grade VI.  Each boy is required to study Latin through Grade VIII, and some boys continue to study it in Grade IX.  Mr. Hauser focuses on teaching the boys how to read Latin literature.  He believes that literature has kept the Latin language alive, so Latin should include the study of classical writers, such as Virgil, Cicero, and Horace.  He views each line of Virgil or Cicero as a highly-crafted, aesthetic object, in which the word choices and sentence structure are the materials.  For St. B’s boys, the goal is for them to read original works in Latin by ninth or tenth grade.  First the boys need to learn grammar, forms, and vocabulary.  In class they read Ovid or Catullus together.  They learn that the sounds of words are important and have a beauty to them.  They learn that the rhythm and sound of the lines is important to the meaning of the poem. 

An important aspect to teaching Latin is teaching the practice of reading.  Every word is important.  As boys learn how to read Latin, they become more appreciative of words themselves, word choices, and the decisions that writers make.  Mr. Hauser believes that as people study Latin, they enter into a conversation with writers and philosophers throughout history.  Each Latin student can become a part of this tradition in a living way.  For example, an eighth grader who is preparing to perform in the Shakespeare play may have a deeper understanding of the words he is memorizing because he has studied Ovid, a classical writer who was a tremendous influence on Shakespeare. 

 

Mr. Hauser believes that through the study of Latin, the boys engage with the analytical side—technically how things are put together—and the emotional side of reading.  Latin is read with the mind and heart.  This type of reading adds depth and fullness to the experience.  Latin teaches the art of slowing down, and careful reading is inculcated.

 

Mr. Hauser is not alone in his belief of the importance of teaching and learning Latin.  Over the years Mr. Caslon has spoken passionately about the importance of Latin, and in turn, his students have expressed their wonder at discovering the value themselves.  Harry Davison ’76 describes such a moment in an article entitled “What’s Left After Forgetting Latin,” St. Bernard’s Newsletter, No. 45, Winter 2014.  Mr. Davison explains, “I suddenly understood how superficial my view had been as a student that Dennis [Caslon] and his fellow faculty simply enjoyed torturing us over subject-verb agreement, but that at a much more profound level they were actually nurturing the intellectual promise of their pupils.  They implicitly understood in the best St. Bernard’s tradition that character, integrity, and kindness are every bit as important as intellectual accomplishment.”

 

Long live Latin at St. Bernard’s!