“In Word”: Why Your Child Should Become Fluent in Latin
Why should my child learn Latin? Why study a dead language? Our answer to any “why” question in the Christian life should ultimately find its root in our answers to life’s ultimate “why’s.” Why are we here? What is our purpose? Answering these ultimate questions is the only viable starting point to consider any other question, especially one as far-fetched as teaching a difficult and dead language to our children.
Ecclesiastes teaches us what value things on this side of the heavens have in and of themselves: “Vanity of vanities…All is vanity. (Eccles. 1:2)” On the other side of the same coin, the Westminster Shorter Catechism encapsulates the purpose of man that has real, lasting value: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 1).
While it is the call of God upon the Christian to live toward this purpose, it is also His call that he should hand this purpose, along with its resulting way of life, to his children. This “transfer of a way of life,” as G. K. Chesterton puts it, forms the bedrock of Christian education. In other words, Christians, whose confessed purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, are called to transfer their way of Christian life to their children.
But what is the Christian life exactly? Colossians 3:17 teaches, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” First, Paul teaches us that the Christian life is total in scope; not one crevice is outside of Christ’s domain. We should do “everything” in Jesus’ name. He continues by categorizing everything we can do into words and deeds. According to Paul, word and deed are two domains that adequately include all of the Christian life. How are we to learn to live the Christian life “in word?” By studying words in the light and name of Jesus.
If we are commanded to live for Christ in our words, then we must learn words; and, if languages are a collection of words, we must therefore learn languages. King Solomon explains the magnificent power of language in life: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. (Proverbs 18:20)” Language is the organization of words, a crucial component of the way and purpose of Christian life, and teaching our children how to use language well is key to them accomplishing their ultimate purpose.
Let’s keep “word” and “deed” as the subsets of “everything” we are commanded to do and to teach our children to do. There is a unique quality of words that (1) distinguishes them from deeds and (2) sets the stage for an incredible Christian education for our children: words can continue to exist after they are created. Not only that, but words are the only way that a deed may live on as well. Some historians speculate that Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon at 7 p.m. on the 10th of January 49 BC. That exact deed will never happen again. But how is it that we know about it in 2025 AD? We know about the deed because of the words of ancient authors.
This unique quality of words matters significantly in education. Without words, we would be limited to our deeds in educating our children. But with words, we may transfer a way of Christian life to our children that transcends our own intellectual, physical, and spiritual limits. As Benjamin Hastings put it, if we do it well, words allow “our ceiling” to become “their floor.” The words of others greater than us allow us to give Christian wisdom to our children that we ourselves haven’t originally produced.
Before Paul tells us how we should do everything, he says in verse 16 of Colossians 3, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom…” The Christian is not called to only teach the wisdom he himself has acquired, but all wisdom. This makes the use of others’ words not only advantageous to the Christian teacher but necessary for a good Christian education.
But who are the others whose words we should teach? The ancient Romans and the Christian giants that span across two millennia since Christ are proven to be, if not the best sources of wise words in all of history, then among them. The pagan Romans wrote epic poetry, prose, history, and philosophy that form the foundation of Western Civilization. Their wisdom wasn’t the ultimate truth, but their work was plundered and used by ancient Christian educators to prepare and direct students’ hearts toward the Wisdom revealed in Jesus Christ. Centuries of Christian doctrine and thought were written by the most brilliant, blessed minds in history. All these texts were written in Latin.
You may ask why we shouldn’t teach from an English translation of these texts. This question is answered by returning to the meaning of education. A people’s way of life is embedded in their language. To translate Latin into English is to pour the Latin life through the filter of English life, and what results is not the Latin way of life at all, but typically something like a boring classic that, as Mark Twain says, “everyone wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” If we aim to educate our students in a way of life firmly grounded in the work of Christians over two thousand years and dozens of generations, they must learn the language that most prolifically spans that time. The horrifying reality is that, in our culture’s departure from an education in classical languages, we have lost entire civilizations.
We are called to teach our children to use words in all wisdom. By teaching Latin to our children, we give them access to over two thousand years of both pagan and Christian wisdom, unaltered by the destructive side effects of translation. By learning the words of those who came before them, our children may grow to see the path of the Christian life in word. They may read, speak, and write in the name of Jesus Christ, thus preparing for eternal life, glorifying God, and enjoying Him forever.
Jon Ryan Fennell
Headmaster & Teacher
