Botetourt High School - Post Yearbook (Gloucester, VA)

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Botetourt High School

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The DUAL word “facio,” meaning “to make” or “to do.” The different forms of this one word combined with prepositions and other words give us hundreds of English words whose meaning is readily shown by their derivation. Some very common derivatives of “facio” are man¬ ufacture, factor, factory, beneficent, malefactor, satisfaction, efficient, etc. By having a knowledge of Latin one knows the meanings of these words without having to consult a dictionary. A knowledge of Latin is a help in the spelling of many English words. It would not be possible for anyone with a fair knowledge of Latin to go amiss in either the spelling or the meaning of “emi¬ grant” or “immigrant.” It is a great help in spelling such words as culpable separate, and calendar. Latin is valuable in vocational study. It satisfies the needs of a commercial education more than any other foreign language. Sten¬ ographers, salesmen, business men, doctors, all need Latin. Such men need a vocabulary at their command. Vocabulary holds the key to success for men in the fierce competition of the commercial world today. Latin furnishes pre-vocationa l training for every profession or occupation in which technical terms are used or knowledge of good Eng.ish is necessary. Latin is a live factor in Mental Insurance. A youth should be trained to observe accurately, record correctly, compare, group, and infer justly and express cogently the results of his mental operation. Latin will give this training. It develops carefully the reasoning and thinking powers of a person’s mind. Latin is exceedingly helpful in cultivating a language, sense, equally useful in learning any second foreign language. It is very valuable in the study of Spanish and French, for they have been called the “daughters of Latin.” We should study Latin for its cultural values. Latin literature opens up a great world of knowledge which offers unequalled oppor¬ tunities for culture. In all the world’s history there is no more wonderful or interesting people than the Romans. For centuries they practically ruled the world and their influence among the great nations even today is impossible to estimate. It is in the Latin literature that the life of this people is revealed to us. To know what our world is today we must know what it was in former times. This is the value to us of the Romans and their language and their literature. Just as the English language has absorbed a large part of the Latin language, so has English liter¬ ature of the last four centuries borrowed freely from the Latin literature. Mathew Arnold has said that in education it is above all things necessary that a man acquaint himself with the best that has been thought in the world; and we know that much of the best that has been thought in the world is to be found in Roman and Greek literature. 30

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The DUAL BOTETOURT HIGH SCHOOL 32