Translator: Tanya Cushman Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
In January of 2015,
Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers
made some very critical comments
about the younger generation of basketball players in America.
It was actually during a press conference
following a loss to our own Memphis Grizzlies
in which he lashed out at the young men who have come up through the AAU system.
He said that although these young players
may have mastered a lot of fancy dribbling techniques
and gravity-defying slam dunks,
they never learned the basic skills of basketball:
layups, free throws, mid range shots,
posting up, boxing out, rebounding,
passing and playing defense.
In summarizing his observations about these young players,
Kobe made a very perceptive comment.
He said, "They don't know the fundamentals of the game."
Just as fundamentals are important in basketball,
they're also important in education.
We can't prepare students for the future
simply by giving them a laptop and hoping for the best.
Now, we all know that TED events like this are based on ideas,
big ideas, counterintuitive ideas,
so the idea I'd like to propose today is this:
One of the most effective ways
of building strong fundamentals in students
and preparing them for the future,
ironically enough,
is by looking to the past through the teaching of Latin.
Latin will help students think more logically,
communicate more effectively
and have a more comprehensive understanding of the world around them,
no matter how technologically advanced that world may become.
To begin with, let's address a common misconception,
that Latin is a dead language,
spoken by ancient Europeans 2,000 years ago,
holding no relevance whatsoever for people living in the 21st century.
There's even an old poem that expresses this point of view:
Latin is a language, as dead as dead can be.
First it killed the Romans, and now it's killing me.
(Laughter)
Now, students may feel this way sometimes,
but this simply is not true.
The reality is that Latin never died;
it never came to a crashing end with the death of a single, tragic figure;
it simply evolved gradually over time and developed into other languages.
Moreover, classical Latin is still very much alive and well
in government, art, religion,
literature, medicine, law and science.
It's not a dead language; it's an eternal language.
So, what are the benefits of studying this eternal language?
How can it help students develop,
as Kobe Bryant would say,
the fundamentals of the game?
First point: language foundation.
As I just mentioned, Latin experienced an evolution, not an extinction.
Over the course of hundreds and hundreds of years,
it gradually developed into a set of languages
known today collectively as the Romance languages:
French, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese and Spanish.
If you have a strong foundation in Latin,
then learning any of these other languages will be a much easier endeavor.
Number two: word power.
English is not a Romance language, per se,
but nevertheless, about 60 to 70% of the words in the English language
do derive from Latin.
Here's an example, a famous sentence:
The Preamble of the U.S. Constitution.
"We the people."
I remember having to memorize this when I was in school;
many of you probably were required to do the same.
If we remove the Latin derivatives from this sentence,
then, as you can see, not much is left behind.
Therefore this illustrates the fact
that Latin is the backbone of the English language.
It's invaluable for vocabulary acquisition,
and it should come as no surprise
that Latin students outperform everyone else
on the verbal sections of standardized tests.
Number three: critical thinking skills.
The past few years,
we've been hearing a lot about the importance of STEM education -
science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Latin may be 2,000 years old,
but it fits in perfectly with these trendy 21st century subjects.
Why? Because Latin is a very mathematical language;
just like math and science,
it requires students to pay very careful attention to detail,
and it requires them not only to memorize vast amounts of information,
but more importantly,
to evaluate that information and to apply it in new situations.
Number four: cultural connections.
By this I simply mean that Latin encourages students to recognize
the parallels between the ancient world and the modern world.
Here's an example,
a passage from the Roman poet Martial from a collection called "De spectaculis,"
which he wrote to commemorate
the grand opening of the Flavian Amphitheatre,
a building better known today as the Coliseum.
Although this is a poem about the Coliseum,
it's not about gladiator combat;
instead, it's a celebration of the diversity
of the spectators in the audience.
There are people in the stands from the Balkan peninsula, Western Russia,
Egypt, Britain, Arabia,
Turkey, Germany and Ethiopia.
What's the significance?
Well, the significance is that it reminds us
that Ancient Rome was a large, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual superpower
just like the United States is today.
And along with the power and glory of being a huge empire
came a lot of very serious challenges,
many of the same challenges we're facing today.
Studying how the ancient Romans confronted these issues 2,000 years ago,
therefore, will help today's students
grapple with these same issues in a much more sophisticated fashion.
Final point: career preparation.
I always like to give some examples
of people who started out with a very strong foundation in Latin
and who then went on to achieve success in a wide variety of areas,
and I don't mean just doctors and lawyers.
I mean performers like Chris Martin from Coldplay,
Mindy Kaling from "The Office" and "The Mindy Project,"
and Bob Dylan.
Dylan not only studied Latin at Hibbing High School
in Hibbing, Minnesota,
but he was also a member of the Latin Club.
Imagine that: Bob Dylan, a legendary nonconformist,
joining his high school Latin club.
He's been incorporating classical references into his music ever since.
Writers such as Toni Morrison,
the last American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature,
and J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter Series,
both of whom minored in classical studies in college.
Entrepreneurs such as Ted Turner, the founder of CNN,
and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook.
One of the very first computer programs Zuckerberg ever designed
was actually a video game based on the ancient Roman Empire.
Moreover, he initially went to Harvard
with an interest in majoring in classical studies
until, as we know, he was sidetracked by a little computer project.
NFL quarterbacks such as Drew Brees,
who was an excellent AP Latin student in high school,
and Robert Griffin III,
who was studying Latin at Baylor University
during a record-setting season on the field.
And finally, political figures from both the Left and the Right.
Bill Clinton, Boris Johnson and Condoleezza Rice.
When students finish school and hit the job market,
let's be completely honest,
prospective employers are not specifically going to be looking for people
who can conjugate Latin verbs in the pluperfect subjunctive.
They're not specifically going to be looking for people
who can translate Book IV of the Aeneid,
and they're not specifically going to be looking for people
who can rattle off the accomplishments of the Julio-Claudian emperors.
They will, however, be looking for people
who can think logically,
communicate effectively
and solve problems in innovative ways.
In other words, they're going to be looking for people
who know the fundamentals of the game,
fundamentals which we can cultivate through the teaching of Latin.
Thank you.
(Applause)