In Pasco, only Gulf still offers Latin

This article appeared in the Pasco edition of the St. Petersburg Times on Sept. 19, 1999, under the headline "Lovers of Latin classes decline in number in Pasco." Photo caption: "Christine Mendonca hopes to get more of her classmates enrolled in Latin." Photo by Joseph Garnett Jr., courtesy of the St. Petersburg Times.

By KENT FISCHER

Latin isn't dead in Pasco County schools, but it's fading fast. Gulf High School senior Christine Mendonca wishes she could nurse it back to health.

Once the bane of schoolchildren everywhere, Latin has all but vanished from Pasco high schools. Only Gulf High still offers it, and even there Latin's enrollment is a meager 47 students. Mendonca is the consul -- or president -- of Gulf's student Latin club and is the only teen in the district taking advanced placement Latin this year. She finds that disheartening because the language has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts around the nation.

Latin enrollments plunged in the 1960s but have rebounded nationally in the past 10 years. High school Latin enrollments grew by 15 percent between 1990 and 1994, and middle school enrollments have tripled since 1980, according to several published reports. Latin still is commonly taught in both Pinellas and Hillsborough schools. But not, sadly, in Pasco, Mendonca said.

"There are so many kids around the state that are (nuts) about Latin," said Mendonca, 16. "But I can't find that kind of excitement around here." According to the College Board, 4,042 (7 percent) of college-bound Florida students have studied Latin. That's more than the number of students taking German, Italian, Japanese and Russian combined, but way behind the 43,091 students (76 percent) who have taken Spanish.

That's too bad, say many of Gulf High's Latin students. They find Latin to be extremely practical, even if it is officially a "dead" language. Latin, students say, has helped build their vocabulary, boosted their SAT scores, shored up their grammar skills and supplemented their studies of ancient history and government.

There may be a lot of truth to the claims. The average score in the verbal section of SAT for Latin students last year was 547 out of a possible 800, according to the College Board. For everyone else it was 499. Mendonca said her SAT verbal score leaped more than 100 points to 680 after she started studying Latin.

"Half the time I have my English book and Latin book side by side," Mendonca said. "It's a rigid language. You have to learn the grammar to understand it."

While it's impossible to attribute the better scores solely to the study of Latin, the connection is too strong to ignore, said Sara Gibson, the district's last remaining Latin teacher.

"Forty to 60 percent of the English language is Latin," Gibson said. "It's bigger than you think."

When Gibson's students were asked recently which class -- English or Latin -- taught them the most about the rules of grammar and fundamentals of writing, the kids unanimously answered Latin.

"We had to relearn grammar when we took Latin, because we didn't know it (well) enough," said Gulf student Tash Burgess.

Latin probably would have died in Pasco schools years ago if not for Gulf administrators, who keep the course despite its lean enrollment.

At one time Gibson's desire to teach Latin was so strong that she split her time between Gulf and Land O'Lakes high schools and taught the course at both schools every day. Three years ago, Gibson moved to Gulf full time, where she also teaches world history.

Her students give her high marks for making Latin interesting. The class sings Latin versions of well-known songs, like Old MacDonald. They play Latin versions of the game show Jeopardy, which they call Cartamen. They study Roman culture and society as well as the language. Gibson's students call her magistra -- teacher.

"Magistra is really enthusiastic," said student Robert Dziekan.

Even so, the fate of Pasco County's last remaining Latin program might not be secure. Of the 23 students in Gibson's Latin II class, only a handful said they planned to take Latin III next year.

That's where Mendonca thinks she might be able to help. As consul of the school's Latin club, she says it's her job to barnstorm on behalf of her favorite language.

"It's my responsibility to get the kids excited," she said. "They're my peers, and I have to light a fire. That's the whole point of being consul. You have to lead."