[wendy1946]

Indeed, it was well understood what was meant by education. First, it required a grounding in the Bible, and learning the languages in which the Holy Scripture and theological literature was written: Latin, Greek, and Hebrew....

Unless you're planning a career as a historian, learning any language other than your own decently is way the hell too much work for anybody to want to be learning DEAD ones.

[kabumpo]

What a sad and illiterate comment. Latin is the source for all Romance languages and is an important part of English as well. The study described in this article was for centuries considered to be the basic elements of education.

[JRandomFreeper]

learning any language other than your own decently is way the hell too much work for anybody to want to be learning DEAD ones.

I find that having studied both Hebrew and Latin helps me greatly with English, and having a clear understanding of the roots of words and their underlying meaning.

And it wasn't that hard. I'm not a historian.

/johnny

[browniexyz]

Wow, Wendy, that’s a provincial point of view I rarely see represented here on Free Republic. Most Europeans by necessity speak three or four languages with ease, and having a basic foundation in Latin and Greek makes learning English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian much easier, as they are all rooted in those early languages. Language skills make learning any language, including Chinese or Arabic, much easier, too. Why so negative?