The MUS Lower School Blog

National Latin Exam results

National Latin Exam scores are in, reports Mr. Ryan Sellers. MUS won 141 total awards out of 158 examinees, thus, 89% of MUS Latin students scored above the national average.

79 Summa Cum Laude Gold Medals

38 Maxima Cum Laude Silver Medals

14 Magna Cum Laude

9 Cum Laude

Lower School students earning Summa Cum Laude:

Jared Ashkenaz, Andrew Raves, Noah Thomas, Bennett Mercer, Edward Lake, Charlie Goodfellow, Walker Bussey-Spencer, Cole Flemmons, Andrew Miller, Farhan Kathawala, Srujan Jampana, Remy Rea, Brian Ringel, James Belina, Kyle Gossett, Edward Simpson, Drew Hutson, David Montgomery, Srujan Bethi, Michael Jalfon, William Hoehn, Blake Smith, AJ Kharbanda, Sam Shankman, Sylvester Tate, and Hurston Reed

Special recognition to Jared Ashkenaz for being our only Lower School student to achieve a perfect score.

Mirabile visu!

What about foreign languages in the long term?

Now here's an interesting blog posting coming out of a group at the University of Pennsylvania concerning foreign language enrollments at the college level and beyond. There is a buzz in the air concerning everything from Spanish to Mandarin to Arabic, what elementary and secondary schools should do and why. I found this discussion to provide some surprising findings when compared to the foreign language forecasting among some college prep schools. Thanks to MUS alum Bruce Ryan ('80) for sending it in to our attention.

Cinco de Mayo comes two days early for the MUS Spanish Club

Since Cinco de Mayo falls on a Saturday this year. the Spanish Club got a jump on things today with their party.  Food was plentiful, and the highlight was the pinata, obviously.

Congratulations to the MUS Latin Team

Congratulations to the MUS Latin Team and its Lower School team members on their second place finish in the TJCL Latin Convention this past weekend at Rhodes College.  The team worked very hard and produced excellent results.  Unfortunately, some new policies were unveiled during this past weekend's competition; otherwise, MUS would have finished in first place.  As it was, the team scored 893 points, 75 more than its championship score of the previous year.

Here are the Lower School results I have

• Forrest Baty - 2nd in Grammar I, 2nd Reading Comp. I, 5th Vocabulary I, 2nd Novice Certamen (Latin Quiz Bowl)
• Tony Bui - 1st Swimming Backstroke, 1st 200 meter swimming relay
• Elliott Collins - 2nd Hellenics I
• Alex Jarratt - 5th Roman History I
• Jordan Keesee - 2nd Discus
• Conor Miller - 5th Male Mythological Costume
• Clint Montgomery - 4th Heptathalon I, 5th Derivatives I, 1st Hellenics I, 5th Reading Comp. I, 3rd Roman History I, 4th Oratory 7/8
• Stephen Newton - 4th Models
• Anand Patel - 2nd Reading Comp. I, 2nd Novice Certamen (Latin Quiz Bowl)
• Russell Scott - 5th Heptathalon I, 5th Classical Art I, 1st Hellenics I, 5th Reading Comp. I, 5th Vocabulary I, 3rd Sculpture, 2nd Novice Certamen (Latin Quiz Bowl)
• Mason Soun - 2nd Heptathalon I, 5th Grammar I, 3rd Reacding Comp. I, 3rd Roman History I, 5th Vocabulary I, 2nd Novice Certamen (Latin Quiz Bowl)
• Evan Sousoulas - 1st Costume Male Inhabitant, 2nd Color Pencil Drawing
• Jian Yin - 2nd Long Jump
• Ben Zambetti - 3rd Grammar I, 3rd Reading Comp. I
• Bryan Zhang - 5th Derivatives I, 4th Hellenics I, 4th Mythology I

MUS also finished 3rd in the Chariot Race and 3rd in Academics overall.

Latin Convention Information

Because of space and security reasons, parents are NOT allowed to attend tonight and tomorrow's TJCL Latin Convention at Rhodes College, but we'll try to get the results and pictures posted on the blog as soon as possible after the event.

For more information on the TJCL Latin Convention, please go to http://www.tjcl.org/sponsors.

Reminder: Accelerated Spanish Test next Wednesday

Just a reminder that 8th graders interested in taking Accelerated Spanish I next year in the Upper School need to take the placement test next Wednesday.  The test will be given after school and will take approximately 45 minutes, so you may want to adjust your pickup schedules appropriately.

Mrs. Broadaway has told the boys that they need to take this test if they have even the remotest interest in Accelerated Spanish next year; those boys (and or parents )who change their mind during the summer and want to take Accelerated Spanish I next year without having taken the test will likely be disappointed.

Barbie, Ken and Marcus Aurelius?

An earlier post on our innovative Latin teachers mentioned that they even manage to get the boys to make dolls based on Roman characters.

Here are some of the more successful doll attempts:

Not all of the attempts were as authentic-looking, but they certainly were creative.

My personal favorite is the toga-clad Mr. Bill pictured in the upper left.
"Oh No.....!"

Putting the "Dress" in Dress Code

I have to hand it to our 8th grade Latin teachers. 

Yesterday, I was walking through the lobby of the Lower School and peeked in to see what was going on in Latin class.  Much to my surprise, many of the boys were sporting togas.  Or is it togae?  My Latin is a little rusty.  Even more curious, some appeared to be holding homemade toga-clad dolls that I assume represented figures in Roman life.  After checking to make sure that none of the dolls resembled a certain math teacher or had pins sticking out of it, I decided to move along before my curiosity made the boys self-conscious.  For the same reason, I decided not to shoot any photos to protect the identities of the toga-clad.

And the biggest surprise of all -- the boys were having a great time!  Our Latin teachers do a great job of making Latin much more than a language class, but a class that introduces the boys to Roman culture and daily life.  I had a great Latin teacher 30+ years ago in Boston, but he never did anything as fun and involving as this.

No wonder the MUS Latin team does so well at the State and National Latin Conventions and their competitions.

Summa cum Laude!  ("with great praise")

Latin is immortal!

Immortal, not immoral.  :)

As one who took two years of Latin in his formative years, I have great fondness for Latin.  Were it not for Latin, I would still be misspelling the word, "Necessary", the bane of my existence in both my 5th and 6th grade spelling bees ("is it two c's and one s', or the other way around?).

Mr. Suddarth and Mrs. Reinhardt have pit together a short document giving two good reasons for requiring Latin.

(slightly modified for blog publication)

1. Positive Effect on Verbal SAT Achievement
SAT Verbal Average by Language Studied
Latin          576
French        548
German      541
Nat’l Avg.   518
Spanish      499

Source: Educational Testing Service 1993
Recent results are consistent with this data

2. Our Cultural Heritage and Traditions

• Latin Phrases used in Medicine, Law, Science, Government, and daily life

• References to Classical Mythology in Literature and daily life

“If Latin is ‘dead’, then so is medicine, biology, representative government, law, architecture, art, literature…all of these bodies of knowledge that are built upon the Latin language and the Roman tradition. The Romans gave us everything that even now undergirds and puts the shine on what we call our ‘civilization’.”

–Suzanne Britt, U.S. Dept. of Education

“I will say, at once, quite firmly, that the best grounding for education is the Latin grammar. I say this not because Latin is traditional, but simply because even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labor and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least 50 percent.”
–Dorothy Sayers, National Review

For further reading on the subject:
The Devil Knows Latin: Why America Needs the Classical Tradition, by E. Christian Kopff, ISI Books, 1999.

My own recent experience with 8th graders and their struggle with the phrase, "Alma Mater", would support Mr. Suddarth's and Mrs. Reinhardt's position.