Early-bird York high school students conquer ancient language

Before dawn on Monday, a small group of students at York Comprehensive High School were sitting in class with books open, diligently translating the ancient language of Latin.

The pink of dawn arched across the sky as teacher Sean Coady led the class in a discussion of the meaning, grammar and sentence structure of a language widely spoken in the Roman Empire.

Coady, a biology teacher fueled by intellectual curiosity, earned enough credit through night and summer study at the University of South Carolina to qualify to teach Latin on the Advanced Placement level.

He instructs the only for-credit Latin class offered at any of the 14 public high schools in York, Chester and Lancaster counties.

His 15 sophomore- and junior-level students, all in their second semester of Latin study, have a variety of reasons for signing up for the 90-minute “early-bird” class.

Junior Byron Barragen thought the class would help his SAT scores. He noted that some of the vocabulary words on the college entrance exam have roots in Latin.

“I have a better understanding of the English language than I did before,” the 17-year-old said. “And I like solving puzzles. A lot of language translation is just like a big puzzle.”

MacKenzie Laskey, 17, has an internship with a physical therapy practice and wants to work in the medical field. She said Latin has improved her understanding of medical terminology.

“It has taught me memorization,” Laskey said, referring to the need to memorize numerous word endings. “And it taught me to have faith in myself, and not just to break down.”

Ambrosia Green, 17, said she didn’t like Spanish, but Latin “is kind of cool.”

“Not only do you get to learn how to speak another language,” she said, “but you also get to do something that’s different from other students.”

Though Latin classes were once common at many public and parochial schools, the subject fell into disfavor during the 1960s. The course is not a staple in U.S. high schools’ foreign language curricula, but some schools still teach it as an elective.

Coady’s qualifications and his interest in teaching Latin spurred the school to explore the possibility, York Comprehensive Principal Chris Black said. But scheduling the class around Coady’s three science classes and the rest of the school curricula posed a challenge.

Black said he got the idea to offer the before-school “early-bird” class from another school that had such a class. Students must provide transportation to school for the 7 a.m. Monday-to-Friday class, he said.

The school started the class after surveying students about language interests, Coady said. Twenty students finished the fall semester Latin I, and 15 of those signed up for Latin II this semester.

“The biggest thing was to find a way to give these students options,” said Black, noting the school also offers foreign language credit in Spanish and French.

Black and Coady said some of the York students who chose to study Latin are interested in medical careers, where Latin could be helpful in understanding terms.

About half of all English words come from Latin roots, Coady said, pointing out that Latin was introduced into English through the Norman invasion of England, led by William the Conqueror , in 1066 AD.

“It helps you understand how English should be put together by understanding the language of Latin,” he said. “And there’s a great deal of history there.”

His students have done well in their conquest of a “challenging” language, Coady said. Every Latin noun has five singular and five plural endings, and five different formats for each of those endings – for a total of 50 possible endings.

“It’s not necessarily more complex,” he said. “Once you know the endings, it’s kind of specific. But it’s something different. And the motivating factor is trying to understand what was said and what was done in ancient times.”

A Latin III class, to be scheduled during the school day, is planned for the fall, Coady said. He also plans to teach another before-school Latin I class in the fall for incoming students.

Now that Coady’s students are in their second semester of the language, he said, they are starting to see more connections between Latin and English. They’re also developing a better understanding of English language structure.

Heather Pumphrye, 17, enjoys the challenge.

“I really wanted to better myself,” she said. “It has really pushed me and tested my knowledge, which I love. It stretches your brain and makes you think more logically.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Early-bird York high school students conquer ancient language."