I was recently reading an article which discussed how public school teachers were discouraging their students from taking Latin. It's too difficult, the teachers claimed. I had to laugh.

My four children and I have been working through an elementary-level Latin course called Prima Latina. We love it! And even though we have mainly been listening to the CD lately instead of doing the corresponding workbook lessons (because the workbooks are not with us at my parents' home), we have still learned so much!

The other day, my 10 year old daughter and I were sitting in the local magistrate's office. She suddenly turned to me and said, "Magistrate. Magister, Magistra. Teacher." She recognized the Latin term the word magistrate was derived from, and applied it. Of course, I had to explain that a magistrate is NOT a teacher but it was an interesting application of Latin.

So anyway. Latin's not dead and it's not difficult. It's helpful!