[Note: This article has been transcribed exactly as published.]

Letters to voters seek Latin for FHS students

By Maylon T. Rice

About 1,800 letters were mailed Friday to local voters in the recent September school election asking them to support a proposal to reintroduce the teaching of Latin to the Fayetteville High School.

The letters were mailed by David Frederick and Daniel levine, members of the Committee for the Promotion of Latin, Classical Association of the Middle West and South. Frederick and Levine are classics professors at the University of Arkansas and parents of Fayetteville elementary school children.

The one-and-a-half page letter told the voters: "Your voice can make a difference in this decision. Please express yourself about Latin in the Fayetteville Schools by calling or sending a letter to the administration."

The letter includes the business address of Bobby New, superintendent of schools at Fayetteville.

Enclosed with each letter is an eight-page blue pamphlet titled: "Latin and the College Bound Student," which is from Pompeiiana Inc., and the Indiana Classical Conference.

The letter sayd the brochure details advantages that students can gain from Latin, including:

• Better language background,
• Better knowledge of history and geography,
• Better verbal and mathematical skills,
• And higher SAT scores.

In addition, Latin can help further careers in law, medicine, the sciences, history, ministry, pharmacy, journalism, archeology, art, literature and teaching, the two wrote.

According to the letter, the average verbal schores on the 1997 Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was 505, but for students who had taken Latin, the score jumped to an average of 647. The highest scorers also took Hebrew (629), German (624), French (623), and Spanish (581).

Currently, French, German and Spanish are offered at Fayetteville High School as second language and foreign language courses.

In closing the letter, Levin writes: "This will help our students meet admissions standards for many colleges and universities, including the UA's Fulgright College."

Levine also provided an article from the New York Times on Nov 28., written by Julie Flaherty, titled "In America's Schools, Latin Enjoys a Renaissance."