DudleyFan just reminded me of a story I heard on NPR about a week ago about this teacher, I believe in Washington state, who saved her Latin program around 25 years ago by not submitting her intention to retire until after the Latin courses were full and the school year had ended. Some tricky lady! (She denies she did that on purpose.) She then recommended a former student to take her classes, and here we are, 25 years later, with their Latin program on the line again.

The current Latin teacher recruits her own students by going to middle schools (to snag that frosh enrollment), and keeps them in for 4 years, sometimes because the students love it, and sometime because the call to the students' parents were convincing enough to get their kids to tough it out.

At one point, one of the kids said, "It's a dead language, [my friends] always say."

I thought it was a nice story. And the sound bites from the students reminded me a little of Max, except ... well, they wanted to save Latin because they like it, not so much because their teacher does.

Man, I took a semester of Latin in college, and all I can remember is "ita" (yes) and "quo vadis?" (who knows?)

I can understand what fuels those Latin teachers, though. I'm a school librarian, and I have to "weed" the collection. This means if its outdated or no longer being checked out, I'm supposed to get rid of it. I have no problem with the nonfiction, but when I pull out some fiction that I read when I was ten, and nobody has checked it out for the past fifteen years. . . well, it's still hard to get rid of. Who's going to be the last one to read Danny Dunn, or Miss Pickerell, or Homer Price? I hate to be the one who breaks the chain. I'm sure Latin teachers argue, as Miss Cross does, that all the romance languages are based on Latin. But really, I've picked up a pretty broad vocabulary just by reading plain ole English. I think the real reason they keep plugging Latin is that they don't want to be the ones to break the chain. . . to be among the last to teach Latin.

Yo! I am getting my Master's in Information Sciences! Where did you get your degree? The private school I went to required you to take two years of Latin before four years of a second language. I'm so glad because those cognates really saved my ass in Spanish! NOT! Just kidding. Latin rocks. I'M SPARTACUS!!!

Weird. I work in a library and am applying to MLS programs this fall.

We've got a weeding project going on here, and I'm one of the people who has to mark out any university mark on the spines and title pages. I keep buying them for 50 cents apiece. It's ridiculous.

Ahh, man. You guys obviously don't live in California.

While I call myself a librarian, I'm technically only a library clerk. At some point in California, along with music, art, and the performing arts, school libraries were classified as frills instead of necessities. So funding went way down. We've just started to get money again for books, but forget anything for librarians. I don't have my Masters . . . I have my BA in Liberal Studies, and I am OVERQUALIFIED. I only had to have a high school diploma.

I'm it, though, at my school. So I call myself a librarian.

Where I live, you can't claim you're a librarian without being interrogated by half a dozen people. We have a pretty strong program (42 hours) and some people take themselves a littel too seriously. You probably know everything they teach anyway. Here it is mostly abount access, and technology. I wish we had more courses on preservation.
Highwaters, where are you studying?

By the way, I totally agree with you DudleyFan. It's hard when you see books that you derived so much pleasure out of when you were younger being chucked because it hasn't been read in a while. Homer Price was good stuff. I bet Wes Anderson supports libraries! We need one of those READ posters of him, reading something like...that Jacques Cousteau book from Rushmore! Hmmm...would this make a new topic?

It would be nice to have a "Books" category along with the TV and Movies.

Shoeshine, I did hang on to one copy of Homer Price. I read it to my kids last summer, and they were as tickled by the doughnut making machine as I had been at their age.

And I would love a READ poster of Wes. Forget my library: I would hang it at home.

I'm not in a program yet, s'shine, I'm still shopping, and applying in the fall. I've been an RA and reference fill-in for some time, but nothing formal.

I hear ya about the uptight librarian rigamarole. I was looking into doing a public school librarian deal, and you have to have a teaching certificate with that MLS, which is a joke. Hoops hoops hoops.

Highwaters-
Come to Knoxville! We are merging with the Communications dept. which is really going to expand the opportunities of the program. Plus, I am always trying to bring in new members to our cult...I mean program!

You have to have a teaching degree along with your masters in California, too, to be a public school librarian. And get this: there are only two colleges in the whole big state of California that offer the masters: UCLA and San Jose! UCLA isn't even geared towards the public school library program. It's more for people who are going into corporate libraries.

Here's a depressing statistic: in California, a child is more likely to come in contact with a credentialled librarian BEHIND BARS in a juvenile institution, than in his or her public school. We are ranked dead last in librarians per kids, and I think also library books per kid. Our reading scores are in the toilet, too. Hmmmm. . . coincidence?

Soapbox, I know.

ahem... i saved latin...

;) <p>"Does the fact that I'm trying to do it do it for you?"</p>

Yeah, I know - - we're off topic.

What do you think, though, Olwiggum: a Book category, along with the movies and TV?

not a bad idea at all.... i'll add it either tonight or tomorrow...

<p>"Does the fact that I'm trying to do it do it for you?"</p>

Yeah!!!!