LATIN AT OXFORD SIR,—You over-simplify and confuse the issue at
the same time. Latin is not just a short cut to English spelling; it provides an elementary linguistic and analytic training not given by English or any other modern language. It is just as useful for the boy who is going to be a scientist, as mathematics is for the boy who is going to be a linguist.
It is not unreasonable to ask the scientist to achieve, before VIth Form is reached, some level of basic linguistic proficiency, in the same way as the humanist should be expected to have attained some mathem- atics.
Do you really recommend that any child who is bad at maths should be encouraged to give up the subject?
The confusion arises in mixing up the basic education of children with the conscious choice, as at Kecle, of the adult mind.—Yours faithfully,
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