Latin Thoughts

I've been thinking about Latin the past few days. Joyce and I are going to see Brad Pitt's new film, Ad Astra, tonight, and that title (Latin for "to the stars") propelled me back to my freshman year at Hiram High School (1958-59), to the classroom of Mr. Augustus H. Brunelle, an iconic figure at that high school, a scholar who had taught there for decades, who would teach me Latin I and II, English II and III, German I.

I was afraid of Latin, but I knew I had to take it if I wanted to go to college--and I did want to go, I think, though when I was in 9th grade, that (college) seemed so far away as to be invisible. Latin, you see, was part of the "college prep" curriculum at Hiram High--and colleges then (well, many of them) expected you to have taken it.

I would discover, as I proceeded through Latin, that I had a few ... problems. Like understanding grammar and usage, for example. Because my mother was an English teacher, and because my older brother was a Book Nerd, and because my dad was a college professor, I heard "proper" usage in my house all the time. And everyone was eager to correct my ... failures.

Mom's technique? Repeat what I'd just said, only employing standard usage--but in interrogatory form and emphasizing the word(s) I should have said. Example:

DANNY: I'm tired and want to lay down.
MOM: You're tired and you want to LIE down?

Can you imagine how annoying this was to a young lad who knew that he was going to be the catcher for the Cleveland Indians and would have no use at all for "proper" English?

Anyway, it was in this fashion I learned standard usage--but I didn't know why these ways were "correct." But on the multiple-guess English tests in elementary school and junior high, I could pick the correct choice by just remembering what Mom and Dad and Richard had said.

That wasn't helpful when I got to Latin I, for I entered that course not really knowing anything about case and gender and person and number and direct objects and whatever.

(In fact, it wasn't until I began teaching grammar myself to seventh graders that I finally began to understand it all!)

Anyway, Mr. Brunelle began our year in Latin I by giving us a bunch of Latin sayings that we had to memorize.

• carpe diem
• mens sana in corpore sano
• ars langa, vita brevis
• fiat lux
• caveat emptor
• ad astra per aspera

There were lots more--but you get the idea. And I still remember the ones I remember.

So, anyway, when I saw the title of BP's new film, I smiled, remembered Latin I, remembered Mr. Brunelle.

(BTW: As I told you, Mr. Brunelle's first name was Augustus, and we high-school wags would, when he couldn't hear us, call him "Gus." So radical! Years later, doing some research on him, I learned that all his friends called him that. It's in his college yearbook! So much for youthful waggishness.)

Today, at the coffee shop, I looked up to see former colleague Jeff Namiotka come in; he teaches Latin at Western Reserve Academy. 

I went over and asked him if he'd seen the title of BP's new film.

Pause.

"Ad Astra," I said.

"Yes!" he remembered. "I've seen something in the news about that."

And I told him about that long-ago Latin I assignment, and he smiled, then hurried off to Parents' Weekend up at school.

So, Mr. Brunelle, I wanted you to know: I haven't forgotten the little Latin I learned--and I most certainly haven't forgotten you!

Mr. Brunelle