Latin may be a dead language, but at Mount Vernon High School, Julie Wilson’s second-year Latin classroom is very much alive.

On a Tuesday morning before Christmas break, her students translated English into Latin aloud. In the corner of the classroom sat Leslie and Carlie Crawford, multi-talented twins, who, on their own initiative, have progressed to the third level of Latin. Wilson said they are the two best students she’s ever had.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life,” Wilson said. “They’re just brilliant. And they’re interesting because they love grammar.”

For nearly two decades, Mount Vernon High had the only Latin program between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. Then, several years ago, Marysville added its own Latin program.

Latin appears to be making a comeback in some parts of the country, though not by leaps and bounds. In 1962, about 700,000 high school students took Latin, according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. By 1976, the council said, the number had fallen to 150,000.

In 2000, the last year for which the council has figures, the number of students taking Latin was at 177,000.

Marty Abbott, the council’s director of education, said it’s difficult to vouch for the accuracy of the statistics because not all states collect such data.

Abbott said the popularity of Latin at any particular school usually depends upon the quality of the teacher.

“Where we see steady or increases in enrollment is where we have dynamic teachers,” she said.

Mount Vernon High Principal Dave Anderson said the high school is lucky to have a Latin program and a teacher of Wilson’s caliber.

“Even more important is that a program have a quality teacher,” Anderson said. “Julie Wilson is universally respected by students, staff and our community.”
Wilson knows how to keep her students focused. In Tuesday’s class, when the students’ minds started to drift — it was, after all, the week before winter break — Wilson won back their attention with a trick. She stood at the front of her class, and, at a clipped pace, recited every Latin pronoun. When she finished, her class gave her enthusiastic applause.

Wilson’s love of Latin is immediately apparent. On her classroom wall hangs a sign that reads, “Latin is beautiful.” Her students adopt names like Romulus, Venus, Prometheus and Artemis.

Among those students are the Crawford twins, whose scores on the National Latin II Exam confirm their placement among the top Latin students in the country.

Last March, Leslie was among 227 students who earned a perfect score on the exam. The level 2 exam, sponsored by the American Classical League, was taken by 34,000 students.

Leslie’s twin, Carlie, missed the perfect score by one point.

Julie Wilson started the Latin program when she arrived in Mount Vernon in 1987. She had studied Latin in high school and college, largely because of an enthusiastic teacher’s influence.

Wilson says Latin is a boon to her students. She says it improves their SAT scores and their grades and helps them learn the two other languages taught at the high school, Spanish and French, whose linguistic roots are in Latin.

On her first day teaching of each year, or semester, Wilson asks her students why they’re taking Latin. They always have a variety of responses, she said.

Leslie and Carlie said they like studying Latin for several reasons.

“I have an affinity for dead languages,” Carlie said, to which Leslie challenged, “What other dead languages?”

“Anglo-Saxon,” Carlie said. “It sounds gorgeous. It’s mostly just alliteration.”

“Latin impresses people,” Leslie said. “My softball team is always saying, ‘Say something stupid in Latin and make it sound profound.’”

And, she added, “It’s for people who like history.”

Carlie contended that Leslie is the stronger Latin student, the stronger student overall, even though their grade point averages are almost identical. Leslie has a 4.0, while Carlie has a 3.99. In Latin competitions, Leslie has fared better as well — she got first place in level 2 Latin grammar. Carlie earned second place in Roman history.

“I’m jealous of course,” Carlie said, “but I have other talents.”

“She can beat me at arm wrestling,” Leslie offered.