Una natio de praedotores - that's "One Raider Nation" in Latin.

Fresh out of a school year modeled by that phrase, Habersham Central High School Raiders will get their first taste of the Latin language for the 2007-2008 school year.

Ken Basinger, who most recently taught Latin, Spanish and other subjects for 14 years at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, will begin teaching Latin 1 and 2 classes at HCHS.

"I have a lot of friends in the area and I heard a lot of good things about the school system," Basinger said recently of how he ended up applying for a teaching job at HCHS through teachgeorgia.org.

He said he's always trying to stay aware of schools that are building or already have Latin programs.

"Latin never died, it just changed," said Basinger of the misconception that the language is a dead one.

That's one of the first and most important lessons Basinger says he plans to teach his students.

But the end result Basinger will work toward with his students is literacy of Latin texts, including prose by Julius Caesar and Virgil, as well as Cicero's poetry. Those texts are third-level texts, Basinger said, noting that Latin 3 couldn't be taught until the 2008-2009 school year and also depends on the reception of HCHS students to the program.

He also plans to help prepare his students for the National Latin Exam.

"It's a pretty well recognized competition that students can put on [college] application," Basinger said.

Another aspect Basinger's classes will focus on is vocabulary, as 60 percent of English words are derived from the Latin language.

"A benefit of Latin is it is the basis of the romance languages [such as Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Catalan]," said Basinger. "It's going to make it easier if a student wanted to go on and learn one of them later."

The importance of learning Latin, he says, is that it's across the curriculum - in math, history, science and other studies.

"It also helps with your native language and makes you more conscious of how your own language works," Basinger said.

He'll officially begin his first day of work as a new teacher at HCHS on Wednesday, Aug. 1, in preparation for his first day of teaching on Friday, Aug. 10.

In the meantime, Basinger says he'll be finding out what textbooks he will use for his classes and begin preparing for the ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Language) classes he also is scheduled to teach.

Basinger hails originally from Lima, Ohio, where he became fond of the Latin language thanks to his high school Latin teacher.

Basinger received his bachelor's degree from Ohio State and his master's degree from the University of Georgia.