Latin, known for being a dead language, used to only be offered at Clear Falls High School; however, Marshall Munson, AP World History teacher and now Latin teacher, worked hard to get his certification to teach the language, and make the course available to students. He marketed the language class to incoming freshman, his current students and students who haven’t met their language credit requirements. Due to his efforts, enough students were interested in the class and the program opened.
The current Latin program consists of a full class of “Latin II” students, and two full periods of “Latin One,” a noticeable increase from the small “Latin I” class from the 2021-2022 school year.
“I’m surprised that there’s two Latin I classes. I think the reason the program has grown so quickly is because Munson is such a good teacher, and he sells it to his World History students,” Senior Leila Embry said. “Latin also does a camp over the summer for elementary and middle schoolers, which introduces incoming students to the program.”
One of the main selling points of the program is according to the popularity of the teacher, Marshall Munson.
“I’m in Latin II and I decided to continue with the class my senior year because I really enjoy Mr. Munson as a teacher,” Senior Rowan Svetlik said. “He makes the lessons engaging and fun.”
Unlike the main language courses, Spanish, French, and ASL, the Latin curriculum is different from the standard language class, as it also focuses on the ancient culture, mythology, history, and geography. The goal of success in the class is less focused on fluency and speaking skills, and more on cultural comprehension and participation.
“We don’t just learn vocabulary,” Junior Valorie Worthington said. “We follow a family by learning stories in our textbook. I like when we preform plays in class based on the materials in our textbook. It makes the class fun.”
Some students regret that it wasn’t offered earlier, but still enjoy that they had the opportunity to take the class.
“If I was offered the option to take this class my freshman year, I would have taken it for my language credit instead of Spanish,” Senior Hannah Doyle said.
One student who took the class at Falls, junior Ellie Corburn, prefers the Creek program due to the unique teaching style and interactive activities.
“I took Latin at Falls, but the class here is more laid back and I like all the people in this class,” Corburn said. “The students are all funny, we all get along, and it’s really fun doing lessons and activities together.”
Students also enjoy the class because it is more project focused, has less tests, and not many people are able to understand the language.
“I like all the projects we do, like when we made ancient theater masks and our mythology project,” Freshman Elizabeth McConathy said. “It’s fun to speak a dead language; it’s cool because no one else knows what you’re saying.”
Not only do students learn how to read, write, and speak in Latin, they also learn about the history and culture of the Romans.
“I’m interested in studying the ancient history in the class,” Svetlik said. “I find it valuable to preserve the knowledge of the history and learn about the culture surrounding a dead language.”
The Latin program is now one of the most popular language programs in the school, and it is expected to continue to grow in size as more students recommend others to take the class. It’s more than just learning proficiency, Latin class encompasses language, culture, and storytelling through various creative projects, activities, crafts, and lessons.