Classic mistakes

In a good omen for the newly announced fund-raising charity ‘Classics for All’, the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, stated in his White Paper the other week that Latin and ancient Greek would, after nearly 25 years, become officially permitted national curriculum subjects. So classics has finally come in from the cold. But why on earth were the languages frozen out in the first place?

In 2006, Lord Dearing was asked by the then education secretary, Alan Johnson, to see what could be done about the dramatic slump in the number of pupils taking GCSEs in foreign languages. Languages had been made voluntary after the age of 14 in 2004. Since this inquiry could involve a complete re-think of language provision, it seemed a good idea to find out whether the classical languages could be restored, and an approach was made.

Our case was quite simple. Greek and Latin are magnificent languages in their own right, have hugely enriched our own language, still provide an unsurpassed insight into how language in general works and, for better or worse, have critically influenced our political, institutional, legal, educational, scientific and cultural world. The perfect educational package, one might have thought.

Coincidentally, an old friend had got his hands on a copy of Dearing’s advisory paper on the subject. I here publish it word for word as it was, but structured for (relative) ease of reading. After an opening paragraph weaselling on about the value of classics, it continued (sic throughout, I fear):

However, I would be very cautious about including Classical Languages in the proposed Achievement and Attainment Tables indicators for Modern Languages. Despite the benefits which the study of Classical Languages can bring (and I speak as an erstwhile Classicist myself), there are a number of important ways in which they cannot meet the objectives set for modern languages (MFL):

1.