The past six months I've had the privilege of teaching level I elementary Latin at one of our after school programs. I have firmly believed that languages and math were more closely related than what our school system calls "language arts" and foreign languages. Teaching Latin the past year has solidified my belief that Latin develops logic and reasoning and is closely related to math.

Latin builds and develops concepts just as math does, only Latin adds another element- language. One could argue that Latin develops the brain in more complex ways than math does because of this additional element.

I am truly amazed that Latin has enabled my 3rd, 4th and 5th graders the ability to dissect a sentence, figure out cognates and derivatives and understand grammatical concepts that I know for a fact high school students have long forgotten. Because Latin develops logic and reasoning, these students will remember structure and logic forever. One does not learn it, regurgitate it and forget it. Latin develops the mind and enables the mind to reason and deduce much like math.

I always wondered why in school I was good and foreign languages and math. Everyone always said you couldn't be good at both. The old school of thought was one was either good at math and science or language arts. Wrong! Latin and other foreign languages go hand and hand with developing reasoning and logic to improve one's math skills and English skills. Vive Latin!