Because I did not choose to study Classics at university, or even A Level, I suppose my story might seem a bit incongruous on this page, but actually, I wanted to write to iris and give a mathematician's view on the value I got from learning Latin at school, as well as the difficulties I encountered in persuading my school I should be learning Latin at all...

So, I attended a fairly average comprehensive school in the North of England, which did not offer Latin or in fact any Classical subjects on the curriculum. It did, however, offer a variety of modern languages, and it was there I discovered that I was quite bad at French and German. I found them difficult and I just wasn't particularly interested in learning these languages. I just couldn't get the hang of them, and didn't like them. It was really that simple.

I found out that, due to some demand amongst parents and students, my school had started hosting after-school Latin lessons - there were two per week, each lasting an hour, and they closely followed the Cambridge Latin course books.

Some of my friends had been offered the opportunity to learn the subject, about which at that point they and I knew very little beyond the fact that it sounded like an interesting and unusual challenge. However, due to my mediocre performance in French and German, I wasn't asked if I would be interested in learning Latin.  My teachers assumed that if I didn't enjoy or wasn't good at modern languages, the same would apply to an ancient language.  They were quite wrong.

When I found out about these lessons, I pestered my school until they decided that, despite my average performances in the modern languages, they would give me the chance to see if I could handle Latin. So I joined my friends in the little group and we all attended the lessons.

While this may have been one of the initial attractions of joining the set, I soon found Latin to be so much easier to learn than either French or German, because of its regularity. I liked its order and simple rules. There was an order and logic that I really enjoyed and appreciated – the same appreciation that had made me like maths lessons at school. In fact, Latin in a way helped my maths, or perhaps my maths helped my Latin, because both challenged my mind to solve problems and spot patterns in a way that other subjects did not really do.

It wasn't just this that I liked about Latin, though. I can honestly
say that it had a significant and positive influence on my English
skills, and that I have a more expansive vocabulary as a result. And that's why it held my interest, where French and German didn't; I could see how Latin was directly relevant to me.

So I took the subject through to GCSE outside the time table, although didn't complete the course until the lower sixth year, because of the off time table situation. I also really enjoyed the Cambridge Latin Course, which was the course we worked through all the way up to GCSE. It was easy to understand, and had a family that you followed through each text book. The stories were entertaining and fun, and there were exercises which helped you learn the grammar and vocabulary on the way. I also liked the way in which you learned interesting bits and pieces of Roman history, not just from Rome itself, but also Pompeii, Britain and even Alexandria. I can still remember some of the facts we picked up years later, so it obviously had a great way of teaching us these things.

I didn't choose to do Latin at A level. It wasn't offered as a subject at my school, and the battle to study it outside of the time table would have been a difficult one, and besides, I had other subjects I was very interested in, namely mathematics and sciences. So this was the path I took, double maths and physics as my A levels and then I went on to study maths at Oxford University.

In the years since my school days, Latin has certainly had a longer lasting beneficial influence on me than either French or German. Of course it helped that I liked my teacher and that I really enjoyed studying the Cambridge Latin Course, and being taught in a small group. But as I hope is clear, it had a benefit over and above these factors. So,my advice would just be that if you have the opportunity to learn Latin, do give it a try. I'm glad I did.

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My Experience of State School Classics
Eleanor Walters

Although both my parents enjoyed studying Latin and Greek at school, it's certainly not the case that I was reared from babyhood on a strict diet of Classical authors. In fact, my mum's attempts to introduce me to Latin at the age of about seven on a long train journey were, I seem to remember, somewhat lost on me. However, I'm grateful that my parents were convinced that classical subjects are an exciting challenge: they chose my secondary school partly because it offers Latin, which distinguishes it from many of the other state schools in the area. The classics department there is run by one very committed Latinist who offers the subject at GCSE and even, as I was to discover, beyond...

Working through the first stages of the Cambridge Latin Course in year 9, I genuinely enjoyed the challenge of 'decoding' a new language. But what captured my imagination best was the literature that I studied at GCSE: I remember reading Ovid's story of Echo and Narcissus and being amazed at the power of his words to conjure up such strong images. I was lucky to have a teacher who picked up on my enthusiasm and pointed me in the direction of a JACT Latin summer school, which not only helped my language enormously but also introduced me to literature outside the GCSE course: my first taste, for example, of Catullus.

Having thoroughly enjoyed GCSE Latin, I was the only student from my class to choose to carry the subject on to AS level. This was not unheard of at my school: there had been several Latin AS students before me, though rarely more than one a year. As year 12 progressed and I was treated to more Ovid, I soon decided that, if it was at all possible, I would like to carry on Latin to A2 level. This was a more challenging prospect: my school had never had anyone take A2 Latin before, and my teacher had never taught it. However, the school was amazingly supportive and, after convincing both my teacher and the Head that I was passionate enough about the subject to make a real effort, they decided that I could take A2 Latin on a reduced timetable.

I think it would be fair to say that my A2 year was a steep learning curve both for myself and for my teacher, but my school made every provision possible for me, even though I was alone in my subject. They made it possible for me to take an Open University Latin course to cement my language knowledge (even though I was officially too young!), and arranged Latin comprehension lessons with a Classics PhD student. I also attended another JACT summer school, where I really enjoyed meeting other Latin students, who seemed like something of a novelty to me! Ultimately, I believe my teacher and I both enjoyed the year, and once again the set text was a hit: Virgil's description of Aeneas' descent to the underworld is still one of my favourite bits of literature.

Until the beginning of year 13 I was aiming to study history at degree level, but I knew that if I did so, I still wanted to carry on Latin as well. However, I gradually realised that Classics was going to be the course for me: I enjoyed Latin literature too much to give it up, and Classics offered both history and literature, as well as much more, in one neat package. I sent off my UCAS form with Queens' College, Cambridge as my first choice. My interview was surprisingly enjoyable: I was able to talk quite easily about a subject which I loved, to someone with a genuine interest in why I loved it. I suspect that the lengths that my school and I had gone to to allow me to study Latin might have made my interviewers think I was serious about the subject too! I was offered a place, and began at Cambridge in 2003.

My degree course broadened my classical horizons enormously: as well as Latin, I took up Greek, and in addition to studying literature in both languages, I dipped into Greek and Roman history and philosophy. While the huge breadth of the subject was a little daunting at first to someone who had only studied Latin, I was soon enjoying almost everything that I studied. However, I still reserve a special place for Ovid and Virgil!

In the final year of my degree, partly inspired by my own school experience, I applied for the Classics PGCE course at Cambridge. I have now almost completed my first term of learning how to be a Classics teacher, and so far I have had a great experience. I have been placed in two state schools offering Classical Civilisation and Latin, and have found teachers who, just like my Latin teacher, are enthusiastic about their subjects and committed to inspiring their students. At the risk of sounding trite (though why not end with a bit of rhetoric?), I genuinely hope that in the future I can inspire some of my own students in the same way.

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A state school student’s experience of Latin
Christina Edwards

Despite going to a girls’ grammar school, I was surprised about the reception a traditional subject like Latin received. During my primary and secondary education, I had moved from place to place, and after two years at a grammar school in Kent where Classics was embraced, I moved to Buckinghamshire. Neither Latin nor Ancient Greek were offered at my new school, but upon starting my GCSEs I found that they were planning on offering a “fast track” Latin GCSE. Somewhat unfairly, the lesson time was the same as for a subject such as History or Geography, subjects that were much more familiar to students on their syllabuses before GCSEs, unlike Latin. Our GCSE competitors included public school educated pupils as well as the  neighbouring boys’ grammar, who had a few years’ head start on us, neither of which were trying to catch up on the foundations of a language as well as studying a GCSE syllabus during those 2 years. Fortunately, I made it through my exams, along with my 20 or so peers, and 7 of us began our fight for an AS class. The school was incredibly reluctant to allow Latin to be taught to sixth formers, stating that they felt it was not a “proper” subject. A class size of 7 was deemed as unacceptably low, although the school were willing to offer a Music AS class of 3 people, and a GCSE Religious Studies class the year before of 7 people. Upon choosing our subjects for sixth form study, Latin was absent from our option blocks, but after much cajoling, they agreed to let us take Latin as an optional 5th AS subject. The fight for an A2 to be offered was one of the toughest rounds of opposition I faced in Year 13, along with my battle to apply to Cambridge. I approached the head teacher of the neighbouring boys’ grammar school, where my Latin teacher’s husband taught Classics, and asked if I could be admitted to the A2 class. After stating my intentions, he wholeheartedly agreed, and I informed my own school of my plans.

To cut a long story short, I decided to apply to Cambridge, but the school were reluctant to let me because of the academic competition and the fact that a student from the school had never applied to Oxbridge for Classics. My Latin was not up to that of other applicants, and I did not have any knowledge of Ancient Greek, but strangely, I seemed oblivious to this, and I pushed to allow me to apply. Upon submitting my UCAS application, the head of sixth form called me into her office to discuss my application to Queens’ College, Cambridge; and instructed me to replace Queens’ with another university so she could send my application off the next day. That night I went home and took Queens’ College off my application. I put on King’s College, Cambridge, instead. And without checking the next day, she sent the application off. I dealt with the confusion and annoyance of her finding out about it all later on.

A few years on, and I’m really happy at Cambridge. Without the support of my family and the Latin teachers, I couldn’t have got as far as I have, but I think a lot of it also had to do with the determination I had to continue learning Latin-an unstoppable determination I’ve never pursued for anything else. This year is my final year, and I’m specialising mostly in Greek Literature, with my dissertation in Latin Literature, on the Metamorphoses of Ovid. I’m hoping to apply for a PhD next year, and carry on my journey into Classics, although it’s strange to think how different my life would have been if I hadn’t fought for Latin all those years ago.

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Kimberly MacNeill

I was first introduced to the classical world at infant school. When we’d finished our work we could go to the classroom next door and pick one of the yellow books in the corner of the room and then fill out a question sheet on what we had read. Each yellow book was a simplified Greek myth and I was hooked. I’d always loved stories and growing up in a house of books devoured them like chocolate. The next time I heard about the ancient world it was in the history part of the day at junior school and it was a brief introduction to the Romans. We were told the story of Romulus and Remus and the subsequent founding of Rome, that they wore togas, argued in a Senate and invented central heating. The latter piece of information would be the only thing my best friend would recall after having the same lesson on the Romans taught repeatedly over the next 6 years. Most of the class had lost interest in the subject while I was reading every ancient history book or book of myths I could get my hands on. Films such as the seventies version of Jason and the Argonauts only wetted my appetite further. The next time I would formally encounter anything from the ancient world would be in English class in the form of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Our teacher got us to hold a mock investigation trying to work out the motives for killing Julius Caesar, explaining that the play was based on a real event. Again I was captivated: politicians organising the murder of other politicians, not quite your average Prime Minister’s question time!

Yet it was only at fifteen when choosing my A-levels that studying Classics became a real possibility, though it would be from a cultural/historical viewpoint and wouldn’t involve any linguists. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as the Classics teacher at the college left in the summer before I was due to start my A-levels due to lack of demand, (despite the fact I had spoken to at least twenty people who said they’d also put Clas Civ down as one of their A-level options).

When it came to university and a degree course the general line was that no university would accept someone to study Classics without them having the classical languages or at least one of them. In the end I applied to study History, the next best thing in my books. To cut a long story short I ended up as a first year Chemist at the University of Warwick and after a year of being miserable (at no fault of the department) I decided I had to change course. I found out that the Classics department at Warwick offered Latin and Greek for beginners as part of a degree in Classical Civilisation, a light at the end of the tunnel! Discussions with the Chemistry and Classics department followed and it was agreed that I could change subject. I’d never been happier and in January, nearly 20 years after first reading about Perseus slaying Medusa in a little yellow book, I graduated with a MA in Classics.

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Paul Blackaby

There is often an odd look some on people’s faces when I tell them I am doing an Open University course in classical studies. Perhaps it’s because I am approaching fifty and work in IT and they wonder ‘why not do something more “useful”?’ People who think like this clearly haven’t been bitten by the “bug” (what Socrates might have called a gadfly!). I have definitely been bitten, so I better tell you something about myself.

I went to a state school and classics was not on the curriculum. But in the 6th form, in order to fill in some gaps in the timetable (ah, those were the days!), my school introduced ‘O’ level Greek literature in translation. That was it, first bite: Homer and the dramatists. The teacher was inspiring, a Mrs Farrant; but the literature even more so. That was the start and from then on I have dipped in and out of classical studies in education in various forms. As an undergraduate I majored in philosophy and Plato played a big part. The ancient Greeks are often referred to as the founders of western culture and, of course, in many respects that’s correct. But the Greeks were also very alien and thought about the world and their place in it very differently to us. But one thing we have in common with them is how we are still intrigued by the same moral questions: “what is it be good?”, “do we really know anything?”, “is the crook who escapes the police worse off than one who is caught?” And if you’re interested in these questions then there is no better place to engage in the discussions than in the dialogues of Plato. Didn’t someone once say that all European philosophy is really just footnotes to Plato? Well perhaps that’s true but there’s only one way to find out.

But back to me and forgetting Plato. I luckily got a postgraduate grant and did a Masters in political philosophy and again the ancient Greeks played a big part. All this was in translation, of course. But more recently I decided that it would be fun (sad, I know) to have a go at learning the language. So I enrolled at the OU. I am sure I was told once that the Open University has the biggest classic studies department in terms of student numbers than any other British university. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s certainly a good way to learn classics if you’re working; and these courses are really well thought out. I started off with ancient Greek and then Latin, which I must say I found harder, finishing off getting a diploma in classical studies. I supplemented my studies with weekends away at Madingley Hall, which is part of Cambridge University continuing education programme; and here again you find a whole host of people really enjoying the classics – and have the bonus of access to world class teaching as well. I am now one year into the OU’s MA in classical studies. The work load is high but manageable and I am learning new things like challenging what we know about classical history - or what we think we know.

So is there a lesson in all this? Well I suppose if anything it’s that you can ignore the classics and not get bitten. But if you have a bored afternoon and are tempted to have a read of one of Plato’s dialogues or a play by Sophocles then beware – you may still be studying the stuff thirty years later! Apart from everything people say about learning classical languages improving your English skills – true of course – there are fascinating stories to be read. The classics have an important part to play in our education curriculum; and the recent victory in keeping the ancient history ‘A’ level on the syllabus was an important one. But I believe in order to remain relevant, classical studies needs to be on the state education curriculum; and that is why the agenda of the Iris Project is important. Go and get bitten!

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Emily Heath

I am a Classics geek. I'm not your perceived stereotypical Classicist; I have not had a public school education or graduated from Oxbridge. I don’t wear tweed jackets or jam jar glasses, I am a geek because I live and breathe Classics and believe it to be the most interesting, worthwhile and amazing educational experience one can have. Classics is often regarded as an elitist subject, only available for the privileged few and unfortunately whilst this is largely true it doesn’t mean you cannot learn about these fascinating cultures; you just have to work a little harder and have confidence in yourself and your abilities.
My adventure into the Classical world really began when I started studying AS Classical Civilisation at college; I was instantly hooked. It was the first time I’d ever seen teachers truly excited about their subject and believing each and every person would also love it given the opportunity. I was mesmerised by the department’s energy, enthusiasm and commitment and although I didn’t find the subject easy, it was fun and I enjoyed learning more and more about the people who influenced our language and culture and shaped our western world. I cannot imagine how my life would be now if I hadn’t studied Classics at university, if I’d have listened to all those people who didn’t believe the study of Classics a worthwhile pursuit. I would not have spent three fantastic years improving myself academically by studying some of the most mind-blowing works of literature and art man has ever produced.
After graduating I realised that without Classics in my life I couldn’t be completely happy. It was then I decided on a teaching career, a decision I did not make lightly. You can imagine my excitement when I came across the opportunity to teach Classics at the Kamuzu Academy in Malawi. Seeing first hand the pupils’ expressions, as they discovered new things was so uplifting and one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Not surprisingly Classics has spilled out into my personal life and being the social butterfly I like to believe I am, I had a fancy dress ‘Greek Heroes’ party. I opened my front door to be confronted by Achilles and Jason, adorned with his freshly captured Golden Fleece and maniac ex girlfriend Medea. How much fun! A whole evening of drinking wine, eating olives and trying to keep ones toga from falling off in public. All in the name of Classics I believe!  
There are some people who shy way from new experiences believing them to be too difficult or fearing they will not succeed; but there are also those who seek them, individuals who are truly excited about what is new and different. I am the latter of these peoples. Are you?