Sunday, July 13, 2003 :::
 
Creativity is for later. Why children should be made to study hard, young. A little while ago, A Mind That Suits discovered something rather interesting: he could read Latin.

No, it was nothing mysterious, like being struck by lightening as he was crossing the street and suddenly reciting the Aeneid. He had studied Latin aas a child, and, as an adult, had puzzled over Latin if it happened to crop up, which it does if you look carefully at things. But read it? Well, with a little effort, yes, he discovered a little while ago. He is puzzling his way through St. Augustine's Confessions, and will move on to other things later. But A Mind That Suits is being systematic, and has a summary of Latin grammar that he is also going through. To read Latin comfortably, you simplpy have to master a daunting list of principal parts to verbs. In English, our verbs have three principal parts (e.g., go went gone), and in Latin they have four. A Mind That Suits, as a gawky teen-aged lad, used to set up a rhythm as he memorized them. The other day, as he was attempting to relearn the list of principal parts at the back of the book, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that he could recite many, if not most, of them.

To bad he couldn't do that as a lad. A Mind That Suits had a dismal record in Latin. But the stuff is stuck in there because he studied it when he was young. He also learned a little French as a kid, and can remember French vocabulary and expressions fairly easily. However, A Mind That Suits actually speaks Italian, and is forever searching around for the most basic stuff inside his head. Why? He learned it as an adult. He suspects that, until the day he dies, Latin and French will come more easily until the day he dies.

But Italian food is so much better. Ever eaten Latin food? A little stale these days.

A Mind That Suits still enjoys tapping out a musical rhythm with his feet as reciting Latin principal parts, which makes him look funny to other people on the Metro, but he cares little about that.

Have a good day.

::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 9:06 PM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.