Kudos to Mrs. Fawcett and our BCD Upper School students, who won thirty-four awards at Classics Day 2011 which was hosted by The Pioneer Valley Classical Association at Mount Holyoke College on January 14th.  Berkshire Country Day School was one of ten schools in attendance.  All sixth graders at BCD begin their study of Latin, a program offered through the ninth grade.  Latin is an important core program at BCD for many reasons including:

  • Most of the English language is composed of words that come from Latin or Greek words, with Latin being the larger of the two.  Students who learn Latin vocabulary are exposed to the Latin root words, prefixes, and suffixes, thus strengthening their English vocabulary.
  • Studying Latin expands students’ vocabulary and enhances their reading comprehension skills, thus benefiting their study of other subjects.  Furthermore, because Latin students must read carefully for proper translation, they develop the habit of reading closely for accuracy.
  • Through understanding how to translate back and forth between Latin and English, Latin increases comparative analysis skills and improves critical thinking skills.
  • Latin offers a very in-depth study of literature and history.
  • Students that have studied Latin tend to have better writing skills because they have learned to express their thoughts clearly and concisely.  And, although English does not derive directly from Latin, most of its grammatical rules do.