Latin

Veritas is the only institution in the Texarkana area to teach Latin. The closest place to find Latin instruction is at Centenary College in Shreveport, LA and Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR, both institutions of higher learning.

Considering the sheer number of years and amount of quality schools wherein the teaching of Latin was an integral part of any good academic training, the instruction in Latin at Veritas Academy should need no explanation or defense. However, like many traditional particulars of good education lost in the name of "modern" or "progressive" education, Latin's advantages have been neglected and forgotten by a couple of generations. Latin was regularly taught even in American high schools as late as the 1940s. It was considered necessary to a fundamental understanding of English, the history and writings of Western Civilization, and the understanding of Romance languages.

Veritas Academy teaches Latin, therefore, for two major reasons:

1. Latin is not a "dead language" but rather a language that lives on in almost all major western languages, including English. A training in Latin not only gives the student a better understanding of the roots of English vocabulary, but it also lays the foundation for learning other Latin-based languages such as Spanish, French, or Italian.
2. Learning the grammar of Latin reinforces the student's understanding of the reasons for, and the use of, the parts of speech being taught in our traditional English class work, e.g. plurals, nouns, verbs, prepositions, direct objects, tenses, etc.