New Generation Of Latin Teachers May Use Taylor Swift Lyrics In Place Of Old Syllabus

Grammy winner Taylor Swift's translated songs could enthuse a new generation of Latin students, said a Cambridge academic.

Daily Mail reported that Steven Hunt, who trains Latin teachers at Cambridge University, said that he is "horrified" he once taught stories which "objectify women" and trivialize slavery. In response to complaints about diversity, the Cambridge Latin Course, which was first published in 1970, is being rewritten.

Hunt has compiled a teacher handbook on how to keep the subject alive among the new generation. The academic, who has taught Latin for 35 years, suggested pupils might respond better if the chorus to Swift’s song, "Bad Blood," is translated. The lyrics -- "Cause baby now we got bad blood," could be translated to "Quod, care, nunc malum sanguinem habemus."

More possible activities were suggested like Latinized Disney songs, with a YouTube channel imagining how "Let It Go" from the hit animated film "Frozen" might have sounded in ancient Rome. There is possibility of students improving grammar by reading amateur fiction in Latin.

Many teaching materials include "few people of color and women" and do little to promote "inclusion," according to Hunt. He said that students need to "see themselves in the textbooks, and they also need to see the other – the marginalized, the little heard and little seen."

In the Cambridge course, a story, "The Slave Dealer," has "racial stereotypes." Tes magazine reported that slavery in ancient Rome is also presented as a trivial or humorous matter, said Hunt. He noted that in the early 21st century, it "ought not have a place in a school course book," and he advised against its "use in the classroom." He said that he taught the story around a 100 times "with barely a thought about the objectification of the women, the casual stereotyping of the non-Romans, and the blind acceptance of a financial transaction in which one human being is sold to another."

In response to complaints, he said that the publisher "recognized the highly problematic nature of this and other passages in the book and has undertaken a rewriting of the whole course."

This comes amid a drive to put trigger warnings on texts that are not politically correct, and "decolonize the curriculum."

Yahoo! News reported that a 2021 Language Trends survey from the British Council revealed a “stark divide” between private and state schools for Classics teaching. As many as 65% of independent schools offer General Certificate of Secondary Education Latin and one in three offer Ancient Greek, compared to 9% and less than 2% of state schools respectively.