Winnipeg Free Press: Children learn Latin & excel in other areas

As related by Fr. Z via Ed Peters, who has just started his own Tamarack Christian Latin Society, which gathers at his home for the thrill of ... (you got it!): translating passages of medieval (so far) Latin.  But here's what the Winnipeg Free Press had to say [all comments Fr. Z's]: 

Students ‘carpe diem’ [No they don’t.  Carpe is a singular imperative.]
Latin class finds modern uses for ancient language [Like passing language and reasoning portions of placement exams?]

With just a tiny bit of prompting, six-year-old Thomas LaFrance can rattle off an ancient blessing for a meal in perfectly pronounced Latin.  [And yet so many priests think that Latin is too haaard.]

Technically a dead language, Latin is alive and well in Room 225 at St. Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba, where Thomas, his older sister, and two dozen other home schooled Catholic children decline nouns, conjugate verbs and build simple sentences.

“They’re picking up patterns and learning higher-level reasoning skills I’ve never seen in students of that age,” explains education professor and Latin teacher Jeffrey Burwell, director of the Jesuit Centre for Catholic Studies at St. Paul’s. [Did you get that?  Why wouldn’t parents want that for their children?   Burwell… Burwell… this Burwell?  HERE]