AT A BRAND-NEW boys school in the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia, students are saying things they’ve never said before.
Words such as agricola (farmer), femina (woman), patria (fatherland), puella (girl), terra (earth) and silva (woods).
They are inside a classroom where the walls are decorated with maps of ancient Rome, Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia, and where there’s a poster proclaiming, “Latin didn’t fall with Rome.”
The boys, all African-American, repeat Latin words and phrases after their teacher, Sara Flounders.
During class last week she asked them to copy this, from Ovid, the poet: Saepe creat mollis aspera spina rosas.