Bronxville School to Discontinue Latin in Middle School

By Staff
 
May 2, 2024: The Bronxville School currently offers French, Spanish, and Latin starting in 6th grade. Starting next year, the school will no longer offer Latin in grades 6, 7, and 8 ("middle school"). Latin will continue to be offered in high school (grades 9 - 12), along with French, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese.
 
Dr. Rachel Kelly, Bronxville School Superintendent, said this was not an easy decision but was made primarily because of declining enrollment. She noted that the school has been "monitoring this for many years." 
 
On April 24, concerned Bronxville parents launched a petition to gather support for reinstating Latin as a language option for Bronxville students starting in 6th grade. The petition also called for "transparency and engagement with the broader school community when course elimination is being considered."
 
As of May 3rd, at 6:30pm, there were 193 signatures on the petition.  There is a meeting among concerned parents and Dr. Rachel Kelly this evening May 2nd.

One parent who started learning Latin in elementary school noted that one of the benefits of starting young is that "you can learn the conjugations and then add on vocabulary and other aspects of the language as you go along."  This parent also said that "studying Latin provides a strong foundation for understanding the English language."

For comparison purposes, MyhometownBronxville looked at a few public and private schools in the area to see what they offer in terms of languages.

-The public schools we looked at (Eastchester and Scarsdale) both offer Latin starting in 9th grade.

-The private schools we looked at (Rye Country Day and Horace Mann) both offer Latin starting in 6th grade. Rye Country Day also offers Chinese starting in 6th grade.

-The private schools (Rye Country Day and Horace Mann) also start their modern language programs as early as elementary school, as does the Scarsdale public school.

-The private schools we looked at also offer a wider range of languages. For example, Horace Mann offers Japanese and ancient Greek starting in 9th grade, and Rye County Day offers ancient Greek starting in 10th grade. 

Here is a summary of language offerings in select public and private schools in the area.

Public Schools

Bronxville 

Grades 6 - 8: French, Spanish, Latin (to be discontinued)

Grades 9 - 12: French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Latin

Eastchester:

-Grades 7 - 8: French, Italian and Spanish

-Grades 9 - 12: French, Italian, Spanish and Latin

Scarsdale:

-Grades 2 - 5: Spanish

-Grades 6 - 8: Spanish, French

-Grades 9-12: Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese, and Latin

Private Schools

Rye Country Day School:  

-Grades 2 - 5:  Spanish, French

-Grades 6 - 9: Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese, Latin. 

-Grades 10-12: Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese, Latin, Ancient Greek.

Horace Mann

-Grades 1 - 5:  Spanish, French

-Grades 6 - 8:  Spanish, French, Latin

-Grades 9 - 12: Spanish, French, Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Ancient Greek

 
 

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