Teaching Classics To Inner City Poor

[From article]
I know from long experience that learning Latin makes students smarter; it conveys a deep understanding of how language works, and it involves working with one’s whole brain, both in small details and in the big picture.
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The fact that I was usually the only white person in the building, and sometimes on the bus or even, the school’s neighborhood it seemed, was a matter of a little curiosity, the curiosity about an unfamiliar place, new people -- but there was no moment when I felt unwelcome, much less threatened.
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I absolutely agree that all students, at least all American students, need to learn the deep heritage of Western Civilization, from Homer to Abraham Lincoln. The poetry of Virgil, the prose of Cicero, the political insight of the founding fathers of this country, and all the riches in between -- this is a worthy heritage, and one we can learn and treasure and share, without condoning or overlooking the atrocities of any of the colonial ambitions and powers down through history. All peoples have shameful chapters in their histories. Americans are no exception. But we owe it to ourselves to know, and to our children to teach, the profound strength and glory that has always drawn people to this nation.
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It pains me to think of a child being denied knowledge of Homer, or Virgil, or Shakespeare, because of the horrors of the conquistadors, the brutality of the crusades, or the inhuman cruelty of the slave trade. By that logic, I should never admire Shakespeare or the British Museum, or anything British because my ancestors had to flee England under the threat of persecution. It cuts me off from the history of how this country was founded, of its deepest, richest roots, on the grounds that the country has faults. I have two responses to that.   First, find me a nation that isn’t flawed, and show me its history. Find me a people who have better souls, a people who have never trespassed against their neighbors. I don’t believe you can.
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Some members of the black community feel -- not without reason -- that all their suffering, all the poverty, joblessness, and hardships that they see and feel and know all around them, can be blamed squarely and accurately on white people. It’s impossible to refute that. All generalities are flawed, but it’s undeniable that powerful whites have a long history of brutally abusing blacks.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/11/the_glories_of_teaching_classics_in_the_inner_city.html

November 15, 2014
The Glories of Teaching Classics in the Inner City
By Rebecca Jessup