Because learning Latin trains the mind in logical thought.
Because studying Latin helps people learn about the grammatical structures which they use in their native tongue without understanding.
Because understanding Latin makes it much easier to learn any of the many Latin-influenced languages, or even to guess at what text means without knowing the language.
Because knowing Latin is a prerequisite for learning much of European history from primary sources.
> Because learning Latin trains the mind in logical thought.
How? Is there something magical about Latin? Would other, less dead languages have the same effect?
> Because studying Latin helps people learn about the grammatical structures which they use in their native tongue without understanding.
That's hardly unique to Latin.
> Because understanding Latin makes it much easier to learn any of the many Latin-influenced languages, or even to guess at what text means without knowing the language.
Why not learn another Latin-derived modern language, instead? You get some of that same effect, and you learn a language that isn't dead.
> Because knowing Latin is a prerequisite for learning much of European history from primary sources.
How many people are going to want to do that, ever? Consider the opportunity cost of learning Latin for those who won't. And then, of the people who will want to read those primary sources, how many of them would benefit from being able to read them in Latin rather than in a translation?
Because learning Latin trains the mind in logical thought.
[citation needed]
Really, there has been experimental research on this subject, and the best considered conclusion is that Latin doesn't have any particular virtue in training the mind in logical thought.
Note (as anyone who reads my HN profile will see) that I by no means disparage the study of foreign languages, dead or alive.
>Because studying Latin helps people learn about the grammatical structures which they use in their native tongue without understanding.
It would be much more helpful just to study those grammatical structures directly in the native tongue. Studying the grammar of your own language via latin is just an odd way of doing it. English and latin are not very similar grammatically.
Because studying Latin helps people learn about the grammatical structures which they use in their native tongue without understanding.
Because understanding Latin makes it much easier to learn any of the many Latin-influenced languages, or even to guess at what text means without knowing the language.
Because knowing Latin is a prerequisite for learning much of European history from primary sources.