NO.

I just read this.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article2241711.ece

No. No no no NO.

What are they thinking? Whoever came up with this, I would genuinely like to know what was going through their minds when they decided this. So not many people are taking Latin and even fewer are taking Greek. THIS is not going to change that. Who in their right minds would choose a subject like this new "classics" A-level, where they're expected to cram in two languages along with a bunch of history, philosophy etc.? Greg Watson says Latin A-level is "intimidating" - well, excuse me, but this kind of set-up seems even more intimidating. Screw that, it seems impossible. I know people who were intimidated by Latin A-level because they're not that crazy about learning the language, so they took class. civ., and EVERYONE I know who does class. civ. loves it, they rave about it so much I actually sometimes wish I did it. If all that changed and they suddenly had to learn two languages along with Alexander the Great/Greek pottery etc. I don't think any of them would be happy. This isn't going to make loads of people take classics. It'll make even less people get into it, because it's clearly INSANE.

I mean...leaving aside the sad fact that such a good course as Latin A-level (and no doubt Greek) is being scrapped, how is this going to work practically? How are Latin, Greek, ancient history AND class. civ. possibly going to be combined into one subject? OK, so apparently students will be able to "specialise". How far, though? How much Latin will there be? How much Greek? Maybe one lesson a week, for both languages? And then if this course is available to everyone, like class. civ., regardless of how much Latin/Greek you've studied, then there'll be some people who have done Latin GCSE, some who haven't, some who've done Greek...how will they sort out how much to teach, and to what level? It seems obvious that the language part of it at least just WON'T work. And what will be the next step? Oh, let's just drop Latin and Greek altogether, it's too much of a bother really...

It won't prepare people for classics at uni. How can it? Sure, so it mirrors the kind of set-up at universities but they won't go into as much depth in anything. And to think, if I'd been a year younger I would be forced to go through this absolute bullshit. God, it's so STUPID. This entry could probably have been more structured but I'm too plain angry to argue elegantly.