Writing out lines of Horace or Virgil under the dazzling Roman sun seems alien to our education two millenia later. For today’s education and its constant glare of screens, the itchy uniform - nowhere seems more distant than the Ancient World. 

But Classics, the study of the language, literature and history of the Ancient World, connects, resonates and allows us to further contemplate the modern world. Romer Attenborough, a languages teacher in a non-selective academy school in South West London, admitted that “in an ideal world, classical subjects would feature on the secondary school national curriculum”. 

However, the study of Classics in secondary education is in alarming decline. Today, only a quarter of UK state schools offer classical subjects. Mrs. Attenborough confirmed, “fewer and fewer schools are offering classical subjects; some in an attempt to streamline their curriculum”. This streamlining of the curriculum has rendered Classics an afterthought in secondary education. This decline resulted in AQA, a major UK exam board, withdrawing its Latin GCSE course in 2006, leaving only 10,000 GCSE Latin students each year in its wake. This makes OCR the only remaining major exam board to offer GCSE Latin. OCR’s more challenging GCSE Latin course has dissuaded many schools from continuing to teach the subject. Dr John Taylor, the author of the “Greek to GCSE” textbooks admitted to the BBC in 2004, that “unless there’s some solution [to this decline], it will deal [Classical Greek, and more generally Classics] a death blow”.

While a lack of Government funding and a low demand for Classics teachers has had a hand in this decline, a major factor is the student mindset. Specialising at 16 and focusing on career-targeted GCSEs and A-Levels offers itself to an emphasis on students’ futures. The Ancient World, buried in the dust of 2000 years of history, seems of no relevance and, crucially, no use to students in today’s future-orientated education. 

But Classics offers all manner of enrichment to students, such as linguistic analysis. Mrs. Attenborough who has taught Latin, Greek and French in the same school, identified that “drawing upon correlations between the languages enriches pupils’ learning.” Latin is the common ancestor for many Romance languages, including Spanish, Italian and French. By recognising similarities in grammar and vocabulary, students of Classical subjects will be able to enhance their learning in many Modern Foreign Languages. 

However, while many students recognise the use of Classics in complementing other areas of study, many overlook the connection it offers in its own right. 

Classics for All, an organisation aimed at supporting Classics education, commented that Classics helps build “cultural capital”; the ideas in classical literature can resonate with and enhance the understanding of modern, popular culture. These classical concepts have been consistently explored in literature, art and music and understanding their origins highlights how more modern artists have responded differently. This can further enrich the appreciation of the wider culture and society these artists lived in. 

This resonation offers connection far beyond the classroom, including in contemporary politics. The lack of prejudice with which students will grapple with the Ancient World results in their wider ability to analyse events and issues in modern society, such as political motivation, citizenship and the source of conflict. 

Classics has, as Mrs. Attenborough commented, previously been an “exclusive and exclusionary” subject; a subject reserved largely for private education and the upper classes of society. This exclusive education has concentrated the benefit of Classics in the upper classes. Consequently, Classics’s exclusion from state-funded education can reinforce social rigidity. 

However, Classics education in state funded schools can increase social mobility. As Mrs. Attenborough described, by “improving literacy [and] attainment [Classics] drives social mobility, [and] raises aspiration’. As a result, Classics “should be afforded [to allow students] the same opportunities.” Classical education in more schools will offer more students the enrichment it brings, allowing for further social mobility and the necessary lessening of social division. 

Despite the decline of Classics, there is a definite appetite for the subject. The repeated presentation of the Ancient World in popular culture has helped to create excitement for Classical subjects. Films such as Gladiator, Troy and The 300, as well as Rick Riordan’s books (such as Percy Jackson and the Trials of Apollo) have helped to develop this appetite, especially in younger generations. Classicists such as Mary Beard have also helped to refocus Classics under the eye of public attention, encouraging further enthusiasm. With education in these subjects, this excitement can begin to break down the stereotype that Classics has no place in education; and will bring forth a widened understanding of the Classics that will enrich our collective awareness of the modern world. 

In a society where decisions and divisions control many areas of life, few subjects are needed more than an understanding of the Classics.