Ann Arborite Jason McKnight

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His avocations include hunting and reading--"history, fantasy, fiction, whatever I can get my hands on. I'm currently reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series--and I'm not finished, so don't spoil it for me!" He aspires to be an author himself, and he emphasizes that knowing Latin has helped his own writing: "After I had my 'Latin breakthrough,' which occurred in Latin 231, I finally understood how to write," he emails. "I always tell my students that Latin is the reason I get As on papers."

The "dead language" seems very alive to McKnight. "Some of the greatest people in the history of mankind were Romans: Caesar, Cicero, and my favorite, Marcus Aurelius, a true philosopher king."

Nor is McKnight satisfied teaching just a fifth of his school's students. "I would love to see Latin required. I know it's a pipe dream, but Latin changed the course of my ship, and I'd like to see it afforded to as many people as possible."   

[Originally published in December, 2012.]