Latin Coles Notes

Maureen Moloney was cleaning out her classroom (Graham See's old classroom) and found this Cole's Notes primer on Latin. It obviously belonged to the school because someone took the trouble to inscribe the school's name on it. The copyright on the book is 1959 but that doesn't mean anything because some of the prose in the book was originally copyrighted in 59 AD. My guess is that it belonged to a Latin teacher who had to teach it but was a little rusty. So far, the Coles Notes for pig Latin is still missing.

I took Latin in high school. Does the school even teach Latin now? It's been a dead language for thousands of years, and it isn't very handy to know Latin any more. Before, you would know the etymology of words, but now it doesn't help you with words like LOL. It was useful back in the day though. A daily reminder was "ablutionis retro articularis" -- wash behind our ears.

Here are some handy Latin phrases:

Semper ubi sub ubi ~ Always wear underwear.

Caesar adsum iam tuit. Cicero adarat. ~ Caesar had some jam to eat. Cicero had a rat.

And we all know: illegitimi non carborundum

Sister Marie Howorth

Sister Marie Howarth is pictured here watching student initiation. She taught me Latin and English. As for my opinion, she was a great teacher.

Latin was a breeze for me, because I was indoctrinated in Latin as an altar boy.

Sister Marie's partial biography reads like this:

I grew up in Toronto in a devout Catholic family with six children. I attended St. Joseph's School on Leslie St. My highlight was when I was in Grade 8, I was chosen to crown Our Lady in our school's outdoor procession. I have happy memories of my childhood as we did many things as a family. For example, my father always made a rink in our back yard, so the neighbours joined us for fun.



Then I attended St. Joseph's College School. In Grade 13, I was on Student Council. I was impressed by many of my teachers, who were Sisters of St. Joseph. After I went to Teachers’ College I taught grade 1 and 2 at the same school where my mother and grandmother had taught. Three generations!



In my second year of teaching, the principal, Sr. Eileen Mohan, asked me if I had ever thought of becoming a Sister. I replied that I had but I was not ready to do anything yet. I had two aunts who were Good Shepherd Sisters and we went frequently to visit them, since they were cloistered. I taught another year and then I felt God was calling me, so I entered the Sisters of St. Joseph.

The complete text can be found by clicking on this link:

http://www.csj-to.ca/Join_us/sr_marie_howorth_story.php