Open letter from Danish classicists against the decision to cut funding for the teaching of ancient Greek and Latin in secondary schools

The Danish government, in its recently revealed budget, wants to stop funding the teaching of Ancient Greek and Latin in the country's secondary schools, a decision that would have far-reaching and damaging consequences for Classics as a whole in the country. Danish classicists have written an open letter to the government opposing this move (the full text of which can be found below), and to add weight to it they are collecting signatures. To add yours, please send your name, title and professional/institutional affiliation to Dr Thomas Heine Nielsen at the University of Copenhagen: heine[at]hum.ku.dk. It it also possible to sign a separate petition (in Danish): https://www.skrivunder.net/behold_tilskuddet_til_grask_og_latin_a_i_gymnasiet

 The open letter :

 

Open letter to the Danish government and the Folketing

 

The national Budget for 2025 is accompanied by a note – an appendix, almost – which with a stroke of the pen reforms the gymnasium and abolishes a small special grant for schools that offer the two small, but important subjects Greek and Latin at advanced level. We agree with the head teachers of the schools concerned that the abolition of these special grants for Greek and Latin – 5-6 million DKK [roughly equivalent to £600,000] per year on a national level - will immediately lead to the subjects disappearing from the school curriculum, and on that basis we urge caution and call for this grant, which is after all an insignificant amount in the larger context of the national Budget,  to continue in support of the two important languages. On national radio, the Minister of Education has referred to this vital special grant as "indulgence" (!) of the subjects of Greek and Latin. We must object to this: the grant is not a pampering of the classical languages, but a protection of their existence.

 

Greek and Latin are the oldest subjects in the Danish gymnasium and have been taught there for over 250 years. Today, they form a small, but important part of the range of elective subjects, and the number of students choosing to take Greek and Latin is very stable. 10-15 schools across the country, also in remote areas, offer a “classical pathway” which includes ancient Greek, Classical Civilisation, and Latin at advanced level. This pathway is slightly more expensive than most others since the class sizes are never large. However, the students receive language teaching at a high theoretical level and acquire an in-depth knowledge of the ancient Greco-Roman culture, by studying the original texts of that culture. They learn to read slowly and in depth, a skillset which benefits them in their further studies, regardless of what degree they decide to pursue. Students from the classical pathway almost always do well in higher education, including in the natural sciences and medicine.

 

Losing the classical pathway through the gymnasium would also have negative consequences for the universities. The classical pathway is a strong recruitment base for the university disciplines of classical philology, classical archaeology, ancient history, history of philosophy, and theology: all of these disciplines are unlikely to survive if we lose the classical pathway. Denmark needs a viable classics community, like the one we actually have at the moment. No one can be unaware that the New Testament is written in Greek, and it would be Monty Pythonesque if a country with a Christian history of over 1,000 years cut itself off from access to the religion's foundational text - which is also culturally and historically crucially important whether or not one is a practising Christian. Also, many of the key texts in European literature, philosophy, and history are in Greek or Latin, and it would be infinitely sad if we lost our connection to Europe by scrapping these A-level subjects. It is also completely incomprehensible that the government proposes to cut off our European roots in a situation where it is more important than ever to defend Europe politically and culturally: classical antiquity is the prerequisite of modern Europe. Like Greek, Latin is extremely important, also for more narrowly national reasons. Well into the 19th century, Latin was a widespread language of writing in Denmark, and many of the sources for our history as a nation are in Latin, just as literary giants such as Saxo Grammaticus and Ludvig Holberg wrote in Latin. H.C. Ørsted wrote his dissertation in Latin!

 

So we risk losing ourselves if we scrap Greek and Latin in the gymnasium. This was done in Sweden and Norway, and the result is that the classical subjects have become narrow university subjects on a par with Tibetan and Sanskrit. A paltry profit of 5-6 million DKK is honestly not worth that: it can be a very expensive cut in the long term.

 

In many ways, the downsizing will also go against the spirit of the times. There is great interest in both ancient archaeology and Greco-Roman literature among the Danish population, and new translations of the great works are continuously published. Interest in ancient philosophy, especially Stoicism, is enormous, as demonstrated by the great popularity of Svend Brinkmann. And interest in the Roman Empire is increasing all the time, especially among young people.

 

In Kristeligt Dagblad [a national newspaper], the Minister of Education defends the note which would end the teaching of Greek and Latin in the gymnasium by saying that, as minister, he has to "ask myself whether the special arrangements that exist in the system still make sense." One can hardly disagree with that, and the gymnasium has indeed been reformed at regular intervals. But one may well disagree that it is a decision the minister should take alone and without public debate. Killing off important subjects in a memo like this is not dignified, to say the least. It is reminiscent of methods from countries with which we do not normally compare ourselves.

 

Let us keep the important subsidy for the teaching of Greek and Latin in the gymnasium: it will be the best thing for Denmark.

 

Respectfully,

 

Thomas Heine Nielsen

Lektor, Ph.d., Københavns Universitet

København N

 

Anna Cornelia Ploug

Phd i filosofi, postdoc ved NorS,

Københavns Universitet,

København

 

Chr. Gorm Tortzen

Lektor em., cand. mag. et art.

Fredensborg

 

Dr Lisa Irene Hau

Senior Lecturer in Classics

School of Humanities/Sgoil nan Daonnachdan

University of Glasgow

G12 8QQ

United Kingdom