Published: December 26, 2005 10:09 pm      

Foreign language teacher of the year works at WWHS

Joseph McBride has been teaching Latin to Woodrow Wilson High School students for nearly 32 years.

But had it not been for a last-minute decision, the West Virginia Foreign Language Teachers’ Association Outstanding Teacher of the Year might be teaching square roots instead.

“The only reason I took Latin in high school is because when I was enrolling for a class, I had one empty spot left on my schedule,” the 1968 graduate of Hinton High School said. “I looked around to see what all my friends were taking and they had Latin so I wrote it down, too.”

McBride, who received his surprise award in October at the West Virginia Foreign Language Teachers’ Association Conference in Morgantown, says he fell in love with Latin and instead of majoring in math or science when he went to Marshall University in the fall of 1968, chose a Latin and French combination.

After graduation, McBride substituted briefly in the St. Louis school district before returning to teach at Hinton High and then at Woodrow, where he has remained for 21 years.

Although he has taught French, German and Italian, McBride says Latin is his love.

“I love the literature, the stories and all the mythologies,” he said. “I just love the way the language fits together and the fact that it’s the basis for so many other languages.

“If you know it (Latin), it makes the other languages so much easier to learn.”

McBride says a basic understanding of Latin can even help students better understand English.

“Latin is not a conversational language,” he said. “In class, we learn vocabulary, root words and derivatives and we show how it’s related to other language. Hopefully, students get a good background in grammar and it should improve their English grammar as well. Often, you better understand what something means in English because of Latin.”

Latin, considered by many a “dying language,” goes up and down in popularity among students, McBride said. The veteran teacher attributes that in part to its reputation as a difficult language.

In fact, McBride, who went directly to third level Latin classes his freshman year at Marshall, said he struggled with the language for a short period of time as well.

“The lowest grade I ever got was in a Latin class,” he said. “I took two years of Latin in high school and then two years of French and went right in to third level Latin at Marshall. My sister was at Marshall also and knew the teacher and after midterm I told my sister I was going to change my major. She told my teacher and my teacher called me up and said, ‘Don’t you dare. It’s going to be hard but you stick with it.’”

McBride did stick with it and his brief struggle is directly related to one of his favorite Latin expressions — Cathego delenda est — Carthage must be destroyed.

According to McBride, a Roman senator ended his speeches with those words until finally, Carthage was destroyed.

For McBride, those words are inspiration to persevere and could serve as words of inspiration for students who are intimidated by the ancient language’s difficult reputation.

“The things that will keep you from being what you want to be,” he said, “those things must be put down so you can move on.”

— E-mail:

mjames@register-herald.com