The Wild West of Latin
by Abigayle Cheney
You may not have heard of Granby High School unless you ’ re an enthusiast of cross country , Future Problem Solvers , or footnotes . Granby High School hosts 1,600 students seeking their high school diploma , plus 200 students who are pursuing the International Baccalaureate Diploma . Out of the five public high schools in Norfolk , Granby High School has the largest and most diverse student population in the city , but it is also unique due to it being the only public high school in Norfolk offering Latin .
In room 126 of Granby High School during Bell 1 for the past 3 years you would find my Latin class . It is made up of 5 students , including myself , and we have been in the same Latin class together for 7 years .
As a class we have faced the looming threat of our Latin program being cut when the budget is limited and we have fought for textbooks that are not held together by decades of tape . But this class has changed my life because through my Latin class at Granby High School I was introduced to , a little thing you may know , the Virginia Junior Classical League .
As a southern VJCL delegate there are things to lament about ( eg . travel , costs , isolation ) but I have never regretted my choice to be active in the VJCL . Coming from a small Latin program , seeing JCL was a whole new world .
As a Latin student in Norfolk it has always felt , it still feels , as if my Latin studies could end at any moment due to not enough funding , lack of public interest , or my teacher retiring and a replacement not being found . But in the VJCL teachers and students were flourishing in Classical Studies .