ARGENTUM, AURUM, A+; STUDENTS WIN MEDALS IN LATIN TEST.

Byline: John Sanders Daily News Staff Writer

A ``dead'' language for hundreds of years - nobody learns Latin as their native tongue - the language of the Roman Empire and the medieval Catholic Church is enjoying a resurgence among American high schoolers.

And Highland High School's Latin scholars are proving they're as good as any of them.

A total of 34 Highland High students took the National Latin Exam, which was administered March 12 to more than 100,000 students from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands.

Among the 34 Highland students, four earned medals for their performance and six students received certificates for honorable mention.

Junior Edward Blancarte and sophomore Patrick Robins captured gold medals, while sophomores Anders Vidstrand and Christopher Bishop captured silver medals.

``I was pretty excited to get this award because I studied a lot for it,'' said Blancarte, who received a gold medal last year as well. ``I think they should make everyone take Latin, because it helps in a lot of different things.''

A requirement into the first part of this century for young men who wanted to go to college, Latin declined in favor of languages people actually speak - like Spanish, German and French - but is staging a comeback as the 20th century closes.

Highland High has offered Latin classes for five years. Antelope Valley High started three years ago, and Palmdale will offer a class next fall.

Learning Latin helps students who want to go into medicine, because so many anatomical terms are Latin in origin, and its study also boosts understanding of English grammar and vocabulary, proponents said.

``It (Latin) is being offered again partly because we want our kids to increase their verbal skills on the (Scholastic Assessment) Test,'' said Highland Latin teacher Ann Robins, who is also Patrick Robins' mother. ``It also spills over into all the other classes that they take.''

The Highland students' showing in the test mean that they can compete successfully against pupils in private schools, from which many of the Latin test-takers came.

``People have a huge advantage, to go to a private prep school like that,'' Robins said. ``But my students are learning enough to be able to compete with them; that's really good to know.''

Taken by the Highland students at their school, the test was broken into four different divisions: Intro to Latin, Latin 1, Latin 2, and Latin 3 and Latin 4 combined.

Students are asked to translate Latin words, pick the English phrase that best matches a Latin word or phrase, answer questions based on a Latin passage, and even define English words based on their knowledge of their Latin roots.

In order to earn a gold medal a student must miss three or fewer questions on the test, and to earn a silver medal the student can only miss four or five.

Blancarte, who missed only one question this year and scored a perfect paper last year, earned his medal in the Latin 3 division. The other medalists earned their medals in the Latin 1 division.

``I was really happy to get the award, because there are a lot of really good Latin students here at Highland,'' Patrick Robins said. ``It would be great to win again because Ed (Blancarte) won it twice and I want to see if I can do as good as he did.''

Juniors Travis Alvord, Carolyn Siy, Carlos Pinedo and sophomore Julie Murphy won Magna Cum Laude certificates for the Latin 2 division. Junior Rana Lashgari and sophomore Sofia Ganados won Cum Laude certificates for Latin 3 and Latin 1, respectively.

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PHOTO (Color) Latin language students, from left, Anders Vidstrand, Christopher Bishop, Patrick Robins and Edward Blancarte show off their medals.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News