Frances L. Baird of the Wilmington (DE) Friends School not only encouraged me to learn Latin from 1958-63, she also encouraged my father along the same lines in 1924-8. She was rigorous but very kindly, and a devout Christian Scientist, which meant that when she broke her leg our senior year, we all received a major lesson in Stoicism. In the second year we had to learn a long list of irregular verbs, but if we were successful she gave us a hand-decorated diploma declaring us “Bachelors of Irregular Verbs.” In our junior year a student had become partially blind and was accompanied by a guide dog to class. At the end of the term she crafted another diploma for the German Shepherd, declaring him “Certified in Dog Latin.”
Submitted by Ward Briggs