“I can’t imagine my life not doing this,” Jennifer Hoffman, Chapel Hill High School’s new Latin teacher, said.
Though new as a teacher to the school, Hoffman has been teaching Latin for 16 years, and she graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 1993.
Hoffman says that literature and poetry made her fall in love with Latin.
“It’s not that I enjoy reading a bunch of dead white dudes; it’s that they can speak to the same thing that everyone is feeling about love, about friendship, about inequality, about sadness–you know, just human nature,” she said.
Though Latin is often called a “dead language,” Hoffman feels that people in the community appreciate Latin instruction.
“Chapel Hill has always been very welcoming of Latin, because, I think, a lot of academics understand the value of Latin and how it affects so many other subject matters,” she said.
Hoffman said that she has enjoyed teaching at her alma mater, and she loves her classes.
“The construction here has been a bit much, but everyone here has been so nice,” she explained.
Hoffman is adamant that Latin is as important as spoken languages. She says that Latin helps with “literally everything,” especially other languages–whether Spanish or Swhaili.
Hoffman also explained that her classes incorporate elements of social studies and literature courses. Literature, which often handles complex topics, naturally leads to conversation.
“In Latin III, we’re talking right now about Rome’s history, the early Republic, where the plebeians, the lower classes, were fighting with the upper classes, so there was this huge wealth disparity and also an opportunity gap politically for the lower classes to have any say in the government. And so they were rebelling, they were seceding, which brings up a lot of fun discussions,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman advises the Latin club here at school, which she considers an opportunity “for the enjoyment of Latin and the promotion of Latin.”
Hoffman met her husband when she attended Chapel Hill High School, and both of her daughters are former students.
Hoffman credits her high school Latin teacher, Betsy Dawson, for instilling within her a love of the language. She continued to study Latin at Smith College, in Massachusetts, and stayed in touch with Dawson until her death.
After college, Hoffman came back to Chapel Hill to get her master’s degree in Latin and never moved away.
”Things just happen, and you‘re like, ‘Okay, I’m here now!’” she said.
Hoffman began teaching Latin at Phillips Middle School and then moved to East Chapel Hill High School, splitting her time between Phillips and East. Currently, she teaches at Chapel Hill in the afternoon and at East in the morning.
Hoffman said students considering Latin should take her class because it will be fun.
“The Romans are never boring,” she said.
Hoffman intends to teach Latin until she retires.
“I love waking up in the morning and teaching high school kids,” she said. “This is what I love to do.”
