Editing Neo-Latin (section)

====Latin in school education in the 1700s====
It became a widespread view in the 1700s that Latin and Ancient Greek lacked utility for all but a small minority.<ref>{{harvnb|Waquet|2001|pp=174–176}}</ref> The use of Latin in education began to come under serious attack, as the need for education widened, while the relevance of Latin had diminished. However, these changes met resistance.

In the American colonies, calls for more practical education began to grow in the 1750s. In Poland, attempts to roll back the place of Latin were made in 1774, to make it a subject and to give up spoken Latin, but hit resistance and were withdrawn in 1778, when Latin was restored as a spoken medium. Attempts to introduce Italian and reduce Latin teaching in [[Piedmont]] in the 1790s also met with problems, not least due to the divergence between the local dialect and standard Italian; the changes were withdrawn, and children continued to learn and read and write in Latin before other languages.<ref>{{harvnb|Waquet|2001|pp=24–5}}</ref>

In France, under the {{lang|fr|[[Ancien Regime]]}}, teaching remained largely focused on Latin until the [[French Revolution|Revolution]]. Although some moves were made to teach Latin grammar in French, and to learn to read and write in French first, these tended to be limited to urban centres and state-founded colleges such as those in Paris. Children learnt to read and write in Latin before French in most of the countryside until the 1790s. Use of spoken Latin in schools, however, reduced through the century, particularly from the 1750s. Gradually Latin in schools moved from a language taught for usage and production to written comprehension.<ref>{{harvnb|Waquet|2001|pp=9–11}}</ref>