There is just one student doing

Latin at year 12 level this year. I do not know how many students there are in lower years but it will not be many. Things have changed.
When I was in secondary school Latin was compulsory for potential law students and potential medical students were advised to do it as their arts subject. Rural schools (which we attended) did not teach languages, modern or classical, so most students were denied the opportunity to enter these professions. (One of Australia's leading paediatric heart surgeons, now in international demand, was a year above me at school. He had to spend an entire summer learning enough Latin to satisfy the entrance requirement into medicine - only his other outstandingly good results got him in.)
One of my nephews is now doing medicine. He has never been to a Latin lesson in his life. Another is doing law. He has never been to a Latin lesson in his life either.
My father, who did Latin and English at university, taught me some Latin outside school. He insisted on me working my way through "Giles and Pfitzner" - the South Australian equivalent of the classic "Kennedy" text. I remember some of it. It has, I have to confess, been useful at times.
The Whirlwind is learning Latin. I gather she rather likes it. I am not sure how much of the language they are actually learning. It is an "extension" class for brighter students. I think there are just seven of them in the class. She can tell me about classical Roman dress and food (they have made both) and she appears to know some vocabulary which is not related to soldiers and spears. She has been shown a little about how Latin changed and grew too
It would make a nice change. For me Latin was all about declensions, warfare and farmers. It did not seem in the least bit real. I could not imagine anyone actually spoke it!
My father was required to do one year of a science subject as part of his arts degree. He did geology. It was the only subject which would fit into his timetable. He did not like it and only managed a pass in a degree otherwise littered with credits and distinctions. Nevertheless he says it was wise to require one science subject.. (I mugged enough geology to pass the subject at Intermediate (sub-O) level - and hated it even more than he did. I can remember absolutely nothing of it.) Science students were not treated in quite the same way. There were special arts subjects set up for their benefit. Those who had not done any Latin could actually do a special Latin subject - just for scientists. Not any more.
Although I grumbled and protested about the extra work at the time I am now glad my father insisted on my learning some Latin. My nephews know it might have made student life a little easier at times. They would have known what "that Latin phrase" meant.
I gave my law student nephew a list of all the Latin phrases I had to know for my own degree -and told him how one of our law school exercises had been to trace a random case back to the beginnings of the case law used to decide it. I traced mine back to something written in 14thC Latin and so did one of the other older students. No, a judge would not have expected us to cite it but the tutor had challenged us to do it.
So I can smirk at my nephew when he grumbles about learning Latin phrases and say, "Illuc ivi illud feci" (or, roughly translated, "been there, done that") but I very much doubt an ancient Roman would understand me. I also doubt they would understand the lone Latin student. But I understand the world a little better because of Latin.