"In loco parentis" or "loco"?

There has been an interesting exchange on Twitter between someone who correctly used the term "in loco parentis" and someone who thought that the same person meant that parents were "loco", mad or crazy.

I was asked to act "in loco parentis" for a young child and I was her alternative parent for more than ten years. Yes, I acted "in loco parentis" if her father was away and not immediately available to make a decision. Fortunately for me she was a well behaved child, too well behaved perhaps. She never asked or demanded to do anything that was outside the boundaries. I wonder if I would have been considered "loco" if she had asked and I had needed to make what she considered to be adverse decisions. 

But yesterday I wondered about the use of such Latin phrases. Should we do away with them? Is it time to ditch such terms from our "cultural literacy"? Do we also try and expunge all those sayings which have roots in authors like Donne, "Ask not for whom the bell tolls..." and Shakespeare, "To be or not to be..." or Austen, "It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do"? 

There does seem to be some sort of move away from these things in school. Latin is only taught at two schools in this state. Once it was a prerequisite for studying Medicine and Law.  It was no longer compulsory when I went to Law school and the staff had the unenviable task of having to explain where the Latin phrases which form part of legal language came from. Even with those explanations it seems that students were struggling. I was tutoring students in legal language, students whose second language was English. They often had more idea about Latin phrases than local students. We needed to understand those terms in order to understand what we were being asked to read. The law depends on what has gone before, on the meaning given to things in context and their relationship with each other, as much as it does on the legislation which is being applied. 

Could we just do away with all this? Would it just be easier to say "I have been appointed to act as a parent would while her father is away?" I don't really think it would. The meaning might be clear or it might not be clear. The term "in loco parentis" actually means more than that in law. It has roots which go back hundreds if years. I would not have made "life or death" decisions. Her father had to make that one and, had he been away at the time, the decision would have been made on his return. Schools are "in loco parentis" when the student is there but the primary role is still, or so we suppose, with the parent. The nature of the responsibility changes with the circumstances.

It has nothing to do with "loco". It is not the insult someone thought it was. Rather than do away with these things perhaps it is time to spend a short time teaching students about such things. It might be more useful than looking at that film poster.