{Truth in Cultures [continued (5)]}[29th October 1988]

[Redbook6:28-29][19881029:1905]{Truth in Cultures [continued (5)]}[29th October 1988]

19881029.1905

There is something slightly chilling, in hearing from the mouth of a Gaelic-primary-school girl on Skye the statement that she was proud to learn Gaelic because it took her ‘away from the English’.* Such statements, if spontaneous, must reflect parental or teacher influence, and help to explain why the planned revival of local languages which have been naturally declining, generally has a hidden political dimension.

What was not said on the programme, but I know,** is that Skye contains a large population from England, many of whom presumably have children; so that, not the language itself, but the attitude of mind which is taught with it, perpetuates and increases separation by the gentle means of teaching children contempt. On the children, naturally, but I suspect on their elders too, the irony would presumably be lost that their interviewer was Beatrice Campbell from the North of England: but of course I am forgetting that however much the [Scottish] Clansmen may have fought and killed each other, they always detested the Campbells.

*’The Divided Kingdom’ Channel S4C, [@].1830.

[S4C is the Welsh language channel]

**[having been there within the previous couple of years]

[continues]

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