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THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
WILLIAM JOLLY, H.M.I.S., ON TEACHING GAELIC IN SCHOOLS.
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IN his official report to the Education Department, Mr Jolly writes as
follows :
Gaelic has gained large attention of late, and is a subject of great importance, in-
volving as it does the question of the right use in schools of the daily language of 300,000
of our people. Having given it some study, I would briefly state the conclusions at
which I have arrived regarding it :
1. In Highland schools, we ought to read English first, as the language of trade,
comm'eree, current literature, and general intercourse, necessary for success in life, and
desired universally by Highlanders themselves. There are some theoretic grounds for
learning to read the native tongue before a foreign one, but the question in this case is
one of what is most expedient, and in the end most successful, in regard to both languages,
in the short school-life of Highland children ; and the idea of reading Gaelic
first is 'only entertained by a few enthusiasts. English being foreign and more difficult,
it could not be acquired to any purpose if one or two years of the five or six of school
life were first devoted to another language. If school time is short enough for Englishspeaking
children, with all their advantages, to gain even a meagre power over it, why
allow less time to a Gaelic child to learn it, to whom it is a foreign tongue ? But by
beginning with English, Gaelic may be read with ease in a short time, when a child is
able to read English, for he has merely to apply the power of reading which he has
acquired to the language he knows and uses. So that the end of the enthusiasts would
itself be gained by the more rational method, while increased power over English would
also be obtained.
2. Gaelic should be used orally in the teaching of English from the first, in order to
get at and train the intelligence of Gaelic children, and to make the teaching of English
more thorough. Of the wisdom of this course in all possible cases, there cannot be one
moment's doubt, for it is an application of the universal educational axiom of teaching
the unknown through and by the known, and it is especially necessary in the present
case. This should be done, not only in regard to words, but in regard to the matter of
the lessons. In the case of infant-school lessons to purely Gaelic speaking children,
Gaelic would require to be used exclusively at first, if the work is to be in any way
intelligent. But in all cases care should be taken to use English more and more, so as to
give the children increasing power over it, the amount of English used being, of course,
determined by the extent of their knowledge of it. There is a tendency with many
Highland teachers to use Gaelic too much, on account, no doubt, of the greater ease and
pleasure of using it. This retards progress, however, and should be guarded against.
Even those who wish Gaelic "stamped out" (and there are not a few Highlanders who
have strong views on this point), could best effect their object by a judicious cultivation
of Gaelic in teaching English, so as to train the intelligence through it because the
;
more English is intelligently understood and used by Gaelic children, the sooner will it
become the general speech of the people, and the sooner, therefore, will Gaelic die. So
that both the friends and enemies of Gaelic have an interest in using it for training
intelligence.
3. The importance of Gaelic literature as an instrument of education and culture to
the Gaelic people should be recognised in the teaching of Gaelic children. It is in and
by the mother tongue of a people alone, with its thousand memories ef home and youth,
play and friendship, nature and religion, and with its countless avenues to the deeper
feelings, that the education of the heart and the higher nature can be truly carried on ;
it is by it alone that sentiment, feeling, devotion, and even the higher intellect can be
really trained. And the mother tongue becomes a stronger instrument of culture when
it contains a good and generous literature. Our school education should look beyond
the little time spent within school walls to the after education of the man, and give him
the power of pursuing this, by the use of the literature that appeals to and is best able
to penetrate and mould his nature and touch its deeper springs. No foreign literature,
however splendid, can do this. It must be done through the language of home, youth,
love, and daily lite, if there is a literature in that tongue. And such a literature exists
in Gaelic, able to perform this higher function to the Highlander, abundant, varied, aad
powerful, full of fine sentiment, pleasant humour, lyrical beauty, deep feeling, practical
wisduni, and natural life.
In a closing paragraph, Mr Jolly says that this question in no way touches
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