Thursday, November 19, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Scottish Gaelic and Auld Country Scottish Attitudes
Well, Bruce
Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is pronounced “Gallic”; my grandfather who was born in the Scottish Highlands in 1886 often referred to his native language as Highland Scots (as opposed to Lallans or Lowland Scots). He said it was a dialect of Irish Gaelic (pronounced Gael-ic) and many people called Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) “ERSE “(Irish) when he was young but he never did.
He never considered “Erse” to be denigrating. Most Highlanders consider themselves to be Gaels and to have racial ties to Irish Gaels as well as the Cymric (Welsh/British people).
My grandfather often said “the Scots and the Irish are the same people except half of them don’t know it and the other half don’t want to know!.” He was referring to the attitude of so many who wanted to out English to the English and hide their Irish/Celtic roots. That was a very common attitude in the late Victorian or Edwardian period in Britain. My people by the way always considered themselves Islanders or Highlanders and referred to Ireland and Scotland as “the Isles”. Their homeland was their native place (Cioch Mhor) or the Gaidhealteachd (Highlands) and sometimes they spoke of “Alba” (the land of the mountains white) as Scotland. They also called it Scotia and Caledonia but those were poetic usages I think.
They rarely if ever, quite innocently, referred to themselves as “British” because to them British people were their WELSH cousins and they themselves were not Welsh. They never, it hardly needs to be said, spoke of themselves as English or Europeans. They were Highlanders, Islanders or Gaels. People who lived on the Continent or An Roinn Eorpa were the other though of course it seemed to me my grandfather was aware of his kinship to the Gauls of old. He often called his kilt the “Garb of Auld Gaul.”
The English (or Sassunachs) and the Europeans were the other. My Auld Pop referred to English women, for example, as “South o’ the Dyke Lassies” and routinely called English “Saxon.” As a joke he used to say anyone who married French women or Italians or Spanish were marrying lassies ‘very much to South o’ the Dyke’ but aye closer to Rome. As a boy most of the priests in my grandfather’s region were educated at the Scots College in Rome or the Scots College of Valladolid (Spain); some were Irish Franciscans. He had a very strong sense of belonging to Christendom and believing in the unity of Christendom in way many Calvinists did not. Of course, many people in my family intermarried with Irish people in Glasgow and I know there were a lot of Tallies (Scottish born Italians) in my grandfather’s parish in Govan. Glasgow has long been a very cosmopolitan town not unlike Brooklyn or London.
The Scots language was always called Beurla Albannach (Anglo-Scottish or Scots). “Gnath-bheurla na H-Eireann” was (Anglo-Irish). His language he always called ‘the Gallic” or “Highland Scots.”
Manx Gaelic (spelled in a phonetic English pattern) has been extinct, except in an artificially restored way, since the early 20th or late 19th century. It appears to be very close to the Scottish Gaelic of the Western Isles and Argyll.
Today I think it clear that Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic are two languages as separate as say Portuguese and Spanish but they are also very closely related. I have heard many Irish scholars say that Scottish Gaelic is (or was) a dialect of Irish Gaelic
The habit of calling Irish Gaelic “Irish” seems to be a modern one from the dates of the Free State. It is a simple fact that “Irish” and “Ireland” are not Irish words! Gaeilge is the Irish Gaelic word for Irish Gaelic.
As a final note my grandfather always called many city girls “paltry women”. “They wadna survive a Highland winter until Easter.”
He was of the opinion that healthy, strong and beautiful women were well-rounded and solidly built. To him the ideal woman was a woman with womanly, matronly look. I suppose our ideals of beauty have been shaped by the childless or nearly so Hollywood ideal. If we honored motherhood more we would not put the figures of childless teenagers as the ideal.
He had nothing but scorn for boyish bony gamin-like women. To him they were hardly women at all. Personally, I tend to agree with him.
Mise le meas (that’s me with respect)
Richard Keith Munro
****
READER COMMENT
Hebrew sadly is a special case- there were so many immigrants from
Europe and natives that Hebrew was the only way they cld talk to each
other(Yiddish did not include the middle eastern Jews). Irish was
being taught much earlier but it didn't take the same way because
people could speak English.
It's amazing how fast Hebrew became a mother tongue - but hard to
emulate.
On Nov 12, 2009, at 8:21 PM, "Richard K. Munro"
wrote:
> Dear Todd: I am delighted to know that Manx has be resurrected ; if
> it can
> be done with Hebrew it can be done with Manx. It is all a matter of
> making it the lingua franca of a family or community.
>
> I wish you all the luck in the world. I was vaguely aware that there
> were
> some movements to preserve the language or restore it. I know
> recordings
> were made of the last fluent native speakers.
>
> Manx music and Manx songs are very special as is Ellan Vanin
> herself. I
> have known a few Manxmen in my life including men who fought along
> side my
> grandfather's Regiment in the Struma Valley (they served in the 27th
> Division together). I visted the Menin Gate with one of the last
> veterans
> of the 27th Division and he was a Manxman.
>
> I have read some Manx songs and it seems very similar to Irish
> Gaelic or
> Scottish Gaelic but especially the "English phonetics" of the Book
> of the
> Dean of Lismore.
>
> Richard Munro
>
> _____
READER COMMENT >
>
Subject: Re: [CelticCafe] Gaelic Languages and South O' the Dyke
> Lassies
>
> Great post, Richard. I wanted to add an interesting note. At our
> festival we typically have several Irish Gaelic speakers, but in
> 2007 we
> had over a dozen. That year we also had a Manx band, who had a Manx
> speaker. The Irish, who all came from either Cork or Conamara, were
> very
> excited and spent lots of time conversing with the Manx speaker. They
> indicated that they could understand each other well, and figured that
> the actual languages were around 80% the same. Manx has a slew of
> Norse,
> Latin, and English borrow words in it, but in any given sentence the
> Irish knew what the Manx speaker was saying. They may miss a word or
> two, but the context was readily known. We also had two Welsh speakers
> that year, and all of the Celtic speakers jumped in a round table
> discussion about the languages that the public absolutely loved. Of
> course, the Welsh speakers and the Gaelic speakers couldn't
> communicate,
> but they were very aware that they shared a huge number of common
> words.
> In any case, the last fully fluent Manx speaker only died in the 70's.
> There were still several mostly fluent speakers alive then, and they
> have managed to pull the language from the edge of extinction to the
> point today where there are more than a hundred fluent speakers, with
> several native speakers (meaning children who learn it as a first
> language). A couple of thousand can speak it with some proficiency.
> They
> are a very interesting group and quite a lot of fun.
>
> Tod Ardoin
>
> >
MUNRO:
Of course, when I was referring to Hebrew I was referring to a best case scenario.
And Hebrew being a language of a great classic the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures and all the rabbinic commentaries has a special allure that Latin once had (and still does to a diminished degree). My father studied Latin at school and so could read Virgil in Latin but he had only a passing, corrupt , oral knowledge of Gaelic which was his father and grandfather’s native language.
But they were both –essentially- illiterate in Gaelic as they were not taught the language.
So it is curious that my father and grandfather both being Gaels could read and write in French, Latin and English but almost not at all in Gaelic.
When they went to school in Scotland (1890-1927) used Gaelic was discouraged if not prohibited. Those who grew p in the great cities because English dominant and Gaelic survived only as part of the oral and musical culture. I became interested in Gaelic and Scots poetry chiefly because of my interest in clan histories, slogans, songs piping and traditional music.
I cannot remember a time when I did not know Caisteal Folais Na Theine (Foulis Castle Ablaze ) and Biodh eagal Dhe oirre! (Reverence you to God or Dread God; the ancient clan Munro motto). My grandfather taught me to count in Gaelic (and Punjabi too) by lining up my toy solders. He also taught me elementary commands in both languages. In his stories he would often punctuate his stories with Punjabi (“marv e” he is dead changa dost (good comrade)….changa gori spahis (the good white soldier) ‘covering fire day-do” (give him covering fire) nan lao (bring bread; food); panee lao (bring water) chai lao (bring tea). I remember these off the top of my head but if I think about it I could remember more and naturally he knew so much more than I because they ate, drink and slept with Indian Regiments of the 27th Division and they had almost daily contact for five years. In another age I would have been an NCO in a Highland regiment or in the Indian Army.
In his day Scottish Highlanders were expected to be the interpreters and go betweens with the Dins (soldiers of the Indian Army) so he had some basic oral competence in Punjabi (which is an Indo-European Language closely related to Latin and Gaelic). They often went on scouting patrols with the Dins and never spoke a word of English. They and the Punjabis communicated in a Punjabi-Gaelic-English patois.
Educationally all the adults in my family were all English dominant, however though I think our bilingual background and respect for Latin and French as universal languages gave us a cosmopolitan interest in languages. My father never discouraged me from studying Gaelic as a hobby but there is no question he favored my studying Spanish, Portuguese and German formerly as he considered these to be culture languages with great utility. For that reason I never studied a single day in Scotland; my father considered Scotland to be part of our past. He was not against Gaelic in the sense of being hostile but he was convinced that “English was the language of the banks and the long-range guns.” In other words as the Romans won the war in Gaul so the English and English-speaking Lowlanders won their wars so Latin, French and Gaelic were (the old pre-Flodden languages of the court) were dethroned. ‘He believed that Lingua Francas were languages based upon high culture or empire; minority languages were doomed to be swept away or assimilated like Gaulish or Old British (a native language of the Scottish lowlands).
Many people date the decline of Gaelic to the Highland Clearances or Culloden but my father thought the decisive movement was Flodden (1513) when the last Gaelic-speaking King of Scotland (James IV) was killed. At that time most of the Scottish Roman Catholic aristocracy could speak French, Gaelic and read and write in Latin or French. A whole generation of Scots were wiped out in that battle and it may have changed the cultural history of Scotland as well.
Mary Queen of Scots, for example, could not speak English (she was a native speaker of French and could read and write Latin) but as far as I know she knew little or no Gaelic. When she spoke with her friends among the Highland Chiefs she probably spoke in French or Latin. This probably explains part of her alienation from her own people; it was more than just religion.
Gaelic is hurt by the fact that
1) it is not a true national language (unlike Welsh) ; it one is the ancient ancestral languages of the native Gael, Pict and Briton.
2) It’s hinterland of Gaelic speakers has diminished almost to the vanishing point; once less than 50% of a population speaks a language there is no language majority to immerse oneself in.
3) 80% of Gaelic speaking people intermarry with non Gaelic speakers and most do not live in Gaelic speaking communities. Some of their children will be Gaelic speakers but many if not most will not be.
4) Planned Parenthood has come to the Scottish Islands and Highlands; at one time a high birth rate helped offset the high immigration rate but this is not true any longer. I read that there are scarcely 2000 Gaelic speaking children living in households in which both parents are native Gaelic speakers. No language has a long future if it does not have demographic vitality. The desire for independence came too late for French Quebec and I think there is little chance that Scotland will ever vote to become an independent country especially as non Scottish ethnics emigrate to Scotland. They, like immigrants to French Canada, will have no interest in Scottish Gaelic culture or Scottish Independence.
5) The Gaels are very religiously divided embracing different sects of Christianity. I could be wrong but essentially I have observed there is a Roman Catholic minority in some places and Evangelical Christians in another. This division means that Gaels do no have a strong unified religious tradition to sustain them and unite them.
6) The decline in the Scottish Regiments and Territorial units is another factor. I have heard it said that the Army discouraged the use of Gaelic but on the other hand when my grandfather served in the Argylls it was the most Scottish institution he was ever associated with bar none. There is no question the Scottish Regiments kept piping and promoted a pride in Scottish national feeling In the First World War there were hundreds of volunteers from Nova Scotia in my grandfather’s Regiment (the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) who were native Gaelic speakers. English may have been the language of command but at the squad level they men spoke and sang as they pleased. There was an active piping culture and many companies –all recruited from the Highlands and Islands were predominately Gaelic-speaking. In fact the only education in Gaelic my grandfather ever received was while in the Army. What Gaelic he could read was from the Psalms and the New Testament which was the only Gaelic book he ever saw (or owned). But he really couldn’t read; he used it as a memory aid it seems to me. He really just memorized some psalms and some portions of the Bible. He could not write them out properly so he was for all intents and purposes illiterate. (though of course he could read and write English reasonably well for a person with only an elementary education; he went to sea at age 8.
At one time the Churches were a very important community and educational force for Gaelic if not the most important. I don’t think any one will disagree that Church attendance and participation has declined in Scotland though it Gaels in general have high attendance rates than the general population. One place Gaelic thrived was in the hymns and prayers of the people.
Also I believe the decline in church attendance tends to diminish the use of Gaelic and well as the decline (in young people) in the interest in traditional music.
The allure of English-speaking pop culture is very great. Youth only interested in movies , video games and computers tend to be English dominant.
On the plus side, Scottish Gaels are more literate than at anytime in modern history and Scottish Gaelic is popular
and fashionable in a way it hasn’t been in centuries.
Gaelic is available on the Internet and via mass media, This allows heritage speakers to support the language and retain or regain the use of the language.
But the decline of the Scottish birthrate to ZPG or even Negative Population Growth guarantees there will be a diminishing number of native speaking children.
So by the 22nd century Gaelic may go the way of Manx and exist only in folkloric tradition. I reverently hope this is not the case but I am being realistic. That worse case scenario is probably more likely than a Hebrew like resuscitation.
By the 22nd Century if present population trends continue not only Gaelic will be endangered but other European languages as well.
French and Italian, for example may become minority languages in their own hinterlands.
As incredible as that seems, it is a real possibility if one looks at birth rates, assimilation rates and immigration rates to Europe.
Demography is destiny. The hands that rock the cradles rule the word and it is their mother tongue that shall endure because tomorrow belongs to the big battalions.
A seal fein fuair an t-eineach HONOUR has had its own day,
Ag so an dile dheireadhach This is the final flood
A dhuid fa chre do chadal that shut your sleep under clay
Rug a re go Roghadal. That brought his life span to Rodel.
Mise le meas (that’s “me” with respect)
Richard K. Munro
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Gwen
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 8:22 PM
To: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com
Cc:
Subject: Re: [CelticCafe] Gaelic Languages and South O' the Dyke Lassies
Hebrew sadly is a special case- there were so many immigrants from
Europe and natives that Hebrew was the only way they cld talk to each
other(Yiddish did not include the middle eastern Jews). Irish was
being taught much earlier but it didn't take the same way because
people could speak English.
It's amazing how fast Hebrew became a mother tongue - but hard to
emulate.
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 12, 2009, at 8:21 PM, "Richard K. Munro"
wrote:
> Dear Todd: I am delighted to know that Manx has be resurrected ; if
> it can
> be done with Hebrew it can be done with Manx. It is all a matter of
> making it the lingua franca of a family or community.
>
> I wish you all the luck in the world. I was vaguely aware that there
> were
> some movements to preserve the language or restore it. I know
> recordings
> were made of the last fluent native speakers.
>
> Manx music and Manx songs are very special as is Ellan Vanin
> herself. I
> have known a few Manxmen in my life including men who fought along
> side my
> grandfather's Regiment in the Struma Valley (they served in the 27th
> Division together). I visted the Menin Gate with one of the last
> veterans
> of the 27th Division and he was a Manxman.
>
> I have read some Manx songs and it seems very similar to Irish
> Gaelic or
> Scottish Gaelic but especially the "English phonetics" of the Book
> of the
> Dean of Lismore.
>
> Richard Munro
>
> _____
>
> From: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com]
> On
> Behalf Of Tod Ardoin
> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 8:14 AM
> To: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [CelticCafe] Gaelic Languages and South O' the Dyke
> Lassies
>
> Great post, Richard. I wanted to add an interesting note. At our
> festival we typically have several Irish Gaelic speakers, but in
> 2007 we
> had over a dozen. That year we also had a Manx band, who had a Manx
> speaker. The Irish, who all came from either Cork or Conamara, were
> very
> excited and spent lots of time conversing with the Manx speaker. They
> indicated that they could understand each other well, and figured that
> the actual languages were around 80% the same. Manx has a slew of
> Norse,
> Latin, and English borrow words in it, but in any given sentence the
> Irish knew what the Manx speaker was saying. They may miss a word or
> two, but the context was readily known. We also had two Welsh speakers
> that year, and all of the Celtic speakers jumped in a round table
> discussion about the languages that the public absolutely loved. Of
> course, the Welsh speakers and the Gaelic speakers couldn't
> communicate,
> but they were very aware that they shared a huge number of common
> words.
> In any case, the last fully fluent Manx speaker only died in the 70's.
> There were still several mostly fluent speakers alive then, and they
> have managed to pull the language from the edge of extinction to the
> point today where there are more than a hundred fluent speakers, with
> several native speakers (meaning children who learn it as a first
> language). A couple of thousand can speak it with some proficiency.
> They
> are a very interesting group and quite a lot of fun.
>
> Tod Ardoin
>
> >Of course, when I was referring to Hebrew I was referring to a best case scenario.
And Hebrew being a language of a great classic the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures and all the rabbinic commentaries has a special allure that Latin once had (and still does to a diminished degree). My father studied Latin at school and so could read Virgil in Latin but he had only a passing, corrupt , oral knowledge of Gaelic which was his father and grandfather’s native language.
But they were both –essentially- illiterate in Gaelic as they were not taught the language.
So it is curious that my father and grandfather both being Gaels could read and write in French, Latin and English but almost not at all in Gaelic.
When they went to school in Scotland (1890-1927) used Gaelic was discouraged if not prohibited. Those who grew p in the great cities because English dominant and Gaelic survived only as part of the oral and musical culture. I became interested in Gaelic and Scots poetry chiefly because of my interest in clan histories, slogans, songs piping and traditional music.
I cannot remember a time when I did not know Caisteal Folais Na Theine (Foulis Castle Ablaze ) and Biodh eagal Dhe oirre! (Reverence you to God or Dread God; the ancient clan Munro motto). My grandfather taught me to count in Gaelic (and Punjabi too) by lining up my toy solders. He also taught me elementary commands in both languages. In his stories he would often punctuate his stories with Punjabi (“marv e” he is dead changa dost (good comrade)….changa gori spahis (the good white soldier) ‘covering fire day-do” (give him covering fire) nan lao (bring bread; food); panee lao (bring water) chai lao (bring tea). I remember these off the top of my head but if I think about it I could remember more and naturally he knew so much more than I because they ate, drink and slept with Indian Regiments of the 27th Division and they had almost daily contact for five years. In another age I would have been an NCO in a Highland regiment or in the Indian Army.
In his day Scottish Highlanders were expected to be the interpreters and go betweens with the Dins (soldiers of the Indian Army) so he had some basic oral competence in Punjabi (which is an Indo-European Language closely related to Latin and Gaelic). They often went on scouting patrols with the Dins and never spoke a word of English. They and the Punjabis communicated in a Punjabi-Gaelic-English patois.
Educationally all the adults in my family were all English dominant, however though I think our bilingual background and respect for Latin and French as universal languages gave us a cosmopolitan interest in languages. My father never discouraged me from studying Gaelic as a hobby but there is no question he favored my studying Spanish, Portuguese and German formerly as he considered these to be culture languages with great utility. For that reason I never studied a single day in Scotland; my father considered Scotland to be part of our past. He was not against Gaelic in the sense of being hostile but he was convinced that “English was the language of the banks and the long-range guns.” In other words as the Romans won the war in Gaul so the English and English-speaking Lowlanders won their wars so Latin, French and Gaelic were (the old pre-Flodden languages of the court) were dethroned. ‘He believed that Lingua Francas were languages based upon high culture or empire; minority languages were doomed to be swept away or assimilated like Gaulish or Old British (a native language of the Scottish lowlands).
Many people date the decline of Gaelic to the Highland Clearances or Culloden but my father thought the decisive movement was Flodden (1513) when the last Gaelic-speaking King of Scotland (James IV) was killed. At that time most of the Scottish Roman Catholic aristocracy could speak French, Gaelic and read and write in Latin or French. A whole generation of Scots were wiped out in that battle and it may have changed the cultural history of Scotland as well.
Mary Queen of Scots, for example, could not speak English (she was a native speaker of French and could read and write Latin) but as far as I know she knew little or no Gaelic. When she spoke with her friends among the Highland Chiefs she probably spoke in French or Latin. This probably explains part of her alienation from her own people; it was more than just religion.
Gaelic is hurt by the fact that
1) it is not a true national language (unlike Welsh) ; it one is the ancient ancestral languages of the native Gael, Pict and Briton.
2) It’s hinterland of Gaelic speakers has diminished almost to the vanishing point; once less than 50% of a population speaks a language there is no language majority to immerse oneself in.
3) 80% of Gaelic speaking people intermarry with non Gaelic speakers and most do not live in Gaelic speaking communities. Some of their children will be Gaelic speakers but many if not most will not be.
4) Planned Parenthood has come to the Scottish Islands and Highlands; at one time a high birth rate helped offset the high immigration rate but this is not true any longer. I read that there are scarcely 2000 Gaelic speaking children living in households in which both parents are native Gaelic speakers. No language has a long future if it does not have demographic vitality. The desire for independence came too late for French Quebec and I think there is little chance that Scotland will ever vote to become an independent country especially as non Scottish ethnics emigrate to Scotland. They, like immigrants to French Canada, will have no interest in Scottish Gaelic culture or Scottish Independence.
5) The Gaels are very religiously divided embracing different sects of Christianity. I could be wrong but essentially I have observed there is a Roman Catholic minority in some places and Evangelical Christians in another. This division means that Gaels do no have a strong unified religious tradition to sustain them and unite them.
6) The decline in the Scottish Regiments and Territorial units is another factor. I have heard it said that the Army discouraged the use of Gaelic but on the other hand when my grandfather served in the Argylls it was the most Scottish institution he was ever associated with bar none. There is no question the Scottish Regiments kept piping and promoted a pride in Scottish national feeling In the First World War there were hundreds of volunteers from Nova Scotia in my grandfather’s Regiment (the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) who were native Gaelic speakers. English may have been the language of command but at the squad level they men spoke and sang as they pleased. There was an active piping culture and many companies –all recruited from the Highlands and Islands were predominately Gaelic-speaking. In fact the only education in Gaelic my grandfather ever received was while in the Army. What Gaelic he could read was from the Psalms and the New Testament which was the only Gaelic book he ever saw (or owned). But he really couldn’t read; he used it as a memory aid it seems to me. He really just memorized some psalms and some portions of the Bible. He could not write them out properly so he was for all intents and purposes illiterate. (though of course he could read and write English reasonably well for a person with only an elementary education; he went to sea at age 8.
At one time the Churches were a very important community and educational force for Gaelic if not the most important. I don’t think any one will disagree that Church attendance and participation has declined in Scotland though it Gaels in general have high attendance rates than the general population. One place Gaelic thrived was in the hymns and prayers of the people.
Also I believe the decline in church attendance tends to diminish the use of Gaelic and well as the decline (in young people) in the interest in traditional music.
The allure of English-speaking pop culture is very great. Youth only interested in movies , video games and computers tend to be English dominant.
On the plus side, Scottish Gaels are more literate than at anytime in modern history and Scottish Gaelic is popular
and fashionable in a way it hasn’t been in centuries.
Gaelic is available on the Internet and via mass media, This allows heritage speakers to support the language and retain or regain the use of the language.
But the decline of the Scottish birthrate to ZPG or even Negative Population Growth guarantees there will be a diminishing number of native speaking children.
So by the 22nd century Gaelic may go the way of Manx and exist only in folkloric tradition. I reverently hope this is not the case but I am being realistic. That worse case scenario is probably more likely than a Hebrew like resuscitation.
By the 22nd Century if present population trends continue not only Gaelic will be endangered but other European languages as well.
French and Italian, for example may become minority languages in their own hinterlands.
As incredible as that seems, it is a real possibility if one looks at birth rates, assimilation rates and immigration rates to Europe.
Demography is destiny. The hands that rock the cradles rule the word and it is their mother tongue that shall endure because tomorrow belongs to the big battalions.
A seal fein fuair an t-eineach HONOUR has had its own day,
Ag so an dile dheireadhach This is the final flood
A dhuid fa chre do chadal that shut your sleep under clay
Rug a re go Roghadal. That brought his life span to Rodel.
Mise le meas (that’s “me” with respect)
Richard K. Munro
Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is pronounced “Gallic”; my grandfather who was born in the Scottish Highlands in 1886 often referred to his native language as Highland Scots (as opposed to Lallans or Lowland Scots). He said it was a dialect of Irish Gaelic (pronounced Gael-ic) and many people called Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) “ERSE “(Irish) when he was young but he never did.
He never considered “Erse” to be denigrating. Most Highlanders consider themselves to be Gaels and to have racial ties to Irish Gaels as well as the Cymric (Welsh/British people).
My grandfather often said “the Scots and the Irish are the same people except half of them don’t know it and the other half don’t want to know!.” He was referring to the attitude of so many who wanted to out English to the English and hide their Irish/Celtic roots. That was a very common attitude in the late Victorian or Edwardian period in Britain. My people by the way always considered themselves Islanders or Highlanders and referred to Ireland and Scotland as “the Isles”. Their homeland was their native place (Cioch Mhor) or the Gaidhealteachd (Highlands) and sometimes they spoke of “Alba” (the land of the mountains white) as Scotland. They also called it Scotia and Caledonia but those were poetic usages I think.
They rarely if ever, quite innocently, referred to themselves as “British” because to them British people were their WELSH cousins and they themselves were not Welsh. They never, it hardly needs to be said, spoke of themselves as English or Europeans. They were Highlanders, Islanders or Gaels. People who lived on the Continent or An Roinn Eorpa were the other though of course it seemed to me my grandfather was aware of his kinship to the Gauls of old. He often called his kilt the “Garb of Auld Gaul.”
The English (or Sassunachs) and the Europeans were the other. My Auld Pop referred to English women, for example, as “South o’ the Dyke Lassies” and routinely called English “Saxon.” As a joke he used to say anyone who married French women or Italians or Spanish were marrying lassies ‘very much to South o’ the Dyke’ but aye closer to Rome. As a boy most of the priests in my grandfather’s region were educated at the Scots College in Rome or the Scots College of Valladolid (Spain); some were Irish Franciscans. He had a very strong sense of belonging to Christendom and believing in the unity of Christendom in way many Calvinists did not. Of course, many people in my family intermarried with Irish people in Glasgow and I know there were a lot of Tallies (Scottish born Italians) in my grandfather’s parish in Govan. Glasgow has long been a very cosmopolitan town not unlike Brooklyn or London.
The Scots language was always called Beurla Albannach (Anglo-Scottish or Scots). “Gnath-bheurla na H-Eireann” was (Anglo-Irish). His language he always called ‘the Gallic” or “Highland Scots.”
Manx Gaelic (spelled in a phonetic English pattern) has been extinct, except in an artificially restored way, since the early 20th or late 19th century. It appears to be very close to the Scottish Gaelic of the Western Isles and Argyll.
Today I think it clear that Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic are two languages as separate as say Portuguese and Spanish but they are also very closely related. I have heard many Irish scholars say that Scottish Gaelic is (or was) a dialect of Irish Gaelic
The habit of calling Irish Gaelic “Irish” seems to be a modern one from the dates of the Free State. It is a simple fact that “Irish” and “Ireland” are not Irish words! Gaeilge is the Irish Gaelic word for Irish Gaelic.
As a final note my grandfather always called many city girls “paltry women”. “They wadna survive a Highland winter until Easter.”
He was of the opinion that healthy, strong and beautiful women were well-rounded and solidly built. To him the ideal woman was a woman with womanly, matronly look. I suppose our ideals of beauty have been shaped by the childless or nearly so Hollywood ideal. If we honored motherhood more we would not put the figures of childless teenagers as the ideal.
He had nothing but scorn for boyish bony gamin-like women. To him they were hardly women at all. Personally, I tend to agree with him.
Mise le meas (that’s me with respect)
Richard Keith Munro
****
READER COMMENT
Hebrew sadly is a special case- there were so many immigrants from
Europe and natives that Hebrew was the only way they cld talk to each
other(Yiddish did not include the middle eastern Jews). Irish was
being taught much earlier but it didn't take the same way because
people could speak English.
It's amazing how fast Hebrew became a mother tongue - but hard to
emulate.
On Nov 12, 2009, at 8:21 PM, "Richard K. Munro"
wrote:
> Dear Todd: I am delighted to know that Manx has be resurrected ; if
> it can
> be done with Hebrew it can be done with Manx. It is all a matter of
> making it the lingua franca of a family or community.
>
> I wish you all the luck in the world. I was vaguely aware that there
> were
> some movements to preserve the language or restore it. I know
> recordings
> were made of the last fluent native speakers.
>
> Manx music and Manx songs are very special as is Ellan Vanin
> herself. I
> have known a few Manxmen in my life including men who fought along
> side my
> grandfather's Regiment in the Struma Valley (they served in the 27th
> Division together). I visted the Menin Gate with one of the last
> veterans
> of the 27th Division and he was a Manxman.
>
> I have read some Manx songs and it seems very similar to Irish
> Gaelic or
> Scottish Gaelic but especially the "English phonetics" of the Book
> of the
> Dean of Lismore.
>
> Richard Munro
>
> _____
READER COMMENT >
>
Subject: Re: [CelticCafe] Gaelic Languages and South O' the Dyke
> Lassies
>
> Great post, Richard. I wanted to add an interesting note. At our
> festival we typically have several Irish Gaelic speakers, but in
> 2007 we
> had over a dozen. That year we also had a Manx band, who had a Manx
> speaker. The Irish, who all came from either Cork or Conamara, were
> very
> excited and spent lots of time conversing with the Manx speaker. They
> indicated that they could understand each other well, and figured that
> the actual languages were around 80% the same. Manx has a slew of
> Norse,
> Latin, and English borrow words in it, but in any given sentence the
> Irish knew what the Manx speaker was saying. They may miss a word or
> two, but the context was readily known. We also had two Welsh speakers
> that year, and all of the Celtic speakers jumped in a round table
> discussion about the languages that the public absolutely loved. Of
> course, the Welsh speakers and the Gaelic speakers couldn't
> communicate,
> but they were very aware that they shared a huge number of common
> words.
> In any case, the last fully fluent Manx speaker only died in the 70's.
> There were still several mostly fluent speakers alive then, and they
> have managed to pull the language from the edge of extinction to the
> point today where there are more than a hundred fluent speakers, with
> several native speakers (meaning children who learn it as a first
> language). A couple of thousand can speak it with some proficiency.
> They
> are a very interesting group and quite a lot of fun.
>
> Tod Ardoin
>
> >
MUNRO:
Of course, when I was referring to Hebrew I was referring to a best case scenario.
And Hebrew being a language of a great classic the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures and all the rabbinic commentaries has a special allure that Latin once had (and still does to a diminished degree). My father studied Latin at school and so could read Virgil in Latin but he had only a passing, corrupt , oral knowledge of Gaelic which was his father and grandfather’s native language.
But they were both –essentially- illiterate in Gaelic as they were not taught the language.
So it is curious that my father and grandfather both being Gaels could read and write in French, Latin and English but almost not at all in Gaelic.
When they went to school in Scotland (1890-1927) used Gaelic was discouraged if not prohibited. Those who grew p in the great cities because English dominant and Gaelic survived only as part of the oral and musical culture. I became interested in Gaelic and Scots poetry chiefly because of my interest in clan histories, slogans, songs piping and traditional music.
I cannot remember a time when I did not know Caisteal Folais Na Theine (Foulis Castle Ablaze ) and Biodh eagal Dhe oirre! (Reverence you to God or Dread God; the ancient clan Munro motto). My grandfather taught me to count in Gaelic (and Punjabi too) by lining up my toy solders. He also taught me elementary commands in both languages. In his stories he would often punctuate his stories with Punjabi (“marv e” he is dead changa dost (good comrade)….changa gori spahis (the good white soldier) ‘covering fire day-do” (give him covering fire) nan lao (bring bread; food); panee lao (bring water) chai lao (bring tea). I remember these off the top of my head but if I think about it I could remember more and naturally he knew so much more than I because they ate, drink and slept with Indian Regiments of the 27th Division and they had almost daily contact for five years. In another age I would have been an NCO in a Highland regiment or in the Indian Army.
In his day Scottish Highlanders were expected to be the interpreters and go betweens with the Dins (soldiers of the Indian Army) so he had some basic oral competence in Punjabi (which is an Indo-European Language closely related to Latin and Gaelic). They often went on scouting patrols with the Dins and never spoke a word of English. They and the Punjabis communicated in a Punjabi-Gaelic-English patois.
Educationally all the adults in my family were all English dominant, however though I think our bilingual background and respect for Latin and French as universal languages gave us a cosmopolitan interest in languages. My father never discouraged me from studying Gaelic as a hobby but there is no question he favored my studying Spanish, Portuguese and German formerly as he considered these to be culture languages with great utility. For that reason I never studied a single day in Scotland; my father considered Scotland to be part of our past. He was not against Gaelic in the sense of being hostile but he was convinced that “English was the language of the banks and the long-range guns.” In other words as the Romans won the war in Gaul so the English and English-speaking Lowlanders won their wars so Latin, French and Gaelic were (the old pre-Flodden languages of the court) were dethroned. ‘He believed that Lingua Francas were languages based upon high culture or empire; minority languages were doomed to be swept away or assimilated like Gaulish or Old British (a native language of the Scottish lowlands).
Many people date the decline of Gaelic to the Highland Clearances or Culloden but my father thought the decisive movement was Flodden (1513) when the last Gaelic-speaking King of Scotland (James IV) was killed. At that time most of the Scottish Roman Catholic aristocracy could speak French, Gaelic and read and write in Latin or French. A whole generation of Scots were wiped out in that battle and it may have changed the cultural history of Scotland as well.
Mary Queen of Scots, for example, could not speak English (she was a native speaker of French and could read and write Latin) but as far as I know she knew little or no Gaelic. When she spoke with her friends among the Highland Chiefs she probably spoke in French or Latin. This probably explains part of her alienation from her own people; it was more than just religion.
Gaelic is hurt by the fact that
1) it is not a true national language (unlike Welsh) ; it one is the ancient ancestral languages of the native Gael, Pict and Briton.
2) It’s hinterland of Gaelic speakers has diminished almost to the vanishing point; once less than 50% of a population speaks a language there is no language majority to immerse oneself in.
3) 80% of Gaelic speaking people intermarry with non Gaelic speakers and most do not live in Gaelic speaking communities. Some of their children will be Gaelic speakers but many if not most will not be.
4) Planned Parenthood has come to the Scottish Islands and Highlands; at one time a high birth rate helped offset the high immigration rate but this is not true any longer. I read that there are scarcely 2000 Gaelic speaking children living in households in which both parents are native Gaelic speakers. No language has a long future if it does not have demographic vitality. The desire for independence came too late for French Quebec and I think there is little chance that Scotland will ever vote to become an independent country especially as non Scottish ethnics emigrate to Scotland. They, like immigrants to French Canada, will have no interest in Scottish Gaelic culture or Scottish Independence.
5) The Gaels are very religiously divided embracing different sects of Christianity. I could be wrong but essentially I have observed there is a Roman Catholic minority in some places and Evangelical Christians in another. This division means that Gaels do no have a strong unified religious tradition to sustain them and unite them.
6) The decline in the Scottish Regiments and Territorial units is another factor. I have heard it said that the Army discouraged the use of Gaelic but on the other hand when my grandfather served in the Argylls it was the most Scottish institution he was ever associated with bar none. There is no question the Scottish Regiments kept piping and promoted a pride in Scottish national feeling In the First World War there were hundreds of volunteers from Nova Scotia in my grandfather’s Regiment (the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) who were native Gaelic speakers. English may have been the language of command but at the squad level they men spoke and sang as they pleased. There was an active piping culture and many companies –all recruited from the Highlands and Islands were predominately Gaelic-speaking. In fact the only education in Gaelic my grandfather ever received was while in the Army. What Gaelic he could read was from the Psalms and the New Testament which was the only Gaelic book he ever saw (or owned). But he really couldn’t read; he used it as a memory aid it seems to me. He really just memorized some psalms and some portions of the Bible. He could not write them out properly so he was for all intents and purposes illiterate. (though of course he could read and write English reasonably well for a person with only an elementary education; he went to sea at age 8.
At one time the Churches were a very important community and educational force for Gaelic if not the most important. I don’t think any one will disagree that Church attendance and participation has declined in Scotland though it Gaels in general have high attendance rates than the general population. One place Gaelic thrived was in the hymns and prayers of the people.
Also I believe the decline in church attendance tends to diminish the use of Gaelic and well as the decline (in young people) in the interest in traditional music.
The allure of English-speaking pop culture is very great. Youth only interested in movies , video games and computers tend to be English dominant.
On the plus side, Scottish Gaels are more literate than at anytime in modern history and Scottish Gaelic is popular
and fashionable in a way it hasn’t been in centuries.
Gaelic is available on the Internet and via mass media, This allows heritage speakers to support the language and retain or regain the use of the language.
But the decline of the Scottish birthrate to ZPG or even Negative Population Growth guarantees there will be a diminishing number of native speaking children.
So by the 22nd century Gaelic may go the way of Manx and exist only in folkloric tradition. I reverently hope this is not the case but I am being realistic. That worse case scenario is probably more likely than a Hebrew like resuscitation.
By the 22nd Century if present population trends continue not only Gaelic will be endangered but other European languages as well.
French and Italian, for example may become minority languages in their own hinterlands.
As incredible as that seems, it is a real possibility if one looks at birth rates, assimilation rates and immigration rates to Europe.
Demography is destiny. The hands that rock the cradles rule the word and it is their mother tongue that shall endure because tomorrow belongs to the big battalions.
A seal fein fuair an t-eineach HONOUR has had its own day,
Ag so an dile dheireadhach This is the final flood
A dhuid fa chre do chadal that shut your sleep under clay
Rug a re go Roghadal. That brought his life span to Rodel.
Mise le meas (that’s “me” with respect)
Richard K. Munro
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Gwen
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 8:22 PM
To: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com
Cc:
Subject: Re: [CelticCafe] Gaelic Languages and South O' the Dyke Lassies
Hebrew sadly is a special case- there were so many immigrants from
Europe and natives that Hebrew was the only way they cld talk to each
other(Yiddish did not include the middle eastern Jews). Irish was
being taught much earlier but it didn't take the same way because
people could speak English.
It's amazing how fast Hebrew became a mother tongue - but hard to
emulate.
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 12, 2009, at 8:21 PM, "Richard K. Munro"
wrote:
> Dear Todd: I am delighted to know that Manx has be resurrected ; if
> it can
> be done with Hebrew it can be done with Manx. It is all a matter of
> making it the lingua franca of a family or community.
>
> I wish you all the luck in the world. I was vaguely aware that there
> were
> some movements to preserve the language or restore it. I know
> recordings
> were made of the last fluent native speakers.
>
> Manx music and Manx songs are very special as is Ellan Vanin
> herself. I
> have known a few Manxmen in my life including men who fought along
> side my
> grandfather's Regiment in the Struma Valley (they served in the 27th
> Division together). I visted the Menin Gate with one of the last
> veterans
> of the 27th Division and he was a Manxman.
>
> I have read some Manx songs and it seems very similar to Irish
> Gaelic or
> Scottish Gaelic but especially the "English phonetics" of the Book
> of the
> Dean of Lismore.
>
> Richard Munro
>
> _____
>
> From: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com]
> On
> Behalf Of Tod Ardoin
> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 8:14 AM
> To: CelticCafe@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [CelticCafe] Gaelic Languages and South O' the Dyke
> Lassies
>
> Great post, Richard. I wanted to add an interesting note. At our
> festival we typically have several Irish Gaelic speakers, but in
> 2007 we
> had over a dozen. That year we also had a Manx band, who had a Manx
> speaker. The Irish, who all came from either Cork or Conamara, were
> very
> excited and spent lots of time conversing with the Manx speaker. They
> indicated that they could understand each other well, and figured that
> the actual languages were around 80% the same. Manx has a slew of
> Norse,
> Latin, and English borrow words in it, but in any given sentence the
> Irish knew what the Manx speaker was saying. They may miss a word or
> two, but the context was readily known. We also had two Welsh speakers
> that year, and all of the Celtic speakers jumped in a round table
> discussion about the languages that the public absolutely loved. Of
> course, the Welsh speakers and the Gaelic speakers couldn't
> communicate,
> but they were very aware that they shared a huge number of common
> words.
> In any case, the last fully fluent Manx speaker only died in the 70's.
> There were still several mostly fluent speakers alive then, and they
> have managed to pull the language from the edge of extinction to the
> point today where there are more than a hundred fluent speakers, with
> several native speakers (meaning children who learn it as a first
> language). A couple of thousand can speak it with some proficiency.
> They
> are a very interesting group and quite a lot of fun.
>
> Tod Ardoin
>
> >Of course, when I was referring to Hebrew I was referring to a best case scenario.
And Hebrew being a language of a great classic the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures and all the rabbinic commentaries has a special allure that Latin once had (and still does to a diminished degree). My father studied Latin at school and so could read Virgil in Latin but he had only a passing, corrupt , oral knowledge of Gaelic which was his father and grandfather’s native language.
But they were both –essentially- illiterate in Gaelic as they were not taught the language.
So it is curious that my father and grandfather both being Gaels could read and write in French, Latin and English but almost not at all in Gaelic.
When they went to school in Scotland (1890-1927) used Gaelic was discouraged if not prohibited. Those who grew p in the great cities because English dominant and Gaelic survived only as part of the oral and musical culture. I became interested in Gaelic and Scots poetry chiefly because of my interest in clan histories, slogans, songs piping and traditional music.
I cannot remember a time when I did not know Caisteal Folais Na Theine (Foulis Castle Ablaze ) and Biodh eagal Dhe oirre! (Reverence you to God or Dread God; the ancient clan Munro motto). My grandfather taught me to count in Gaelic (and Punjabi too) by lining up my toy solders. He also taught me elementary commands in both languages. In his stories he would often punctuate his stories with Punjabi (“marv e” he is dead changa dost (good comrade)….changa gori spahis (the good white soldier) ‘covering fire day-do” (give him covering fire) nan lao (bring bread; food); panee lao (bring water) chai lao (bring tea). I remember these off the top of my head but if I think about it I could remember more and naturally he knew so much more than I because they ate, drink and slept with Indian Regiments of the 27th Division and they had almost daily contact for five years. In another age I would have been an NCO in a Highland regiment or in the Indian Army.
In his day Scottish Highlanders were expected to be the interpreters and go betweens with the Dins (soldiers of the Indian Army) so he had some basic oral competence in Punjabi (which is an Indo-European Language closely related to Latin and Gaelic). They often went on scouting patrols with the Dins and never spoke a word of English. They and the Punjabis communicated in a Punjabi-Gaelic-English patois.
Educationally all the adults in my family were all English dominant, however though I think our bilingual background and respect for Latin and French as universal languages gave us a cosmopolitan interest in languages. My father never discouraged me from studying Gaelic as a hobby but there is no question he favored my studying Spanish, Portuguese and German formerly as he considered these to be culture languages with great utility. For that reason I never studied a single day in Scotland; my father considered Scotland to be part of our past. He was not against Gaelic in the sense of being hostile but he was convinced that “English was the language of the banks and the long-range guns.” In other words as the Romans won the war in Gaul so the English and English-speaking Lowlanders won their wars so Latin, French and Gaelic were (the old pre-Flodden languages of the court) were dethroned. ‘He believed that Lingua Francas were languages based upon high culture or empire; minority languages were doomed to be swept away or assimilated like Gaulish or Old British (a native language of the Scottish lowlands).
Many people date the decline of Gaelic to the Highland Clearances or Culloden but my father thought the decisive movement was Flodden (1513) when the last Gaelic-speaking King of Scotland (James IV) was killed. At that time most of the Scottish Roman Catholic aristocracy could speak French, Gaelic and read and write in Latin or French. A whole generation of Scots were wiped out in that battle and it may have changed the cultural history of Scotland as well.
Mary Queen of Scots, for example, could not speak English (she was a native speaker of French and could read and write Latin) but as far as I know she knew little or no Gaelic. When she spoke with her friends among the Highland Chiefs she probably spoke in French or Latin. This probably explains part of her alienation from her own people; it was more than just religion.
Gaelic is hurt by the fact that
1) it is not a true national language (unlike Welsh) ; it one is the ancient ancestral languages of the native Gael, Pict and Briton.
2) It’s hinterland of Gaelic speakers has diminished almost to the vanishing point; once less than 50% of a population speaks a language there is no language majority to immerse oneself in.
3) 80% of Gaelic speaking people intermarry with non Gaelic speakers and most do not live in Gaelic speaking communities. Some of their children will be Gaelic speakers but many if not most will not be.
4) Planned Parenthood has come to the Scottish Islands and Highlands; at one time a high birth rate helped offset the high immigration rate but this is not true any longer. I read that there are scarcely 2000 Gaelic speaking children living in households in which both parents are native Gaelic speakers. No language has a long future if it does not have demographic vitality. The desire for independence came too late for French Quebec and I think there is little chance that Scotland will ever vote to become an independent country especially as non Scottish ethnics emigrate to Scotland. They, like immigrants to French Canada, will have no interest in Scottish Gaelic culture or Scottish Independence.
5) The Gaels are very religiously divided embracing different sects of Christianity. I could be wrong but essentially I have observed there is a Roman Catholic minority in some places and Evangelical Christians in another. This division means that Gaels do no have a strong unified religious tradition to sustain them and unite them.
6) The decline in the Scottish Regiments and Territorial units is another factor. I have heard it said that the Army discouraged the use of Gaelic but on the other hand when my grandfather served in the Argylls it was the most Scottish institution he was ever associated with bar none. There is no question the Scottish Regiments kept piping and promoted a pride in Scottish national feeling In the First World War there were hundreds of volunteers from Nova Scotia in my grandfather’s Regiment (the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) who were native Gaelic speakers. English may have been the language of command but at the squad level they men spoke and sang as they pleased. There was an active piping culture and many companies –all recruited from the Highlands and Islands were predominately Gaelic-speaking. In fact the only education in Gaelic my grandfather ever received was while in the Army. What Gaelic he could read was from the Psalms and the New Testament which was the only Gaelic book he ever saw (or owned). But he really couldn’t read; he used it as a memory aid it seems to me. He really just memorized some psalms and some portions of the Bible. He could not write them out properly so he was for all intents and purposes illiterate. (though of course he could read and write English reasonably well for a person with only an elementary education; he went to sea at age 8.
At one time the Churches were a very important community and educational force for Gaelic if not the most important. I don’t think any one will disagree that Church attendance and participation has declined in Scotland though it Gaels in general have high attendance rates than the general population. One place Gaelic thrived was in the hymns and prayers of the people.
Also I believe the decline in church attendance tends to diminish the use of Gaelic and well as the decline (in young people) in the interest in traditional music.
The allure of English-speaking pop culture is very great. Youth only interested in movies , video games and computers tend to be English dominant.
On the plus side, Scottish Gaels are more literate than at anytime in modern history and Scottish Gaelic is popular
and fashionable in a way it hasn’t been in centuries.
Gaelic is available on the Internet and via mass media, This allows heritage speakers to support the language and retain or regain the use of the language.
But the decline of the Scottish birthrate to ZPG or even Negative Population Growth guarantees there will be a diminishing number of native speaking children.
So by the 22nd century Gaelic may go the way of Manx and exist only in folkloric tradition. I reverently hope this is not the case but I am being realistic. That worse case scenario is probably more likely than a Hebrew like resuscitation.
By the 22nd Century if present population trends continue not only Gaelic will be endangered but other European languages as well.
French and Italian, for example may become minority languages in their own hinterlands.
As incredible as that seems, it is a real possibility if one looks at birth rates, assimilation rates and immigration rates to Europe.
Demography is destiny. The hands that rock the cradles rule the word and it is their mother tongue that shall endure because tomorrow belongs to the big battalions.
A seal fein fuair an t-eineach HONOUR has had its own day,
Ag so an dile dheireadhach This is the final flood
A dhuid fa chre do chadal that shut your sleep under clay
Rug a re go Roghadal. That brought his life span to Rodel.
Mise le meas (that’s “me” with respect)
Richard K. Munro
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Technology per se is not the answer to Education Reform.
Technology can do wonders. I think our use of Safari (libraries of videos, long and short often with subtitles in English and Spanish), Smartboards and speakers have been a big improvement. We can make instant copies of articles we research on line. We have access to spell-check and online dictionaries , quotations and encyclopedias. For our English learners every story and article is available on CD; a summary of each story is available in twenty languages including Arabic, Chinese , Russian and Japanese. Computer labs make writing and editing essays easier.
But cheating is a big problem. Excessive reliance on multiple choice instruments when there are 40 and 50 students in a classroom designed for 30 or 35 is a problem. Computers and technology can help for review but by themselves they do not teach grammar, literary devices and good style. I recall Bill Gates boasting he got an A in a mythology class he never attended by studying the Cliffnotes. Well, perhaps he got an A on a superficial multiple choice test but he missed the point of gaining an introduction to Greek and Roman literature.
One cannot dismiss the utilitarian argument because one must be practical. One must pay the bills, “keep the wolf from the door” and be prepared to compete in today’s society. However, a liberal or humane education, at its best in the most practical and adaptive education a man can get. Why? For one reason a classical liberal education based on a well-rounded education of mathematics, history, literature, music and languages is a very hard and challenging curriculum. Second a good general education is important because we don’t know what challenges and questions we may face in our lives. The mere training of today may soon be obsolete. A third reason is as Cicero famously said, is that literature (the liberal arts) “hinders not.” They are, indeed a great ornament and a great comfort. They are, in my opinion, the key to a happy and satisfying life. There is no royal road to geometry, algebra, or fluency in French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Russian, English or Italian. And he who writes a living line must sweat.
A student asked Miguel de Unamuno what he should do to obtain wisdom.
Unamuno who excelled in every genre and who was fluent in many languages answered with only one word repeated three times: LEER! LEER! LEER!. Then he walked away. Regardless of the technology those who do not read and think will remain as children. A people lacking understanding will come to ruin. An individual who does not inform him or herself will simply be unable to make wise and informed decisions.
I believe there can be no short cut to Core Knowledge or Cultural Literacy.
Technology can help in so many ways but really, to me, in the subjects I teach, technology is only something to help, to make presentations more efficient, to print out thumbnails of class notes, to provide sound effects and memorable images in color. Technology helps give us tools to analyze some standardized test results and so have quicker feedback and be able to share records more easily. But in the final analysis we in the public schools must create citizens imbued with civic virtue, with a community spirit, with an appreciation for our splendid ancient heritage of freedom. And that includes freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the private domain, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and freedom to educate one’s self and one’s own child or children.
And there is no question that students need to learn not only of individual freedoms but also individual responsibility. There is no question that students should learn not only of what is good for themselves but what is right for others and the common good. Those who are strong should learn with humility that they will be strong only for a while. Those who are rich should learn that materialism is not enough and that boundless prosperity may slip away from us. Those who are strong should not hate the weak or the orphans or empire who lack the documents of the rich but instead remember the warning to be merciful to the stranger and the alien for “you too were once a slave in the land of Egypt.”
Scientists, technicians, bureaucrats, lawyers wrap themselves in a suffocating blanket misguidedly thinking they can solve all ills by planning and calculation when they have cut themselves off from their humanity and real understanding. Haim Ginott in his wonderful book TEACHER AND CHILD reminded us that “learned engineers” built gas chambers, “educated physicians” and “trained nurses” murdered infants and innocents not by the thousands but by the millions. He warned his fellow teachers that their efforts should never produce “learned monsters, skilled psychopaths” and “educated Eichmans.”
A well-rounded liberal or humane education teaches us how to think. I am a very strong advocate of a liberal culture because it is essential for the good life and as the basis ofa free society and for the preservation of what the Gael would call “ar dualchas airidh;our splendid ancient heritage. President Kennedy made reference to this is his famous inaugural of January 20, 1961 when he said he was proud of his “ancient heritage.” Dr. Morbius (remember FORBIDDEN PLANET?) sought all knowledge but he forgot the danger of unlimited power without restraint and without moderation and without care for others. In the end he and all he created was destroyed by Id Monsters. Technology is only as good or bad as how we apply it and how we use it. It can be used for the good of mankind or for unlimited evil or destruction. So whatever we do for our children and our schools and whatever technology we use we should take care that our schools are not murder machines of civility and humanity.
But cheating is a big problem. Excessive reliance on multiple choice instruments when there are 40 and 50 students in a classroom designed for 30 or 35 is a problem. Computers and technology can help for review but by themselves they do not teach grammar, literary devices and good style. I recall Bill Gates boasting he got an A in a mythology class he never attended by studying the Cliffnotes. Well, perhaps he got an A on a superficial multiple choice test but he missed the point of gaining an introduction to Greek and Roman literature.
One cannot dismiss the utilitarian argument because one must be practical. One must pay the bills, “keep the wolf from the door” and be prepared to compete in today’s society. However, a liberal or humane education, at its best in the most practical and adaptive education a man can get. Why? For one reason a classical liberal education based on a well-rounded education of mathematics, history, literature, music and languages is a very hard and challenging curriculum. Second a good general education is important because we don’t know what challenges and questions we may face in our lives. The mere training of today may soon be obsolete. A third reason is as Cicero famously said, is that literature (the liberal arts) “hinders not.” They are, indeed a great ornament and a great comfort. They are, in my opinion, the key to a happy and satisfying life. There is no royal road to geometry, algebra, or fluency in French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Russian, English or Italian. And he who writes a living line must sweat.
A student asked Miguel de Unamuno what he should do to obtain wisdom.
Unamuno who excelled in every genre and who was fluent in many languages answered with only one word repeated three times: LEER! LEER! LEER!. Then he walked away. Regardless of the technology those who do not read and think will remain as children. A people lacking understanding will come to ruin. An individual who does not inform him or herself will simply be unable to make wise and informed decisions.
I believe there can be no short cut to Core Knowledge or Cultural Literacy.
Technology can help in so many ways but really, to me, in the subjects I teach, technology is only something to help, to make presentations more efficient, to print out thumbnails of class notes, to provide sound effects and memorable images in color. Technology helps give us tools to analyze some standardized test results and so have quicker feedback and be able to share records more easily. But in the final analysis we in the public schools must create citizens imbued with civic virtue, with a community spirit, with an appreciation for our splendid ancient heritage of freedom. And that includes freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the private domain, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and freedom to educate one’s self and one’s own child or children.
And there is no question that students need to learn not only of individual freedoms but also individual responsibility. There is no question that students should learn not only of what is good for themselves but what is right for others and the common good. Those who are strong should learn with humility that they will be strong only for a while. Those who are rich should learn that materialism is not enough and that boundless prosperity may slip away from us. Those who are strong should not hate the weak or the orphans or empire who lack the documents of the rich but instead remember the warning to be merciful to the stranger and the alien for “you too were once a slave in the land of Egypt.”
Scientists, technicians, bureaucrats, lawyers wrap themselves in a suffocating blanket misguidedly thinking they can solve all ills by planning and calculation when they have cut themselves off from their humanity and real understanding. Haim Ginott in his wonderful book TEACHER AND CHILD reminded us that “learned engineers” built gas chambers, “educated physicians” and “trained nurses” murdered infants and innocents not by the thousands but by the millions. He warned his fellow teachers that their efforts should never produce “learned monsters, skilled psychopaths” and “educated Eichmans.”
A well-rounded liberal or humane education teaches us how to think. I am a very strong advocate of a liberal culture because it is essential for the good life and as the basis ofa free society and for the preservation of what the Gael would call “ar dualchas airidh;our splendid ancient heritage. President Kennedy made reference to this is his famous inaugural of January 20, 1961 when he said he was proud of his “ancient heritage.” Dr. Morbius (remember FORBIDDEN PLANET?) sought all knowledge but he forgot the danger of unlimited power without restraint and without moderation and without care for others. In the end he and all he created was destroyed by Id Monsters. Technology is only as good or bad as how we apply it and how we use it. It can be used for the good of mankind or for unlimited evil or destruction. So whatever we do for our children and our schools and whatever technology we use we should take care that our schools are not murder machines of civility and humanity.
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