In a message dated 24/02/2003 20:58:36 GMT Standard Time, akpak(a)waitrose.com
writes:
I have read in several places that the
use of Welsh in schools was officially sanctioned from the 1870s. What I
was
wondering was whether local school managers might have introduced it
unofficially in the early 1860s, thus putting pressure on a non-Welsh
speaker to resign.
When one is looking at the sociology of the Welsh Language one of the
problems is that there has never been any rule or law that has either
prohibited or proscribed the use of Welsh, and until 1967 none that promoted
it either. Support or opposition to the language has always been down to
fads, fashions, movements and opinions which have varied in different parts
of Wales at different times.
One can find examples of Welsh being used as a medium of education in the
1850's and of pupils being punished for using Welsh as late as the 1940s.
It was not until the mid 1880's that the idea of using Welsh in education
became an idea that was taken seriously by educationalists and education
authorities, so claims that your ancestor was FORCED to resign in the early
60's because he couldn't speak Welsh are a bit doubtful. However ideas tend
to have a gestation period of much longer than 15 years before they are taken
seriously, so he may have seen which way the wind was blowing and decided to
jump before he was pushed (I would probably have been caned by him in the
1860's for mixing metaphors<g>).
There is very little in the history of the development of Welsh language
education that would help you pinpoint which school he taught at, or to help
you to understand the precise reasons for his returning to Yorkshire.
all the best
Alwyn