Page:The Celtic Review volume 4.djvu/15

2 and therefore, in a severely practical spirit, they object to the fostering of a study which yields no apparent return. We venture to say, though to some the assertion may seem heroic, that the study of Gaelic if wisely conducted, may help, both directly and indirectly, the material advancement of young Highlanders, and, besides, that Gaelic is an effective instrument of a rich and many-sided literary culture, apart altogether from any question of pounds, shillings, and pence.

To begin on the lowest grounds, it may be admitted that English, through the energy and business enterprise of the British people, has become the leading commercial language of the world. Therefore it is most necessary to teach it, but to teach it effectively to Gaelic-speaking children it must be through the medium of their own tongue. This is the veriest truism, and it is strange that it is being recognised as such so slowly and grudgingly. It is a cruelty and injustice to Highland children to teach them English in parrot fashion without the use of Gaelic to make clear to their intelligence the meaning of the words they read. Three or four years after they leave school, if English is not spoken at home, all they learn is forgotten, and they are left to face the world with the merest smattering of education. The policy of ignoring Gaelic in schools long prevailed in Wales and also in the Highlands, but fortunately a better day is dawning in both countries. English prejudices have too long ruled in Scottish educational policy. It was stated by Macaulay that not so very long ago ‘the Highlander was to many a barbarian in whom no interest was felt, indeed he was the only barbarian as to whose history and literature the Sassenach was absolutely ignorant.’ This ignorance works deplorable results when children were practically taught, by the ignoring of Gaelic, that the tongue that enshrined their religion, their traditions, and their racial history was so utterly barbarous as to be unworthy even of the trouble of learning to read it.

But it is a degradation of a noble and venerable language like Gaelic to make the claim for its existence depend on its value as a handmaid of English. We must never treat our language as if it were a mere crutch for the lame, to be