Jay writes:
>
>
>Perhaps in Wales today these issues are explicit for teachers and
>students,
>though I suspect a couple generations ago they would not have been. How
>explicit are they in the technical institute, among the teachers/judges
>of
>composition and the teachers of technical subjects, as well as the
>students? Why DON'T we more often and more fully reveal to students what
>we
>know about the political forces that they are subject to? Is it because
>we
>suspect their response will be to rebel against unjustified control of
>their choices? because we wish to save them the pain of rebellion? or
>save
>ourselves that pain?
In earlier postings I noted that the "struggle for langauge" as a
political struggle has a long history. << at the turn of the century there
was physical punishment in school if Welsh was used>>.
There is no doubt that in Wales the oppositional form of the protestant
church and their adherence to the Welsh language (in opposition to the
established Church of England (Episcopal)), and the networks whcih
revolved around chapels kept the language alive over the past two
centuries.
Secondly, language maintenance is seen as a collectivist struggle in
oposition to the idea (more prevelent in the US) of the individualist
right to do things their own way. Thus an idividual's right to use
language any way they like works against a colective will to maintain a
language aainst external forces acting against the language users as a
group.
There are distinct forces here. In the one hand in post emlightenment
France you have language replacing monarchy as the unifying force and
maintained by a centralist state. However elsewhere you have (typical in
minority language cultures in their autochthonous regions) issues of
opposition <<anti-imperialsism??>>, kinship and location.
Left to the freedom of the individual, the language will (I hypothsise)
morph into non-existence. In the case of both French standardisation of
the language was a cornerstone of "Frenchness" and imposed across the
state. In Wales, the "collective" aspiration was maintained by a standard
based on common belief and Bishop William Morgan's translation of the
Bible. Latterly modern standards systems apply (schooling, examination
boards, Welsh Academy).
There is therfore a tension between the language right of an individual to
morph language in whatever way they desire, and the right of a wider
community to expect a standard in language which ensures its reprodcution
in successive generations. By and large our current approach to schooling
is about that collective maintenance.
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