FROM THE ARCHIVES:Schools were required by the Fianna Fáil government in 1936 to teach all infants only through Irish, which was objected to by various bodies including the Church of Ireland synod and this editorial. –
JOE JOYCE
DISCUSSING THE Free State Government’s Irish policy yesterday, the General Synod of the Church of Ireland added its protest to the number of protests which have been made by public bodies in the Free State since the beginning of this year.
It took the form of a unanimous resolution, which will be forwarded to Mr. de Valera and to the Minister for Education, and which stated that the exclusive use of Irish in infant schools was harmful to education, and tended to stunt mental development rather then to foster it. We have little hope that the resolution will be given much weight by the Government.
Having embarked on the policy, it is pursuing it with a zeal which would be admirable if it did not seem to be so mistaken; and, having brushed aside the complaints of people who are more closely bound than the Synod to the Gaelic tradition, it is not likely to look upon the latest objectors with any more sympathy. [. . .]
If the whole subject could be treated on its merits and divorced from sentiment, the Government’s policy would not stand much examination. A country which speaks virtually only one language is to be converted to the use of another – the aim, indeed is not merely to make its inhabitants bilingual, but to secure a condition of affairs in which the present language shall be superseded almost entirely.
Such an aim would be very difficult to achieve even if the right means were taken, and the procedure in this country has been fantastic. Instead of concentrating on the few districts where the chosen language is spoken as a vernacular, and fostering its development there, the plan has been to convert the whole State to it in a few years by Act of Parliament.
The results have been impressive in one way. People who never heard a word of the language spoken began to study it with care when it was found to be an essential for Government employment, and, by making its use compulsory in the schools, the State has been able to claim with pride that the number of its speakers is growing every year.
The most that could be said in criticism of the general idea was that it was mistaken and expensive, but as regards the schools there is a further complaint. Surely there can be no two views about a policy which seeks to teach young children their lessons in a language that they do not understand?
The strain on the teachers must be heavy enough, but it can be nothing to the confusion of their small charges, who are being taught two unfamiliar subjects at the same time. Such a policy hinders the true course of education, and we should imagine that it defeats even its own ends; for there is not likely to be much enthusiasm outside school for a language taught under these absurd conditions.