An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Gaelic in the Highland schools

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earned by trained Gaelic-speaking teachers who
return to take up duty in the Highlands, over
and above what they receive in common with
English speaking teachers who have no Gaelic.
The Department is sympathetic and willing to
encourage Highland School Boards which adopt
sound and enlightened methods of education,
though it (perhaps wisely) declines to counten¬
ance the coercion of—the others. Conferences
such as this, and the discussions .pro and con
which they educe, are serving to clear the field
from prejudiced and obsolete notions. The
baffling obstacle of
Sheer Indifference is Dwindling Away.
The example of Wales is beginning to be under¬
stood and appreciated, though I hesitate to
dwell on it here. I was taken to task by a dis¬
tinguished Highland lady for having made
reference to it at the Feill. I cannot abide
this continual praise of Wales, Wales/’ she said,
“ as if Donald wasn’t as good as Taffy any day.”
I am the last man to admit—in public—the
inferiority of Donald; but I fear there was a
note of envy in her reference to Taffy. He has
at least realised that education, to be thoroughv
to be comprehensive, to be efficient from an
Imperial point of view, must become an object
of intense national interest—and that in a Celtic
country these ends are best attained when
popular education is bi-lingual from start to
finish. We need not imitate gallant little Wales;
let us at least emulate, and if possible excel her
in her zeal for her language and literature, not
as a means to English only, but as a means to
true and self-respecting manhood. A reir do
mheas ort fhein, measaidh each thu.