9781837721801
Distributed for University of Wales Press
Welsh Not
Education and the Anglicisation of the Nineteenth-Century Wales
A radical reinterpretation of the effect of excluding Welsh from schools on the fortunes of the language.
Most people in Wales know that some children in the nineteenth century were victims of the Welsh Not, a wooden board hung around the necks of children who were heard speaking Welsh. Use of the Welsh Not was often followed by a physical punishment, and it is often named as a key reason for Welsh decline. Despite how well-known the Welsh Not is, this is the first study that interrogates where, when, and why it was used. This book is an account of the different ways children were punished for speaking Welsh in nineteenth-century elementary schools and the consequences of this for children, communities, and the linguistic future of Wales. It shows how the exclusion of Welsh hindered pupils from learning English, the very thing it was meant to achieve. Thus, gradually over the century, Welsh came to be used more and more in schools, making them a more effective mechanism in the Anglicization of Wales.
Most people in Wales know that some children in the nineteenth century were victims of the Welsh Not, a wooden board hung around the necks of children who were heard speaking Welsh. Use of the Welsh Not was often followed by a physical punishment, and it is often named as a key reason for Welsh decline. Despite how well-known the Welsh Not is, this is the first study that interrogates where, when, and why it was used. This book is an account of the different ways children were punished for speaking Welsh in nineteenth-century elementary schools and the consequences of this for children, communities, and the linguistic future of Wales. It shows how the exclusion of Welsh hindered pupils from learning English, the very thing it was meant to achieve. Thus, gradually over the century, Welsh came to be used more and more in schools, making them a more effective mechanism in the Anglicization of Wales.
360 pages | 8 halftones | 12.52 x 8.5 | © 2024
History: British and Irish History
Political Science: Political Behavior and Public Opinion
Sociology: Social History
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and notes on referencing
1.The Welsh Not in History and Memory
Remembering the Welsh Not
Historians and the Welsh Not
This book
2.The Age of the Welsh Not: Language and Punishment before 1862
The first schools and teachers
The Welsh Not, Note, Lump and Stick
A culture of punishment
The Welsh Not’s origins
The influence of training schools
3.Learning without Understanding: The Problems of Education before 1862
Learning without understanding
The practical challenges of teaching
Welsh in the classroom
Sunday schools and popular literacy
4.The Welsh Not’s Afterlife: Punishing Welsh Speaking after the 1862 Revised Code
The professionalisation of teaching
The Welsh Not after 1862
Punishments for speaking Welsh
Teaching: ‘A very hard occupation’
Caring power and Welshness
5.The Employment of Welsh in Schools after the 1862 Revised Code
Using Welsh in the classroom
Ongoing challenges and the evolution of the curriculum
The formal recognition of Welsh
6.Enemies of the Welsh Language? Her Majesty’s Inspectors and the British State
Promoting the use of Welsh: Longueville Jones and the Welsh paper
Other voices and the Reverend Shadrach Pryce
The inspectors at work
The influence of the inspectors
7.Victims and Rebels: Children and the Welsh Not
Remembering school and the Welsh Not
Fighting back: children’s agency
The failures and indignities of education
8.Parental and Community Attitudes towards Education and the Welsh Language
Parental attitudes to education
Parental agency and attitudes to punishment
Parents and the Welsh Not
School Boards and managers
9. Education and the Anglicisation of Wales
Language and communities
The decline of Welsh
The resilience of Wales
The influence of education on language choices
Britishness beyond English
Bibliography
Abbreviations and notes on referencing
1.The Welsh Not in History and Memory
Remembering the Welsh Not
Historians and the Welsh Not
This book
2.The Age of the Welsh Not: Language and Punishment before 1862
The first schools and teachers
The Welsh Not, Note, Lump and Stick
A culture of punishment
The Welsh Not’s origins
The influence of training schools
3.Learning without Understanding: The Problems of Education before 1862
Learning without understanding
The practical challenges of teaching
Welsh in the classroom
Sunday schools and popular literacy
4.The Welsh Not’s Afterlife: Punishing Welsh Speaking after the 1862 Revised Code
The professionalisation of teaching
The Welsh Not after 1862
Punishments for speaking Welsh
Teaching: ‘A very hard occupation’
Caring power and Welshness
5.The Employment of Welsh in Schools after the 1862 Revised Code
Using Welsh in the classroom
Ongoing challenges and the evolution of the curriculum
The formal recognition of Welsh
6.Enemies of the Welsh Language? Her Majesty’s Inspectors and the British State
Promoting the use of Welsh: Longueville Jones and the Welsh paper
Other voices and the Reverend Shadrach Pryce
The inspectors at work
The influence of the inspectors
7.Victims and Rebels: Children and the Welsh Not
Remembering school and the Welsh Not
Fighting back: children’s agency
The failures and indignities of education
8.Parental and Community Attitudes towards Education and the Welsh Language
Parental attitudes to education
Parental agency and attitudes to punishment
Parents and the Welsh Not
School Boards and managers
9. Education and the Anglicisation of Wales
Language and communities
The decline of Welsh
The resilience of Wales
The influence of education on language choices
Britishness beyond English
Bibliography