Welsh Not
The Welsh Not or Welsh Note or Welsh stick was a punishment used in some schools in Wales in the late 19th and early 20th century to dissuade children from speaking Welsh. It was represented as a piece of wood, inscribed with the letters "WN", that was hung around the necks of children who spoke Welsh during the school day.
The "not" was given to any child overheard speaking Welsh, who could pass it to a different child if they were overheard speaking Welsh. By the end of the day, the wearer of the "not" would be given a lashing. The purpose of the "not" was to discourage pupils from speaking Welsh, at a time when English was considered by some to be the only suitable medium of instruction. Headmasters were required to seek the approval of parents before implementing a "Welsh not" policy.[1]
History
The use of the "not" was recorded in the 18th century; it was also commonly known as the 'cwstom', the 'Welsh stick' and the 'Welsh lead' (a lump of lead).[2] The practice was mentioned in the 1847 Reports of the commissioners of enquiry into the state of education in Wales,[3] which became known as Brad y Llyfrau Gleision, the Treachery of the Blue Books.[1] Though critical of many aspects of Welsh culture, some of the inspectors commented on the existence of the practice of using "nots" as being arbitrary and cruel. The reports did not endorse the practice, and also make it clear that the vast majority of education in Welsh-speaking communities was still conducted in Welsh.
In the later decades of the 19th century, education was compulsory but the Welsh "not" was used only in a minority of schools, and after the school boards were absorbed by the county councils following the Local Government Act 1888, instruction in Welsh became the norm in primary schools in Welsh-speaking areas.[4] There is no evidence that the secondary schools, in which instruction was almost universally in English, made use of the "not".
Susan Jones, Member of Parliament for Clwyd South, claimed in 2010 that the use of the Welsh Not, including caning as the punishment, persisted in some schools in her constituency until "as recently as the 1930s and 1940s".[5]
See also
Similar policies in other countries
- Vergonha, French suppression of regional languages (see Languages of France).
- Dialect card Hōgenfuda (方言札?, "dialect card"), suppression of Ryukyuan languages and dialects of the Tōhoku region in Japan.
- Beatings were used in a similar fashion by American Indian boarding schools through the 1960s, perhaps even later.
- Beatings were used in a similar fashion by the Canadian Indian residential school system.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2006
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- ↑ John Davies, A History of Wales, Penguin, 1994, ISBN 0-14-014581-8, p 455
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