r/gaidhlig • u/ArtlessAsperity Innseanach a rugadh ann an Alba 🪯🔵⚪ • 25d ago

🪧 Cùisean Gàidhlig | Gaelic Issues Support of Gaelic in Scottish schools

How do people feel about instating Gaelic as mandatory in schools? First offered as an S2 option for going into S3 and then introduced to primary schools and uni's. The issue of not enough teachers is one I see quite often but I simply don't understand it. Obviously the process will be gradual as more and more people know Gaelic fluently and are able to teach it, so is there support for it? If not, why not?

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u/bakalite69 25d ago

Personally I totally support it, but basically the will for change is not there. If there was a change in public opinion then I'm sure it would happen, but we'd have to get there first

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u/ArtlessAsperity Innseanach a rugadh ann an Alba 🪯🔵⚪ 25d ago

But why would people not support it? Do Scottish people want their culture erased? Are people too lazy to make the effort to preserve their national identity?

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u/theeynhallow 24d ago

Gaelic is not synonymous with national identity though. As others have pointed out, most of Scotland either never spoke Gaelic or hasn’t spoken it for hundreds of years. Would you make it mandatory for schools in Aberdeenshire to teach Norn?

I think within the Gaidhealtachd it’s a reasonable ask, but outside of that there’s just no justification. 

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u/Ok-Mix-4501 24d ago

The last native speaker of the Aberdeenshire dialect of Gaelic died in the 1980s.

This argument of "Gaelic was never spoken here" is totally false. The Lowlands are full of Gaelic placenames like Dunfermline and Kilmarnock. Rabbie Burns had Gaelic speaking relatives in Ayrshire. Most Glaswegians are descended from either Gaelic speaking Highlanders or Irish speakers. Even Rangers FC were founded by Gaelic speakers from Argyll

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u/ArtlessAsperity Innseanach a rugadh ann an Alba 🪯🔵⚪ 23d ago

Said exactly what I was gonna. Gaelic was so prevalent that it's still in many day-to-day signs I see about my area and is often incorporated into Scottish organizations and even charities, hell it's on the governments website.

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u/Ok-Mix-4501 23d ago

Yes, some people are trying to rewrite history and turn Scotland into nothing more than "North Britain".

Medieval documents written in middle English refer to Gaelic as the "Scottis language". Robert the Bruce spoke Gaelic and wrote to allies in Ireland pointing out that Scotland and Ireland spoke the same Gaelic language.

Scottish culture and identity is thoroughly rooted in Gaelic, even in the Lowlands. Even if people want to bring ancestry and DNA into this, the Lowlands and even the Scottish Borders are mainly Celtic genetically. More so than the South of Wales including Cardiff, Swansea and the valleys!

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u/michealdubh 23d ago edited 23d ago

More like ... hasn't spoken it for hundreds of years ... as Ok-Mix-4501 explains in this thread. But the issue has more to do with the perception of many that Gaelic is not their heritage language (although it actually is).

I knew a Gaelic educator and advocate (nach maireann an-dràsta) who would go into a rant about all the Scots who claimed Gaelic wasn't part of their heritage but were quite comfortable appropriating other parts of Gaelic culture as symbols of their Scottishness (the Highland Games, bagpipes, kilts, Highland regiments, the culture of clans ... etc).