heartwarming language revival story

[trochee]

in the New Year, a new old language: Language Hat points out "Cá Bhfuil Na Gaeilg eoirí? [Where are all the Gaelic speakers?]", the story of the author's attempt to get around Ireland speaking only Irish. The younger generation's new adoption of Irish is quite fascinating, especially in light of adult Dubliners' overt hostility to Gaelophones.

Go read it!

Comments

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

Yay! I was thinking about posting on that story myself.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I'm interested that the Irish-language schools are considered to be so much better than the English-language schools. It was also true in Wales until recently (it's levelling out a bit now, though), and whatever the reason for it (I can think of one or two), it's got to be good for the language.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

you know, i think the parents who choose to send their child to an "unusual" school are probably more engaged than average, regardless of the flavor of "unusual".

Thus the successes of some charter schools, religious schools, language isolating schools, and hippie schools alike. (I happen to be a big fan of the latter two categories.)

So it's probably true for "Irish-only" schools too, and I suspect that the quality of the school comes in large part due to the dedication of the parents to the education of their children. If you're dedicated enough to Irish -- or anything else -- to choose to send your kid to a non-standard school for that reason, you're among an unusual group of highly-engaged parents.

Did you have any other reason in mind? I suppose the same argument could be made for teachers who seek work in "unusual" schools, too.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much my thinking. I used to work for an LEA (==school board) in east London, and it was always the reason we gave why the church schools did generally better than the non-church schools: you have to give some kind of a damn about your child's education to opt to send them to a non-default school, which in itself is a good indication that your child will be thriving.

(I should mention, though you are probably aware of it, that in England church schools are often run from public funds.)