Welsh Not

Last night John and I attended a play at our children's primary school. Our children attend a welsh speaking school so that they can speak both Welsh and English. This week their school is celebrating their 100 yrs since the school first opened. They have a log book which each of the headmasters have kept for the whole 100yrs, documenting war, prisoners of war, changes in politics and schooling techniques, illnesses and epidemics. The teachers of the school demonstrated the fact that 100 yrs ago it was against school policy to speak English in school, even though all the children and the teachers were all welsh speaking. The children were taught that English was the language of communication even though many children were raised in a welsh community and stayed in it when they were adults. If a child was caught speaking welsh in school they had to wear a "welsh not" sign around their necks and were often caned. Unfortunately this did not shock me as the same ignorance and intolerance still surrounds us even if it rears it's ugly head in different ways, like bullying or through extremist religious groups. John and I discussed afterwards why the play had been a little uncomfortable (except for the obvious of having a teacher parade up and down the isle pointing a stick at us telling us to sit with a straight back and have our heads held high chanting 'cleanliness is next to godliness') We came up with many conclusions, but the most important one was that we are glad we feel uncomfortable when ever faced with discrimination - in what ever form.
The children did a wonderful job, I always feel at these plays that we sometimes sell our children short, as they show themselves capable of remembering long complicated lines and songs in welsh. We were very proud of them.