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Primary Education (1959) (page numbers in brackets) Notes on the text
Part 1 Historical
Part 2 The Primary Schools
Part 3 The Fields of Learning
Part 4 The Special Problems of Wales
Index (331-334) |
Primary Education (1959)
Suggestions for the consideration of teachers and others concerned with the work of primary schools London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1959
[page 315] [page 317] The underlying principles of life and education are the same for Wales and England. It is the good fortune of Welsh children that they can, throughout their lives, participate in two national cultures, both of which form part of the European tradition, and which have been inextricably associated with one another for many centuries. One of the central aims of Welsh schools must be to extend to Welsh children the benefits of association with England and its language and literature and of participation in its intellectual achievements and, at the same time, to maintain and nurture their respect for the best of their particular heritage. Teachers in the schools of Wales will consider the general material of this book as important for their work. They will also expect some guidance in those matters of special concern to them. This chapter is concerned with such matters, and deals in outline with problems of school organisation, the approach to the teaching of Welsh and English under varying circumstances, and related aspects of the general curriculum of primary schools. In Wales the existence of two languages and the uneven distribution of those who speak them complicate the task of schools and challenge the ingenuity of teachers. The success of schools in such conditions depends in the first instance, though not exclusively, upon an organisation which takes account of the linguistic classification of the pupils and which aims at enabling all children to receive their early education through the medium of their mother tongue and to consolidate their command of it. [page 318] From these standpoints, the mainly Welsh-speaking areas and the thoroughly anglicised areas present no problem, the appropriate language being taught as the mother tongue and used as the medium of instruction. In the first case, English is invariably taught as the second language to all pupils. In the second, the policy of the local education authority governs the situation: this decides whether Welsh is taught as a second language. Problems of organisation are difficult in linguistically mixed areas, where there are Welsh-speaking and non-Welsh-speaking pupils in widely varying proportions. Here several factors have to be taken into account - the size of the schools, the proportion of the linguistic groups, the available accommodation, travelling facilities and the number of teachers able to teach Welsh. Where the two language groups exist in fairly equal proportions within the school and other circumstances permit, pupils are classified accordingly in separate classes and each group or stream works in parallel, as if it were a Welsh or English medium school. Where this is impossible, because of the disproportion of the two language groups, teaching units of different age groups may be formed, to ensure that both language groups within the same school receive an education based upon the use of their mother tongues. In those areas where the Welsh-speaking children are in a very small minority and where the number in any one school may be too small to provide prospects of any kind of permanent parallel grouping within a school, other solutions are sought. All the Welsh-speaking pupils may be brought together and given most of their education through their mother tongue: another method is to bring them together for instruction through the medium of Welsh in those subjects most closely linked with social life, e.g. Religious Instruction, History, Geography, as well as Welsh language, but to keep them within the main stream of the school for other purposes. Some instances occur, however, where these solutions are not possible. Then a separate school may be established; if parents desire it, Welsh-speaking children for a wide catchment area will be transferred to it, and thereafter the school will resemble one in a mainly Welsh-speaking area. This solution must presuppose satisfactory transport facilities. [page 319] The Central Advisory Council for Education (Wales) issued a report in 1953 on 'The Place of Welsh and English in the Schools of Wales'. It contains these words: 'The general policy we recommend would aim at making the children of Wales bilingual, so that the English-speaking population would acquire as satisfactory a control of the Welsh language as most of the Welsh-speaking children have of English.' This pronouncement carries with it far-reaching implications. The Council clearly assumed that a responsible nation will always strive to preserve its language. They agreed that in Wales this meant the Welsh language, because it is in a special way the link of the Welsh people with their past. It is the vehicle for committing much of their heritage to the future; it represents a valuable element in the contemporary culture of the country, and through all manner of institutions its influence pervades the whole of Welsh life. The Council therefore concluded that teachers in Wales should accept this situation and pay regard not only to the past but take their due responsibility for the future, using the language not only as a traditional means of communication but as an adequate instrument for contemporary life, undeterred by the challenge of the vast changes which modern applied science and technology have brought about in the environment of this small country. In Circular 15 (Wales) the Minister of Education commended the views of the Council to the consideration of Welsh local education authorities and invited them to review their language policies and to formulate a ten years' programme. Some authorities have responded to the Minister's invitation, with the result that the use of Welsh in many schools has improved considerably in recent years. There are now many Welsh-speaking schools where children are receiving an admirable education. They are able to use their mother tongue fluently in speech and writing. Suitable Welsh material has become abundant at the primary stage. There are plenty of nursery and other rhymes, legends and traditional songs and they are now the substance of the life of the schools that use them. These results are best obtained when teachers are not only Welsh-speaking but also competent in the use of Welsh as a medium of instruction for all the work of the school. In recent years remarkable progress has been attained in providing [page 320] teachers with ample and varied supplies of reading books in Welsh, simple books of reference dealing with the varied interests of children, books describing life in Wales and in other countries, illustrative material such as films, film-strips, pictures and display material and maps. Remote village schools are now able, by means of the mobile library, to draw upon the resources of the County Library, and schools in more populated areas are using local libraries to a greater extent than ever before. This applies to pupils and teachers alike and it involves no departure from the accepted principle that each individual school should aim at possessing its own efficient working library. By today, however, the majority of those who are learning Welsh cannot do so in an intimate environment where the language is freely spoken. Many of them hear it only in school, and even those who live in mixed linguistic communities and have greater opportunities of hearing it spoken need to be taught the language from the start. This means that Welsh may be the second language for the majority of those who are learning it but, even so, it is a second language with a difference - it is not a second language in the sense of being foreign to them. It is the language of their forebears, still the mother tongue of large groups in Wales. Fortunately opportunities for hearing good Welsh spoken abound. There are relatively few schools or villages where there is no branch of Urdd Gobaith Cymru; radio and television reach nearly every home, and the influence of regular religious services in the Welsh language should not be underestimated. A helpful background and lively incentives to learn Welsh as a second language are still present. Teachers will do well to avoid the temptation to teach below the children's level or to make the approach of their teaching too formal and desiccated. Language must be made a function of social life, and the weakness of much of the teaching of Welsh as a second language in the past has been its dissociation from the social life which gives it significance. Matters have been improving recently and on the whole Welsh now enjoys its rightful place within the curriculum of primary schools and is no longer treated as a troublesome addition to a heavy burden of subjects. Welsh-speaking members of the staff of schools are accepting their responsibilities wherever that is possible and using the [page 321] language in incidental conversation, weaving it into Religious Instruction, History, Geography, Music and Nature Study and giving the children ample opportunities to use what they have learned in the Welsh lesson in their informal activities. Much is done in this way to vitalise Welsh lessons and, more important still, to help children see the significance and point of learning the language. But however successful this cooperation may be, there are instances where it is impossible because the specialist teacher is the only member of the staff who can speak Welsh. Combined operations on a staff basis are therefore not practicable, no matter how sympathetic the other teachers may be. This makes the task much harder, but even so difficulties are not insuperable. A Welsh room can be set aside, within which Welsh will be spoken; its furnishing will be chosen to give pupils a picture of contemporary and historical Wales - portraits of representative and historic figures, pictures of Welsh places of interest, records of Welsh music and successions of suitable exhibitions are only some of the things that can be profitably provided in such a room. Devices of this kind are part of the strategy of the indirect approach which so often gives satisfactory results. In the end, however, there is no substitute for steady and enlightened work in the classroom. The direct and indirect approach are necessary and complementary to one another, particularly where the second language teaching has to be done in a difficult environment; indeed, the teacher of Welsh to English-speaking children has to hold both in careful equilibrium. Formal items of instruction cannot be neglected in his programme. Consequently the elements of the language, its vocabulary, grammar and sounds, need to be carefully graded and presented systematically. Work in the actual lesson has to be obviously progressive and sufficiently rapid to give the pupils pleasure in their progress without discouraging them on account of its apparently unrealistic demands. Two extremes are to be avoided - on the one hand a perfunctory aimlessness which creates distaste and hampers progress and on the other a too exclusive reliance upon rigid and mechanical drill. In his classwork the good teacher will strike a happy mean; having carefully made his plan to ensure continuous development, he will illuminate and verify his presentation of the graded linguistic [page 322] material by drawing upon resources of poetry and music, by making appropriate use of drama and mime, and by referring to Welsh stories, places and events of interest. In this way language work can develop to a point where it becomes a genuine instrument of knowledge, stimulating interest and avoiding the dreadful boredom of treadmill instruction. The efforts of teachers in primary schools must also presuppose that their work will be continued in the secondary schools. Nothing is better calculated to stimulate enthusiasm for this work than the knowledge that it will be continued at the secondary stage. The extent to which English is the mother tongue of most children in Wales varies from area to area and even within areas. In some instances it has been the home language for several generations, while in others it has been so established in comparatively recent years. There are parts of the country where the position of English differs only slightly, if it differs at all, from its position in the rest of Great Britain. Many of the children of these areas come from thoroughly English homes and arrangements to teach them Welsh in school may not be available. Their needs are covered by what has already been said in this book about the teaching of English, with this important qualification - just as the child in England and the Welsh child in Wales will want to know about the traditional stories of other lands and the history of other nations, so the English child in Wales will expect to learn about the country and to be told the traditional stories of the land. There is an ample store of material written in English about Wales which could be well used in speech and composition, and there are excellent collections of Welsh folk tales. No teacher of English anywhere could wish for a more interesting and valuable store of legend in translation than the Mabinogion, for instance. Where the process of anglicisation is proceeding apace, another approach is required. Accent and intonation and very often the framework of the language and its grammar will need very close and constant attention. The Welsh child will not be satisfied with any standard of spoken or written English which is not acceptable in England. As he grows, his contacts with [page 323] England and Englishmen will become increasingly important. If he is to speak English well and write it with ease, he must be given the chance of hearing good English, well spoken, not least by his teachers. In the end 'all language be gotten and gotten onlie by imitation. For as ye are to heare so ye learne to speake, and whom ye onlie heare, of them ye onlie learne.' At the same time, however correctly the Welshman may speak English, more often than not he will be recognised, and indeed will be proud to be recognised, as a Welshman. He will be no different in this respect from an educated Englishman of whatever origins, and his speech will be equally acceptable, provided it is clear and pleasant. The aim is not to impose a uniformity upon the Welsh-speaking child which is regarded as reprehensible in England, but to enable him, while maintaining his individuality as a Welshman, to be at home where English is spoken, to have confidence and assurance in his use of the language, as well as a knowledge and understanding of English life. In many parts of Wales, however, English, in the fullest sense, is a second language and the tide of English influence is still not felt to be overwhelming. Here the teacher's aim will not differ from that of the teacher of English in the rest of Wales, though the methods and techniques may need to be formulated more consciously and exactly. Schemes of work will need to give greater attention at the commencement to the acquisition of a vocabulary and the employment of simple but flexible sentences. The period of formal instruction in the language need not be uninteresting and mechanical, nor need it be prolonged. Experience has shown that English can be successfully taught as a second language without its precipitate employment as a medium for teaching. Substance needs to be injected into the instruction from the commencement. There is, fortunately, a sufficiently wide range of rhymes, songs and simple stories to provide the teacher with ample linguistic material satisfactorily suited to the ages of all children and graded according to their proficiency in the language. In its first stages the work will be oral, to familiarise the children with the sounds of the language and to help them enjoy using it in song, story and dramatic work based on legend and history. Such sound oral training ensures that comparisons between English and Welsh are avoided. Reading and writing [page 324] belong to a later stage. There need be no hurry, because no child in any part of Wales can escape the presence of the English language in print. There is no possibility, either, of insulating him or of attempting to do so. The important consideration is that fluency of speech and expression should not be impeded by an over-formalised approach to the language. The study of Language and the attainment of bilingual proficiency will be meaningless and is indeed unlikely to succeed if the child's interest is not simultaneously directed to a varied pattern of studies. The acquisition of language is a prior condition for a full life. Where two languages exist and where, in consequence, a greater emphasis than usual may be attached to a linguistic education, it is vital to give substance to their study and to establish the child's upbringing on as broad a basis of understanding as possible. Thus all that is said in earlier sections of this book on the study of environment applies fully to Wales, where it is particularly important to remember that the local study which neither illustrates the past nor deepens the child's awareness of the living community must fail in its highest purpose. Geography should open out from the neighbourhood to the land of Wales, but in the study of neighbourhood there will be an eye for 'those immaterial things that go to make up the personality of their district' and which are, for children, the Open Sesame to the romance of the past and the key to the understanding of the present, The grey ruin on Llyn Peris, the pilgrims' path at Nevern, a lonely farm on Epynt, can still speak to a child's imagination. To study the marketing of early potatoes in Pembrokeshire in the present day without knowing about the meditations of saints and pilgrims in the County long ago may be useful, but it is not enriching. Mere factual studies of the Preseli country will be stillborn, too, if they ignore its absorbing and varied cultural life. Knowledge of the enterprises of the Bersham ironmasters must be supplemented by an appreciation of the modern community of Rhos, which has preserved its Welsh culture in the midst of industrialisation. Similarly, the study of the land of Wales to which the exploration of the neighbourhood should lead, looks for those [page 325] 'things intangible which are significant to their country as a whole'. Children will be told of 'Mon, Mam Cymru', of Eryri 'Cadernid Gwynedd', the fortress of Wales, and of the great valleys of Dee, Severn, Usk and Wye, the gateways of invasion. They will follow in the footsteps of great travellers, from Giraldus Cambrensis, 'Gerallt Gymro', through the times of the drovers, to Pennant and George Borrow. Nor will they neglect the connection between the land of Wales and the modes of life of its people and how they earn their living. The farm-bred Anglesey boy will learn about the miner of Glamorgan, and the quarrying boy about the steelworkers of Margam and Ebbw Vale. Such a modern Itineraria Cambrensis would help to overcome the estrangement and compartmentalising that geography itself has sometimes furthered. In these and other ways boys and girls can come to know the land in which they live and, through this knowledge, when the time comes, they will be able to look at other lands with clearer insight and deeper understanding. The Schools Service of the National Museum of Wales is designed to provide useful and otherwise not easily available material for these and other studies. The transition from geography to History is an easy one. In history few schools in Wales are far from ancient monuments, farms and places, roads and fields that can light up a page of history. What region bears no mark or reminder of invaders by land and sea? The map of Wales still witnesses to the passage of prince and abbot, warrior and pilgrim, Puritan and Methodist; in a small country the study of almost any locality can be the study of the nation's history in miniature. The child can therefore early become familiar with his country's past through an expanding knowledge of his home and neighbourhood, his 'bro'. At the same time he cannot but hear the great legends and folklore of Wales - stories of King Arthur, the Mabinogion, the legends of Cantre'r Gwaelod (the Lowland Hundred) and of Llyn y Fan. He will know the life of St David and something of his great influence. Then will come the stories of leaders of men, from Caradog to Glyn Dwr, including Hywel Dda, Gruffyd ap Llywelyn, Owain Gwynedd, the Lord Rhys and the two Llywelyns. In his picture gallery will be seen courtier adventurers of Elizabethan days; the Welsh martyrs Protestant and Catholic, Bishop Morgan, Morgan Llwyd, Dr [page 326] Richard Price, Hywel Harris, Morgan John Rhys, 'Rebecca and her daughters', Mary Jones, and a host of others. Moreover he can become a spectator at great events: he will attend the conference which Hywel Dda summoned to Hen-dy-gwyn-ar-Daf, the 'National' Eisteddfod of 1176, the Parliament at Machynlleth, and join the little class with Griffith Jones in the church porch at Llanddowror. Nor will he lack experience of the 'timeless moment' if he can stand with Caradog when he refused to bow to his Imperial conqueror, or if he can overhear that Welshman of Pencader challenging the Norman might of Henry II or Glyn Dwr revealing his identity to his host, Sir Lawrence Berkrolles, at Coity. He will learn to know the national institutions of Wales, the University of Wales with its constituent colleges, the National Library of Wales, the National Museum at Cardiff with the Folk Museum at St Fagans. These belong in a real sense to the people of Wales; its schoolchildren now visit them in increasing numbers. Similarly, great days in the nation's calendar will be recalled - St David's Day; the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the National Eisteddfod of Urdd Gobaith Cymru; the annual Goodwill Day. Goodwill Day will signify the historic and contemporary setting of the schools. There have been Welshmen in every age who have ventured beyond their own shores. The crossing of the 'unhermited' sea to Ireland and Brittany held no terrors for the saints of the sixth century. Hywel Dda, in the tenth century, made the perilous pilgrimage to Rome. The Welsh archers won fame on many a battle field in the Hundred Years War. The gentry of Wales flocked to the Tudor Court, Puritans, like John Penry, found a prison and martyrdom in London. Let the children visit New Lanark to meet Robert Owen, stand in line with the Welsh Fusiliers at Albuera, and remember Betsi Davies who shared Florence Nightingale's work in the Crimea. The story of the Welsh colonisers in Patagonia has been recorded. Few indeed are the localities in Wales which have not sent missionaries to China, India, Africa and the South Seas, and two world wars have sent successive generations of Welshmen as members of a great company to all parts of the world. But this world has also come to Wales. In our times the Llangollen International Eisteddfod at once represents and [page 327] promotes normal cultural traffic between England and Wales and gives it a precious European and international range. Other subjects in the curriculum of the primary schools of Wales have a direct relation to its culture, but not to the same degree as language and social studies. No school should ever attempt to confine its pupils' contacts with its country's culture in any subject; rather they should be a living part of the ethos of the school and of its character as a community. In Music, Welsh traditional song holds tremendous possibilities to teachers and pupils. In its range and variety it could be regarded as something more than a mere appendage to the language lesson, useful and indeed essential as it is there, and become a valuable and living source of musical instruction and inspiration in the primary schools of Wales. There is, however, a real need for a comprehensive bilingual edition of traditional melodies, properly selected, arranged, classified and annotated specifically for schools. Folk songs, while far from exhausting the repertoire of the schools, can meet all the basic requirements of musical training. Their study can ensure not only the preservation of a treasured heritage but also safeguard standards of musical appreciation. Penillion singing, at its best in the setting of the strict metres, is a specifically Welsh practice of ancient origin, which should be fostered wherever possible. It lies on the borderland where music and poetry meet and its literary value is undoubted. Musically, however, its harmonic framework is at present restricted, and there is here a great opportunity for research and experiment to heighten the musical interest of this intriguing art. In Art and Crafts, though the aims and methods of teaching will not differ very much wherever the work is done, teachers in Wales should nevertheless bear in mind that they are living in a land which, for the most part, rests easily and pleasantly upon the eye. This claim can be made not only for the acknowledged beauty spots of both north and south, but also for other districts not usually regarded as conventionally admirable, such as the industrial valleys of South Wales. In painting, the older pupils especially can be encouraged to depict in their own way something of the rich scene and varied life of Wales, expressing in pictorial form the character and customs of the people both in the normal round of their daily lives and in incidents, [page 328] anniversaries and communal events which have national character and significance. Physical Education in Wales will naturally conform in the main to what might be called the broad British pattern, but it can, particularly in the primary school, take some of its colour and flavour from the country. Lessons will benefit from the inclusion of local variations of widely known games, while Welsh history and legend provide a rich store of characters and dramatic themes for games and for the creative use of basic movement and dance. Teachers are already making much use of traditional dances, rediscovered and revived in recent years. Much is said elsewhere in this book about the importance of the teacher and about the qualities and attitudes which characterise the best. In Wales, more so than elsewhere, they hold the key to much that is most valuable in the country's heritage. Theirs, if they will take it, is the opportunity to bring the children of Wales into living relation with Welsh life, past and present, in its most intimate and widest setting, and to integrate education and tradition so that the children of Wales may enjoy a unified and unifying education. Teachers, once convinced of the worth of what they are doing, will be at pains to know their country themselves, its physical features and natural resources, the life and work of its people and their history and, as far as may be, their literature. Loving what they know, they will be the better able to share their life and knowledge with their pupils, communicating it to them through their 'naws' (that untranslatable Welsh word), what they themselves have felt. Teachers who can respond to such names as Ty Ddewi, Morfa Rhuddlan and Pantycelyn, to such songs as 'Ar Hyd y Nos' and 'Gwyr Harlech' and to such words of power as 'hiraeth', 'aelwyd', 'gwerin', will bring the full force of a fine inheritance to bear upon the lives of those who have been entrusted to their care, and they will do this without a disregard of the wider heritage which is enjoined in other chapters of this book. The training of Welsh teachers aims to equip them for this work. It is deeply concerned to make students more knowledgeable about Wales without making them narrowly Welsh; indeed [page 329] this should be impossible with a properly designed course, for liberally to know Wales is to touch all the movements which have shaped the history of Great Britain, Europe and the world. The matter of this chapter lies at the centre of such training. It needs, also, to be concerned with the history of education in Wales, with the relation of the school curriculum with the community, with the problems of bilingualism in Wales and in other countries, methods of first and second language teaching, the language policies of various authorities, problems of the production of materials in Welsh and English suited to the schools. The teacher can, in the last resort, only communicate himself, his own personality and his knowledge. His training is the initial equipment he requires. He must continue to read, to enrich his own life, or he will fail to convince his pupils of the worth of the pursuits that, by word of mouth, he may commend. The technique of teaching language in a bilingual community is essentially a growing point in education throughout the world today. Teachers in the schools of Wales are involved in it. Some are making a significant contribution by the new knowledge that they acquire and the successful experiments that they conduct. 
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