Welsh Not

The effect of The Not was to stigmatise the use of the Welsh language among children, and engender the idea that English, as the preferable medium of instruction, was the language of moral progress and opportunity.

The practice and wider social changes of the nineteenth and the beginning of the 20th century saw many Welsh speakers come to view the speaking of Welsh as a disadvantage.[2]

The use of "The Not" was recorded as early as the 18th century, and there is strong evidence of numerous incidents in both Anglican and Nonconformist schools throughout Carmarthen, Ceredigion and Meirionnydd, it was commonly known as the cwstom, the 'Welsh stick' or the 'Welsh lead' (if a lump of lead was used).[7]

The most frequent use of the Welsh Not in schools appears to be in the first decades before the publication of the government's Reports of the commissioners of enquiry into the state of education in Wales in 1847.

The reports noted that schools in Wales were inadequate, with English monoglot teachers and English textbooks in use in areas where the children spoke only Welsh. It concluded that the Welsh as a race were "ignorant", "lazy" and "immoral", and that one of the main causes of this was the continuing use of the "evil" Welsh language.[9]

The Reports had great influence in Wales, becoming known as Brad y Llyfrau Gleision (the Treachery of the Blue Books) among Welsh speakers, and supporting the removal of Welsh as a moral endeavor. In linking the Welsh with low educational standards and poor morality, the report also highlighted the use of the "Welsh Not" in one example but it did not officially endorse its use, it was incorrectly popularised the method as an effective tool for educators throughout Wales in part due to the much later writings of Owen Morgan Edwards, a known nationalist. When in reality it's use was primarily by the Welsh in Welsh run schools prior to the 1870 education act.[10]

The use of the "Welsh Not" appears to have decreased with the introduction of compulsory education in the later decades of the 19th century. 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. However, incidents of the "Welsh Not" were still reported.[12]

Owen Morgan Edwards describes his experience of the Welsh Not in school in Llanuwchllyn in his book Clych Atgof.

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".[13]

As recently as 2000, a few therapists, health visitors & other healthcare staff were advising parents not to speak to their disabled child in Welsh, thinking that speaking two languages would disadvantage them, but this only caused grievances among families.[14]