Education for Highland children .....

[Lizzie]

Good morning all,

My ggrandmother signed her name on a 1853 document I have. Also at her her marriage, where her husband made an X . All census afterwards state she spoke Gaelic. Would this have been anyway unusual for children at this time?

Lizzie

[joette]

I can only go by my own experience & what surprised me was that all of the family were literate or at least able to sign their name & although some came from Moray/Aberdeenshire were not Gaelic speakers.
I have always been told that Scottish children were more likely to be literate than there English contemparies because of the strong influence of the Churches on the life of the people & the need for them to be able to read the bible but maybe that was hogwash as I have no data to back it up.Also the Churches provided education for the children in a lot of areas.My GGGGRandparents were literate despite being Agric.Workers & I know that my G-Grandfather born Elgin was very well-educated & would have been at University to study Medicine but the money was not aviable & his Father was a Crofter.
What surprised me was that my Great-Grandmother who came from Glasgow of Ayrshire parents was a Gaelic speaker according to the 1901 Census.

[Andy]

Gaelic was very widely spoken even in industrial areas where you, perhaps, wouldn't expect it.

The first statistical account for Greenock mentions that it was possible to walk the whole length of the town "without hearing a word of English spoken". Campbell was the most numerous surname.

In the 1830's (if memory serves) the Gaelic speaking community set up the "Highlanders Academy" (still in use today from the second Victorian purpose built building quite close to the original site). Gaelic was the language of tuition but, of course, English was taught too. There were over 1000 children on the "Roll" at one time, that's a large number even for a town the size of Greenock.

I've been doing a bit of work for my paternal uncle's wife. All her father's family attended Highlanders Academy all spoke Gaelic even to the latter part of the 1800's. The family, originally from Skye, had been in Greenock since before 1841 but two generations later they were still speaking the Gaelic.

[DavidWW]

In the 1700s and 1800s, as well as at least the first half of the 20th century, the Scottish education system was among the very best in the world, with very few kids (who were willing to learn ) leaving school without a reasonable knowledge of the 3Rs.

David