THE PRESIDENT of Ireland has had his say on the methods of Irish language teaching.
Michael D. Higgins has commented on the manner in which Irish is taught and learned in schools.
According to The Irish Times, the President spoke out about the forced nature that children have to abide by in school when learning Irish.
On the fourth day of his visit to New Zealand, the President said more encouragement was needed for people to want to speak our native tongue
"I am in favour of encouraging people, bringing people to the language rather than forcing it. In the television service that I established between 1993 and 1997, the idea was give the language a second chance because they had been taught in a rather authoritative way, so I wanted people to give the language a second chance."
He went on to say that extra steps were needed to entice people into learning Irish, as opposed to the enforcement that many schools do.
"You must encourage and lure them to the language, make the language attractive, the language needn’t stand for every antiquated authoritarian idea that was ever dreamed up and imagined in ancient Irish, for example.
"I remember in other times people foisted attitudes onto the language that really had nothing to do with the essential spirit."
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