Angela was nice enough to link to me today! Angela’s another Harvard-Westlake student, and she’s designed quite a nice tumblr layout with her web design skills. Check her out.

July 14th: I went to visit Castle Rushen School, a general-education public school in Castletown. The school goes from our kindergarten to our senior grade, and sends many of its students off to University.

I went into the classroom with Adrian Caine (above), who was teaching a lesson to 11 and 12 year olds. The kids take a total of nine weeks of “citizenship” classes, learning about both Manx history and the history of the British monarchy. Adrian teaches them a lesson in Manx as part of this program and, much to my surprise, the kids were not only enthusiastic about learning Manx but actually did quite well in it. I have some fantastic video (which, you guessed it, I’ll put up when technically possible) of the children completing tasks which were instructed in Manx after only thirty minutes of instruction.

After the lesson, I interviewed a few of the kids to ask about their opinion of their learning Manx. Although the full details of the interview (perhaps with recordings) will be available after my Independent Study is compiled, here’s one interesting tidbit: I asked one of the children, “Why do think you’re made to learn Manx?” He replied: “Well, I suppose it’s what makes me a proper Manxman. My parents always said they didn’t want to be proper Manxmen and they just wanted to be British so they wouldn’t be bothered, but I reckon I’d like to be a proper Manxman myself.”

Some food for thought, perhaps.

Oh, and I asked yesterday if anyone could figure out what English word comes from the Manx “S’mie shen.” “S’mie shen” means “good” or “very well” in Manx, and it’s the root of the British English word “smashing,” having the same meaning.

Castle Rushen, a ten minute walk from me, is a long-standing symbol of the Island’s sovreignty.

Tomorrow I’m off to visit a school that teaches its students entirely in Manx, and I’ll be interviewing a few students and teachers there. Talk to you all then!