Oh, dear...will we have to translate Robert Burns into English then?

Seriously, I think cavscout raised a very good point about forced assimilation in school regarding the use of vernacular languages. Like cavscout's interest in Cherokee, I am very interested in my wife's Cajun heritage, and for years in Louisiana Cajun children were not allowed to speak French in school for fear of a beating by the teacher.

Now, I'm not trying to start a political discussion, but cavscout's post did remind me of that and the fact that Robert Burns saw the preservation of the Scots tounge through songs, poems, etc. as a way to preserve a nation.

We had a fellow here in the Missouri Ozarks who did a similar thing -- folklorist Vance Randolph. Without his monumental efforts -- 40 years of collecting stories, jokes, songs, superstitions -- the only Ozarks culture today would be the very artificial one enshrined in...shudder...Branson.

Todd