Should vernacular education be obligatory or voluntary?
This applies principally to minority languages being re-introduced into a
community. Experience has proved voluntary classes in Frisian in NF to be
unsuccessful, because children soon stopped attending the classes after an
initial bout of enthusiasm. In one experiment on Sylt, Frisian was used as a
medium for teaching voluntary classes of wood-work, chess etc. which
proved very successful, as the children could at least understand Frisian, but
they too left as soon as they had acquired the manual skill they desired.
There is as yet no back-up here. A further point is connected with logistics. If
the lesson is voluntary it must be placed in one part of the time-table where
non-participants could then go home. However, if the child has a long
distance to travel, he must take the school bus along with the non-participants,
which effectively bars him from the tuition. Obligatory tuition ensures full
participation but can cause a negative reaction on the part of some parents.