By chance this little gem appeared at the same time as Carmarthenshire County Council was debating whether to hand responsibility for school closures (sorry, reorganisations) to Kevin Madge, Pam Palmer, Meryl Gravell and the other educational experts on the Executive Board.
When the BBC was analysing why schools in Finland performed so much better than their Welsh counterparts in the Pisa rankings late last year, one of the factors identified was that Finnish schools are usually much smaller. In Wednesday's debate Kev thundered that small schools were a waste of money and could not meet the requirements of the modern curriculum.
It would be kinder not to dwell on Kev's own educational achievements or qualifications for deciding the fate of our schools.
The result is that across huge swathes of rural Carmarthenshire village schools have been shut. Small children have to commute long distances to go to school, and the heart has been ripped out of communities. Why would young families opt to live in villages miles away from schools, often with no post office, village shop or pub?
Millions of pounds have been spent on building lovely new schools in order to save money, although the reality is that any savings lie many years into the future and may never be realised.
What is left is wrecks of buildings which served their communities well enough for a century or more.
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| Rhydcymerau - wreck of the week |
Rhydcymerau is the title given to one of the best-loved poems in the Welsh language. It was written by Gwenallt (David James Jones) in response to the vandalism of the Forestry Commission which bought up farms for conifer plantations after the Second World War.
Below are the first few lines of the poem. A sensitive translation and film by Huw Davies can be found here.
Ger Rhydcymerau
Plannwyd egin coed y trydydd rhyfel
Ar dir Esgeir-ceir a meysydd Tir-bach
Ger Rhydcymerau.
'Rwy'n cofio am fy mam-gu yn Esgeir-ceir
Yn eistedd wrth y tân ac yn pletio ei ffedog;
Croen ei hwyneb mor felynsych â llawysgrif Peniarth,
A'r Gymraeg ar ei gwefusau oedrannus yn Gymraeg Pantycelyn.
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