Many people believe that Welsh, a minority language spoken in just one small pocket of the world, is unimportant, unnecessary and that teaching it distracts children from learning other, more widely used languages, such as English.
Cymraeg has had a long and turbulent history in Wales and it remains a topic of much dispute today.
Back in the 1930s my tad-cu (granddad) was beaten if he spoke Cymraeg in school and so he and his friends would whisper it rebelliously in the playground.
Rich, anglicised landowners looked down upon the humble, Welsh-speaking, mining families, to which my tad-cu belonged and England was esteemed as the country of empire, of the Queen and of government. In contrast Cymraeg was considered backward and uncivilised.
Things have changed dramatically since then. The Welsh Assembly was voted into power in 1998 and has played a large part in rekindling Cymraeg and in nurturing it into a growing language.
In the last few decades Wales has reclaimed its native tongue. Welsh language primary schools have become popular once again, the Welsh assembly has invested £6m into teaching it in schools and children are now actively encouraged to speak Cymraeg in the playground.
Wales is a bilingual country and it is therefore useful for children to grow up learning its native language. Many jobs are only available to candidates who can speak Welsh as well as English. Even people who do not speak it at work will find that, whilst living in Wales, having a basic knowledge of Welsh is helpful. Road signs are often written in Welsh, train announcements are pronounced in Cymraeg first and it's easier to engage with people if you have a basic grasp of the country's language.
Yes, Welsh is not used globally, like Spanish or French, but it is more useful to know the language of the place that you live than of a country you will probably only ever visit on holiday.
Teaching Welsh as part of the national curriculum of Wales is important as it keeps the language alive and this is important for the nation's cultural identity. It is also both practical and useful for young people in Wales to have an understanding of the speech of their home country.
My tad-cu died when I was eight, before the Welsh language that he loved began to make its resurgence. He would have been offended at the implication that Cymraeg was not important and disappointed by Welsh men and women who believe it to be an unnecessary encumbrance to learning English.
There are many reasons why keeping Welsh on the school curriculum is important, but to me it is vital as it is part of our ancestry. Cultural imperialism and social snobbery forced our grandfathers to murmur Welsh in the playgrounds, but they did, and it is only because they did so that we can speak it out loud all over Wales today. Call me sentimental, but I think that that should count for something.