 Usage was strongly correlated with language abilities.Those who came from Gaelic-speaking homes, continued studying Gaelic in university, and/or found Gaelic employment after school were more likely to use the language as adults.The attitudes towards education and the promotion of Anglicisation have been described as resulting from "confrontation of two disparate societies...Lowland Scotland made plain its anxiety concerning the unreformed society in the north in terms of unease concerning its language, which was identified as the chief cause of barbarity, ignorance and popery" and can be seen as a continuation of such policies going back to 1609 and the Statutes of Iona which saw the Gaelic speaking nobility of Scotland forced to send their children to be educated in English speaking Lowland Scotland; an act which has been described as "the first of a succession of measures taken by the Scottish government specifically aimed at the extirpation of the Gaelic language, the destruction of its traditional culture and the suppression of its bearers."