12 THE IRISH TIMES
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Education Today
Editor Seán Flynn
Phone 01-6758000
Teachers
must come
from all
sections of
society
AODHÁN
Ó RIORDÁIN
C
LEFTFIELD
HILDREN FROM
disadvantaged communities
typically don’t grow up to be
teachers; typically don’t
return to their old schools as
education leaders or beacons of
educational advancement.
Until we can address this deficit,
poorer children will continue to feel
disconnected from our education
system and will never enjoy the
opportunities most young people
take for granted.
Any teacher with experience in a
disadvantaged school will say that
obstacles to advancement lie in the
lack of self-esteem and the absence of
an educational tradition in the local
community. Children are greatly
influenced by the adult experiences
around them, but also by the
expectation levels that society places
on them. The greatest challenge lies
in the core belief of many children
that they just aren’t good enough. It
is this cultural gap in education that
is our responsibility to bridge.
My school in Dublin’s north inner
city was typical of those in the Deis
(Delivering Equality of Opportunity
in Schools) system. While numerous
academic studies have investigated
the causes and potential strategies to
tackle educational disadvantage,
what is immediately apparent to
newly-qualified educators is the
difference between the demographic
of the student body of their training
college and those children who now
depend on them so much.
From the perspective of these
children, often their generational
family experience is one of negative
interactions with State institutions.
The State has struggled since its
inception to deal respectfully with
difference, including the “difference”
of disadvantage. Irish society still
treats with suspicion and even fear
those who speak with a certain
accent or with a given address.
Our society unwittingly
undermines the self-image of the
poor and many of our teachers are at
the front line attempting to address
it. However, the perpetuation of this
reality within education is almost
inevitable when observing the
student body of the average teacher
training college: almost exclusively
middle-class, studying in an isolated
environment under a singular ethos
with a particular understanding of
the social order. These students
become teachers in our schools and
are educational role models for our
children.
While acknowledging that most
Irish primary teachers are
remarkable people and Deis schools
are staffed by incredible
professionals, there is an undeniable
cultural barrier within education.
Poorer children observe their teacher
as not being “of” their community
and they view the system as not
understanding or respecting them.
Therefore a fresh approach is
necessary to allow disadvantaged
students into the teaching profession
to break down that cultural obstacle,
and also to change the dynamic
within school communities.
Access to primary teacher training
requires a Leaving Certificate points
total in the high 400s and a
minimum C3 grade in higher level
Irish. The Higher Education Access
Route (HEAR) already provides for a
level of positive discrimination but
the Irish language stipulation
disproportionately impacts on poorer
students, considering the resources
many middle-class families have for
Gaeltacht summer courses and
private tuition. Also Deis secondary
schools often struggle to provide
higher-level options.
The term “eradicating educational
disadvantage” is often avoided by
those charged with empowering our
poorer children. We prefer the term
“tackling”, however to merely
“tackle” is to be ambiguous about our
chances of success. The
educationalist Laurence J Peter once
said: “Education is a method
whereby one acquires a higher grade
of prejudices”. Our children deserve
more than prejudice, they deserve an
educational experience that respects
them. We must eradicate the barriers
to those from lesser means to enter
that most noble of professions: to let
them teach so they can in turn
enable, inspire and empower others.
Surely they are worth that much?
Aodhán Ó Riordáin is a Labour TD in
Dublin North Central
E-mail sflynn@irishtimes.com
Flying the Galway flag in the US
❝
MY
EDUCATION
WEEK
This visit is about
being able to show
US-based Galway
graduates that we are
interested in keeping
in touch with them
DR JIM BROWNE,
president of NUI Galway,
on a week spent
networking in the US
MONDAY
This week is a busy one as I am attending a
whole host of meetings and engagements in
the US, with my colleague Tom Joyce, chief
executive of Galway University Foundation, an
independent organisation dedicated to generating financial support for NUI Galway.
The week begins with a breakfast meeting in
San Francisco with Dr Tom McDermott of
Georgia Institute of Technology. Georgia Tech
is ranked as one of the top 10 universities in
the US and NUI Galway has a partnership with
the university around commercialising our
research. It’s so important for Irish universities to be able to reach out to global giants like
Georgia Tech to benefit from their experience
and their network of connections.
Tom has plans to launch a new “cyber security” research centre with some of our leading
researchers in web technology. We also want
to grow our co-operation in biomedical engineering science. The possibility of a joint PhD
programme in bioengineering with Georgia
Tech is very exciting. It means that our graduates will have a truly global view of the biomedical engineering industry, which is such an
important industry for Ireland.
Next up is a meeting with John Ryan, a
former NUI Galway student who left Ireland in
the 1970s and went on to become a huge success in the US, founding MacroVision, a top 50
Silicon Valley company. Like so many
US-based Irish entrepreneurs, John is passionate about promoting a spirit of entrepreneurship in Ireland and is committed to
helping to get the country back on its feet.
John is also a great supporter of the university and has helped us to build a relationship
between our researchers and a start-up company based in Silicon Valley and focused on the
rapidly expanding market for non-invasive
optical imaging, measurement and analysis.
A busy day ends with dinner with the president of Stanford University, Prof John Hennessy, who is very positive about Ireland’s
future and the role our universities need to
play in getting us out of the current crisis. NUI
Galway is already working with Stanford University on our Bio-Innovate programme, a postgraduate programme, which brings together
teams of clinicians, engineers, bioscientists
and business graduates to learn to design and
bring to market new medical devices.
TUESDAY
An interesting day at the ITLG Innovation
Summit, a gathering of top executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capital investors operating in Ireland and Silicon Valley.
It is great to be among people who are committed to promoting new ideas, who value and
applaud those who have the courage to be
ambitious, who consider past failures to be a
predictor of future success, because they know
that smart people learn from their failures and
mistakes; people who are optimistic and
ment of an investment of almost ¤30 million in
Irish life science and healthcare companies is
very welcome news to NUI Galway, given our
research expertise in that area.
WEDNESDAY
I visited the Fogarty Institute for Innovation to
meet Dr Tom Fogarty, its founder. This Institute is one of the world’s premier MedTech
translational institutes and my interest in it is
in learning how we can take NUI Galway’s
expertise in biomedical science to the next
level. He certainly lives up to his reputation as
an inspirational figure. He is very interested in
the Irish medtech industry and appreciates the
level and quality of the investment by that
sector in the west of Ireland. This evening I
attended one of the most important events of
my trip, a reception for NUI Galway alumni
based in California. The NUI Galway diaspora
is spread far and wide, but is very well represented in the US.
Tonight’s event was organised by Moyra
Malone, a tremendously committed Galway
engineering graduate, who has worked in Silicon Valley for many years. I am always humbled by the loyalty and dedication of NUI
Galway graduates like Moyra who have left the
university many years ago but who still feel an
attachment to their alma mater and who treat
other Galway graduates almost as part of their
extended family.
Jim Browne: “Chicago is a sister city of
Galway and I attended the parade as part
of the sister cities group in order to build
links between the two cities.”
working to develop products and services
based on emerging technologies. One of the
companies nominated for an innovation award
by ITLG has licensed intellectual property
from NUI Galway to develop bio-fuel from
marine bio-mass.
Minister Richard Bruton also attended the
event and gave a very positive, upbeat and
motivational message about innovation and
entrepreneurship in Ireland. His announce-
THIS WEEK I WAS . . .
READING Port Mungo
by Patrick McGrath
LISTENING To local
US classical stations.
Great music, very little
talk!
BROWSING
The trip takes in so
many cities, starting
with San Francisco
(right) and ending in
Washington so it’s
maps and subway timetables.
WHAT’S THE TALK OF EDUCATION
point in making it available if most
students would prefer European
languages. – random, thejournal.ie
Well done to the interviewer on Morning
Ireland who pointed out that in December
the Minister said 80,000 places were
needed and today he said 70,000 places.
When asked about the missing 10,000 the
Minister had no answer and resorted to
bluffing and bulls***.
– Kerry Blake, thejournal.ie
■ CAN THE INSTITUTES OF
TECHNOLOGY BECOME RESEARCHORIENTED UNIVERSITIES?
Ruairí Quinn is sounding flustered and
confused over numbers on Morning
Ireland this morning, very unlike him.
- @kencurtin
Ruairí Quinn completely unbriefed for his
interview with Morning Ireland. Car crash
stuff and that’s being kind.
- @LukeMartin_DL
Cathal MacCoille providing ropes and
shovels to Ruairí Quinn. He avails
generously. – @sinead_ryan
Same bull from FG/Lab/continuity FF.
This is not new. Bigger numbers were
promised in manifestos. Let’s hope it’s
done and quickly. – John G McGrath,
thejournal.ie
No cash to put Chinese on the curriculum.
Ask the Chinese government to fund it. It
would probably benefit them in the long
run. – Keith Maguire, thejournal.ie
Chinese should be taught from primary
Tasty radio: a breakfast grilling from
Cathal MacCoille
level. China is already our largest trading
partner in Asia, larger than Japan. Clear
out Irish. 80,000 speakers or so outside
of education and they all speak English
anyway. Let us embrace our native
language, which is English, as our own.
– Paul Carr, The journal.ie
That’s ridiculous Paul. Completely ditch
one of our native languages in favour of a
foreign language the vast majority of us
would never ever use. English is the
international language of business.
– EM, thejournal.ie
The real question is, do the students have
any interest in learning it? Not much
SATURDAY
St Patrick’s Day is a great day to be Irish in the
US. I marched in the St Patrick’s Day Parade in
Chicago. Chicago is a sister city of Galway and
I attended the parade as part of the sister cities
group in order to build links between the two
cities. On Monday it’s on to Washington for
the final leg of my trip for more networking
before an event on Tuesday in the White
House.
WATCHING
No time for TV this
week.
CHATTERBOX
■ RUAIRÍ QUINN AND THAT MORNING
IRELAND INTERVIEW ON RTÉ
FRIDAY
Our visit to Chicago is facilitated by Billy Lawless, a Galwegian who has made Chicago his
home. Billy makes it his business to welcome
Galway visitors to the city. His connections
here are legendry. Through Billy, I met Mayor
Rahm Emmanuel at the Irish-American partnership breakfast and reminded him that his
niece Rebekah Emmanuel completed her masters degree in Galway in 2010. A small world
and NUI Galway grads are everywhere.
I attended another alumni reception, held in
Billy’s restaurant, The Gage, on Michigan
Avenue. Chicago is new territory for NUI
Galway but I am interested in helping to grow
the relationship with alumni based here.
For me this visit is about being able to show
US-based Galway graduates that we are interested in keeping in touch with them and in
helping them to make connections with other
NUI Galway graduates. This ability to bring
people together is becoming increasing important as graduates need to plug into an established network in order to do business and
secure jobs.
My understanding was that the RTCs
were set up to offer training to
technologist level – staff were recruited
from industry so that the courses would
be more closely aligned to the needs of
industry. At some stage, it was decided
that they should become ITs and start
awarding degrees without the associated
academic upgrading of the staff. If we are
going to have a technological university, it
needs to be just that, no law dept, no arts
dept and a focus on high-quality teachers.
– wombat, politics.ie
■ IRISH UNIVERSITIES NOT ON LIST
OF TOP 100 REPUTABLE UNIVERSITIES
I’m getting worried here. Where does DIT
sit? – Sean Davids, thejournal.ie
DIT? Not at the races. – Tom Kehow,
thejournal.ie
Bet they are in the top 10 of best paid
staff. – Gavin Tobin, thejournal.ie
Our university salaries wouldn’t make the
top 50 in the world. And the cap means
that we can’t compete. – David Hopkins,
thejournal.ie
TBH
TO BE HONEST
An unheard voice in education
I can’t blame my son for his lack of
interest in the Leaving Cert
My 17-year-old son is sitting his Leaving
Cert in three months. He has no interest in
the books or in any of the subjects he is
taking and I can’t force him to study – he’s
practically a man.
He’s a bright enough lad, can find his way
around a computer and he’s very witty
(supposed to be a sign of intelligence, I
believe?). He thinks the whole thing is a
waste of time and I’m finding it increasingly
difficult to defend the system.
I don’t blame the school – they’ve done
their best with him. The problem is that the
system is just not designed for lads like my
son. He doesn’t understand why he has to
learn Irish verbs, Shakespeare plays,
French letter writing or maths equations.
“You just have to” is not an answer any
bright 17-year-old is going to accept.
He wants to work in computers but he
gets precious little chance to develop those
skills in school. He might have benefited
from taking some more practical,
vocational courses for the Leaving but the
expensive, exclusive private school I sent
him to doesn’t offer them.
When I was in school, people would just
say that a kid was not into the books and
not make such a big deal of it. It’s a wasted
opportunity though. The Leaving Cert
doesn’t bring the best out in so many of our
students. My son is an active, practical
person – hands-on. He has a lot of ability
but there’s little to interest a 21st century
kid in the Leaving Cert cycle. Despite all the
talk of the smart economy, the Irish
classroom is still very close to model I grew
up with, and indeed my parents before me.
Teacher talking, kids taking notes. Learning
reams of information off-by-heart with no
real motivation given other than fear of the
exams.
My son has no fear of the exams. I can’t
instil that in him now.
To be honest, I can’t even say with much
conviction that a lot of this stuff is worth
learning. I don’t use the Irish verbs,
Shakespeare plays, maths equations or
French letter writing techniques I learned in
school. And he knows that because he
asked me one day in the middle of yet
another conversation about why he should
get up the stairs and study.
I tell him what all parents tell their kids.
You just have to do it to get into college.
Never mind that it doesn’t stimulate you
and it doesn’t suit your abilities and you’ll
never use it again. But how much longer
can we be expected to spin that line before
something changes? Isn’t it time to face up
to the questions our own kids are asking
about the Leaving Cert?
This column is designed to give a voice to
those within the education system who
wish to speak out anonymously.
Contributions are welcome.
Email sflynn@irishtimes.com