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Ireland's big school secret: how a year off-curriculum changes teenage lives

(www.theguardian.com)
204 points joveian | 2 comments | 16 Oct 24 17:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.406s | source
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sollewitt ◴[16 Oct 24 19:11 UTC] No.41862689[source]▶
In TY in 1998 I:

worked at an architect's, an archeologist's, a hospital, an epidemiological research institute where I got to use _my own computer_ all day - decided I needed to work with computers, got a summer job there.

earned the President's Award medal

had one class where we stripped an engine over the term

got my first aid certificate

learned how to develop film

took night classes touch typing (on an electric typewriter)

took part in the Irish language school music competition

took German

was in a play

got an award at the Young Scientist

I really developed as a person. I hadn't ever really stopped to think what my life would be like without that development but I suspect it was very beneficial. It certainly wasn't a "doss" - and it started to grow a self determination muscle - find your own work experience, find projects you want to try etc.

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jan_Inkepa ◴[16 Oct 24 20:32 UTC] No.41863544[source]▶
School for me (in Ireland) was more or less a race to get out of school (+ concomitant bullying) and into university to study what I was interested in (maths - at that point I wasn't able to advance any further on my own and there was nobody who could help/guide me further where I lived) - the idea of adding a year on felt like it would be a waste. In retrospect, yeah I think I made a good call. Happy to see other people getting benefit from it though.
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1. kiliantics ◴[17 Oct 24 01:22 UTC] No.41865551[source]▶
I think OP must have grown up in a pretty affluent neighbourhood. (How many schools have programmes with epidemiological institutes?) If I had done TY in the school I went to with the others in my cohort that did, my experience would have likely been much closer to theirs than to OP's: rarely attending school, drinking, smoking weed, and in some cases not returning back to school at all to finish the leaving cert.

I was much happier getting out of school as soon as I possibly could like yourself.

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2. piltdownman ◴[17 Oct 24 09:00 UTC] No.41867708[source]▶
TY was historically the proviso of South Dublin schools and the more elite boarders. The majority of rural students skipped it and hit University by 17.

OP sounds like he was in a gaelscoil - an Irish language school. The 'epidemiological institute' in question was either RCSI or UCD - fairly standard for 3rd level institutions to have relationships/programmes/open days with various feeder Schools.

The big red herring was the engine module. No 'affluent' school would remotely consider offering a course in stripping an engine over a semester in 1998 - far more likely that those Students were put learning classics, latin or ancient greek.