Author Archive
Religion being taught in schools
Posted on: July 5, 2013
- In: Debate | Education | School
- 2 Comments
There’s one class in school that I know from experience and talking to others that is usually thought incorrectly and inaccurately. Religion. Usually a filler class for most that takes up two classes out of the 49 I have a week – I tend to have to sit in religion and have to listen to a bias opinion on one religion and I know from others that I’m not the only one to experience it.
Since the Celtic Tiger, Ireland’s religious spectrum expanded and even though the vast majority of the country fall under the title of Roman Catholic there is plenty of other citizens with different views on religion and their spirituality. But why is it that even though the country has changed, the system has not changed? Why is it that Ireland’s education system for religious education has not evolved with the population and the students in school?
I’ll tell you why, because Ireland has it’s head in the clouds and does not take religion as a serious subject. 1,500 students sat religious education for their Leaving Certificate this June and I only know one of them. Until a few months back I was even unaware of the fact that religion was a subject for leaving certificate. I was aware of it being studied for the Junior Cert, but not the leaving cert.
So if people aren’t studying for the exam that is available, what are they studying for? Nothing. The classes are used by a teacher that is probably not qualified in religion but only has a strong view on the topic (which is usually bias to one religion). For example, a teacher who is extremely catholic could voice their opinion on same sex marriage, adoption laws and abortion in a negative way but not allow for an open opinion from the opposite side of the argument.
I believe that religion should remain a subject in schools – but not as what it is. I, as an agnostic, would very much so like to learn about different religions, philosophy and different outlooks on life from a teacher who is unbiased to their own religion. They say a traveled mind is a broadened mind, but how can someone have a broad mind when their mind has only seen Catholicism?
– Paraic McLean
Crazy School Rules
Posted on: February 5, 2013
By Erin & Laragh
When you enter a school, and put on a uniform it seems like you lose your basic human rights. Independence and self-expression are no longer acceptable. Whenever a teacher dislikes your attitude and appearance there always seems to be a school rule they can use to enforce their point. Do any of us really know our school rules? There is a mysterious force affecting so much of our school life but where is the justice behind them. Not even all rules are written, once a student is told that a rule exists it is treated as an unquestionable fact, but this is not always the case. It is important to understand which rules exist and which have just become so ingrained in the school psychology that they are treated as fact. Have you ever tried to get a hard copy of your schools rules? If not I would encourage you to try. We’ve all heard of some insane school rules: no smiling to yourself, no school bags and no holding hands (with people of the opposite gender two girls/boys is fine!) to name but a few. Please message us your school rules and let’s see if together we can change the way these rules are enforced.
Leaving Cert Race
Posted on: August 14, 2012
- In: Education | School
- Leave a Comment
The senior cycle Irish education system is nothing but a race to the finish line. Whoever is the favourite usually succeeds most; the less capable contestants are left in the dust while others push on to reach glory, the higher you achieve the more points you get. In my eyes this is a sham and needs to be reformed. It does not let the less intellectual students gain places in courses they wish for. Students mentally divide themselves from other student’s standards. Some students feel inferior to others as grades are exchanged , no longer is saying to your mates “I failed again” a gag in lunchtime chitter chatter . In Ireland today if you do not do your leaving cert whatever way you dress it up, you are going nowhere.
Another side to this ridiculous system is the amount of pressure that students have to endure. I can honestly tell you that” 6th year was the worse year of my life”. The expectations that people have for you, the decisions you have to make that will determine your way in life, the hours of study you have to put in on top of trying to get exercise in and staying social to keep you sane is a balance battle that every young person has to go through. In every situation there are the people that handle it well but then there are the people like me who just crack with the stress of everything.
In August the anticipation for the leaving cert results overwhelms everyone. Will the hard work I put in pay off? Will I get my dream course? What will I do if I don’t get what I want? These are all constant thoughts in each students mind. When the results are in and the offers are out you have the people who get what they want and are over the moon , people who didn’t get their number one choice on the Cao but will happily take another offer , and the people who are absolutely devastated that they didn’t get what they want and have few options . 1 is to repeat 2 is to do a fetec course and no.3 is to find some sort of a job in this economic climate. To someone who aims high and works hard to not get their dream course these are not feasible options and leave students in shatters all around the country.
The government have taken the first step in starting to reform the junior cycle but how many more leaving cert students will have to go through that finish line before the system is completely reformed.
Best of luck to all the leaving cert students on the 15th and 20th of August.
Lisa Marie Sheehy
18 Years old
My School Days
Posted on: March 9, 2012
By Micheal Ward
My name is Michael Ward, I am 15 years old and I am an early school leaver. I would like to see if I could push a little bit further to get my leaving cert. It was not my decision to leave school at 15. I feel bad that I am not in the educational system anymore, but I do not feel bad that I am not in school, because my school days were not good. I would like to do my leaving cert outside of school if that was possible. Unfortunately right now it is not.
My classroom experience was negative. I found school very boring, because I didn’t understand what was going on. I missed a lot of school and when I asked the teachers to explain things to me, they just ignored me. I was always behind and I could never catch up, when I wanted to do homework for other subjects I got in trouble. I just had to sit there.
I don’t know if anyone else had the same problem of being a target for teachers in school. I found school to be a disturbing place. Not everybody found school disturbing some people enjoy it. I personally was made to feel different, like an animal in the zoo. I missed a lot of school but nobody helped me to catch up. I know that other people got the help they needed when they missed school. Why couldn’t they help me? Why was I the one to be left out?. To be very honest school disgusted me. During my research for this topic I found the following quote to be very true ‘ the quality of relations between teachers and students, emerges as a key factor in young people staying in education. Negative interaction with teachers is commonly reported by early school leavers, with many feeling they did not receive the help they needed or were not listened to’. This was the reason I left school.
One day I had a stud in my ear and a fellow student had an even bigger stud in his ear. I was told to take it out immediately and I did. The other student was told to take it out as well but he did not. I wore the stud again because I saw that the other student was wearing it so I thought it must be ok. I was sent home and nothing was said to him. Between this type of discrimination and many others. I started to act out. I wanted to leave school. I hated it.
I figured out a way to leave the school for good. I got into a physical fight. I know I gave them a reason to put me out of school. I couldn’t stay there any longer. School was more difficult for me. I was tired of being treated badly every day, so I started acting badly. Nobody was ever on my side. I needed the teachers help with everything because I found it hard to read and write. When I asked the teachers for help they responded really sarcastically and made me feel stupid. Other students didn’t need the teacher as much, but I did. Teachers didn’t always want to help me, I found it very hard.
One teacher in particular hurt my feelings the most. He knew I couldn’t read and usually he never asked me. One day it was different, I was being cheeky so he decided to humiliate me by asking me to read. He made a joke over the fact that I couldn’t read. I got really smart with him and I left the class. I explained to the principal what happened, and then I left the school and went home. All I ever wanted was to be taught something and not to have somebody force me. It would be great if I could just ask a question without being made to feel stupid. I was so sick of being told that I ‘should know’ it, or ‘we’ve done that before’.
Not everything about school was bad. I did have some nice experiences. In 3rd year I had a resource English teacher. There was only 2 students in the class and I got the time I needed. She always helped me before I ever had to ask her. She made things easy to understand. These classes were really helping me but when I went into 4th year they were no longer available.
I like art and I’m good at it. I had an art teacher that saw my talent and encouraged me. It was the first time a teacher was positive towards me. I looked forward to her classes and I never missed one. I knew what I had to do in that class, I was always occupied with something. I never acted out because I had something to do, I knew I was good at it and so did the teacher. It was not just in the classroom that the teacher was very nice, she also stuck up for me when I was accused of something I didn’t do. Finally, someone was on my side.
School made new friends for me. I mixed with people I would never have usually mixed with. I played soccer in school that I never use to do. I only played for the laugh and I really enjoyed it. Being in school also brought me closer to my cousin, we never use to hang out before and now we’re good friends.
My Uncle left school at 12, he’s now 29 and he’s very depend on other people when it comes to reading and writing. When he gets a letter in the post his wife has to read it to him, When he wants to tax his car, pay for insurance he always needs his wife there. There’s a big difference between those times and these times. Now there is still the chance to get an education when you leave school like me for example.
There are a lot more opportunities now to get an education outside of school. There are schemes run by youth reach and the VEC for adult education. I hope to get my leaving cert in the near future, I would like to get more education, I know that opportunity is still out there. I want to get a good job.
In my opinion, people that leave school should not fall behind in education because chances are out there to help you outside of school. Do not give up. I personally am going to keep trying and get the education I deserve. If you wenthrough what I want through would you really want to stay in school. I know I am not alone on this as every year 9,000 young people leave school. This has to stop.
By Lee Campbell
So as Ireland and the World feed off the power of the internet, is this new proposed intellectual property legislation set to be The Beginning of the End for Internet Freedom!
The new law is to (supposedly) protect intellectual property for some hard-lobbying entertainment companies , the new legislation, intends to let the entertainment industry force internet providers such as UPC amongst others , to shut down access to websites that they deem to be in breech of piracy.
SOPA is originally the name of a piece of US legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act, recently proposed in the US. It caused an Internet-wide outcry due to its far-reaching implications; way beyond simply closing access to outlaw file sharing websites, it would have enabled law enforcement to block access to entire internet domains due to infringing material posted on a single blog or webpage and now a similar piece of legislation is being proposed in Ireland !
But will this legislation give an immense amount of power to an already powerful industry as Intellectual property is a very wide term and as Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman argues Intellectual property “systematically distorts and confuses these kind of issues, and its use was and is promoted by those who gain from this confusion.”
And how might this effect young peoples jobs in the future with Major Internet Companies such as Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter that could breech these laws being major employers here in Ireland , Do we really want to hinder them ?
This new legislation allows judges to order ISPs like UPC or Eircom to block access to sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter where an individual user from anywhere in the world has shared infringing material so could all of this lead to “High Court Injunctions” of all kinds or just plain government censorsing, Blocking the Freedom of websites and the internet, and with Young People constantly using the internet as a forum for education could you think of that invaluable resource just vanishing as Wikipedia stated in its “Black Out Protest” : “Imagine a World without Free Knowledge”
SOPA could be the beginning of the end for our Internet Freedom and Nobody in Ireland will even have a say as it is being passed by a ministerial order not through the Dail !
Too many, Too young
Posted on: January 25, 2012
By Tanya W.
The people you go to school with whether your good friends or you just pass each other in the corridor, you remember these people long past you’re leaving cert year. If you went to a small school like me that is very true. Your school days always stay with you the good days and the bad days.
Young people spend more years in schools then there parents did. So it’s not surprising that school goers go through a lot more together now. As you spend longer in school so you’re older when you leave. Unfortunately we also go through a lot of things our parents never went through or were protected against. I’m not saying they had it easier just trying to point out that we have different things to deal with.
I have often spoke with my parents about what school was like for them. We spoke today about how the 6th young person under 21 in my town died in a horrible car accident. Five of them were in my school with a population of only 120 students that is an alarming rate. My dad explained how he only ever had one school friend die under the age of 23. I’ve had to attend 5 so far. That is 5 too many in my opinion. Im sure I’m not the only one whose had to do this but it’s worrying that it’s becoming more common.
All six young people died in different horrible accidents 2 suicides, one from a medical condition and 3 in car accidents. Unfortunately their deaths have had a huge ripple effect on the young people in the town, with very little support for the young people of the town.
When you have to hold a teenage lad crying his eyes out you know there is something really wrong. Yet there’s nothing you can do but be there with arms open to give them a shoulder to cry on. Mental health services are very hard to access as they are but I heard the other day that theHSEare cutting the budget in the mental health services this is an outrage as we are living in very hard times. And now more then ever we need support.
I believe more money should be put into promoting positive mental and mental health initiatives for projects like Headstrong’s Jigsaw, which has been proven to help. Unfortunately there is not a jigsaw in every county yet but I think thee services need more support to try and get one in every county.
Presidential Election
Posted on: November 16, 2011
By Lee Campbell
Ninth President of Ireland Michael D Higgins promises presidential seminars on key issues such as seminars with youth. But were these just election campaign promises? , During the presidential campaign a couple of us from Voices of Youth went to the Barnardos Presidential Debate. There was a lot of talk about different issues effecting youth such as mental health or the purposed referendum on Children’s Rights but there was no talk of how he or the other presidential candidates would highlight young peoples voices on these issues through there high profile role as President .
So I decided to ask this question and this is when they came out with suggestions such as youth seminars but were these again just tokenistic answers? After the deabate Michael D Higgins the now President of Ireland came up to me and he was very engaging about how to highlight young people voices through these forums.
So maybe this was more than just tokenism, We would like to see these youth seminars be followed through and have young people voices highlighted through The Office Of President.
- In: Debate | Youth Poll
- Leave a Comment
Doom & Glum
By Tanya W.
It is scary how young people view the world today. They see there parents struggling to pay bills more and more families are living in consistent poverty. Young people are really feeling the pinch of the recession.
If your between 16-18 your more than likely looking at leaving Ireland to go in search of college or work. Leaving behind your whole life friends family and community yet not wanting to but seeing this as the only option you have.
Speaking to friends and hearing them going on about the siblings going half way around the world in search on jobs. With many of them doing it as most of their friends have gone and is less and less to keep them here the government are hitting them from every angle. Services are being cut social has been drop to ridiculous rates and people just can’t afford to live an average life here.
Young people who are in secondary school have the fear of asking their parents to go on the school trip’s. I even know of someone who got in trouble with the school for not going on a trip as it was compulsory, yet when brought to parents attention they didn’t know about it and the child explained he hadn’t told them as he knew they couldn’t afford for him to go so he didn’t ask. im sure this is happening all across the country. Which is frightening.
According to statistics I come across for last year we had the highest rate emigration in the european union. With 9 in 1,000 people leaving the country. which im sure has gone up as this year has been worse than last and we’ve get to get the new budget. can we really afford to lose this many young people.
Yet with further cuts in youth services and college being more expenses and harder for people to go it’s not surprising. I don’t think the government are doing enough to stop us from loosing all of our young people. when the are spending money on having pointless referendums to see if they can cut judges pay. why wouldn’t you everyone else has had to take cuts so why not them??
i just afraid of what the country will be like in 5 years if the country keeps going the way its going as I don’t think we will have many young people and we will also have lost well-educated and trained young people.
- In: Campaigning | Debate
- 1 Comment
By Tanya W.
Yet again the government like to swap and change there mind about what age you’re an adult. At 16 you can pay taxes, work and pay adult fairs when in comes to public services, all the down sides yet not getting any of the perks and being told you should act like an adult.
Then at 18 you continue doing all that stuff but now you get some of the perks like being able to buy drink and fags, go night clubs, vote but you get more bills and pressured to decided what to do with your life because know you’re an adult yet at same time treated like a child.
At 21 now you’re eventually old enough for people to actually treat and speak to you like an adult and you can now become a politician so you can run to become a member of the Dail and even maybe Taoiseach. The person with the most power in the country. Yet again the government decided you are not old enough to do other jobs i.e. run for president which for some mad reason you can’t run for until you’re over 35. Why 35?? I’ve no idea it doesn’t make sense to me.
So if I get this right you can run the country at 21 as that’s the age you have to be a politician so you can become a member of Dail and become the Taoiseach. Not that I saying it likely to happen at the age of 21 but it could happen by the age of 30 let’s say. So you can be aged anywhere from 21 and run the country having complete control over it. Yet you can’t become the face of the country which is a lot of the president’s job. I’m not saying they are not important or don’t have other jobs but in a way that’s what they are.
In the next coming month we have to vote for are next president we have a choice of 7 candidates made up of 5 males 2 females all over the age of 50. All I’m sure have there strengths and weakness. Any of the seven will do a good job I’m sure I’m just really
confused. Constantly it is being said the youth are the future they will get us out of this. We need to look to the youth. Yet we won’t allow the youth to run to be president that just seems very contradictory to me.
I would safely say there are people out there under the age of 35 who make excellent presidents but they don’t have the choice because it’s wrote in a document that is really old and out of date. I think its time that it was updated and the age lowered. If there’s a valid reason why it’s that age I will listen but I don’t think there is a leg to stand on trying to keep the age requirement at 35.
Voicesofyouth 