The Anseo.net Newsletter features my thoughts on the Irish Primary Education System.
Read the full newsletter here
It’s been a reasonably quiet fortnight in the world of the media and primary education as it shifts its gaze to hyping up everyone involved in the Leaving Cert, (with this thoughtful exception), but all going to plan, we’re going to be hearing a lot more about school funding in the last few weeks of term.
I suppose it depends on who’s telling the news and how news is received. This can work out in a positive way, as we saw when the family who couldn’t get a place in a school last week had a breakthrough. However, the families that didn’t go to the media may still be left without a place. Similarly, last month a lobby group sent a press release about school funding and not a single journalist covered it. Last week, the CPSMA released exactly the same data, and it was everywhere.
We have a wonderful array of thoughtful and intelligent teachers talking about the education system in Ireland so it’s a little irksome when one of our only teachers in the media has to do so in secret. Furthermore, when the media believe the “most influential figure in Irish education” is a German statistician, and we move from Singapore to Estonia to find out how to do education, it can be easy to see the disillusionment creep in.
I guess it could be worse. Louisiana teachers might have to teach the Ten Commandments as fact and this British headteacher who has to double job as a caretaker to pay the bills. At least nothing like this would happen here. Oh, wait…
Read all the other stories I found interesting
Here are some X posts I enjoyed over the last couple of weeks:
- One of the nicest principals in Ireland writes an article about his upcoming retirement (via @IPPN_Education)
- You might not leave your personality at the door if you become.a teacher, merely your religious beliefs (via @Education_Ire)
- A lifelong football fan refuses a free ticket to the Champions Leagure final – what we can learn (via @RobAdcock)
- Why are train wheels not perfectly cylindrical? (via @Rainmaker1973)
- A reading list of books for children compiled over the last 20 years (via @tomtolkien)
- Not an education-related post but an analysis of why people vote for far-right candidates (via @RobinCafolla)
