I talked with a lot of people about which options I’d choose. I got John’s old school-books and leafed through them to get a feel for some of the subjects too. I also talked to a couple of different teachers too.

Eventually, I went with Economics, Physics and History, in that order.

I chose these subjects primarily because I liked them all, but also because some of them would be helpful for a career in journalism. Economics is quite current-affairs-y, according to John. Plus, I did Business Studies for Junior Cert. Even though I dropped it in 3rd Year, I did enjoy some parts of it.

I wanted a science subject, just to keep my options open. I didn’t think any one science subject is better than any other if you want to be a journalist, so I could choose purely on what I enjoyed. It came down to Physics or Biology, and I eventually went for the former, putting the latter as Preference #4.

History was a subject that I loved for Junior Cert so it seemed like a good choice to keep up for the Leaving.

We’ll find out in 2-3 weeks if we got our options, so I’m looking forward to that. All going well, I’ll be doing Irish, English, Maths, Spanish, Economics, Physics and History for my Leaving Cert.

The options are listed above. The ones I’m considering (marked with a * above) are Biology, History, Home Economics, Music and Physics. Because there was some confusion on this, I’d like to clarify that Technology actually has little to do with IT.

The completed form above is due to be handed into the school on Friday. I’m somewhat sure I’m going to go with Biology, Physics and Home Ec. That’s subject to change, though.

What subjects did you do for your Leaving Cert? Did you enjoy them? Would you go back and do something different if you could?

I’ve been participating in debates on and off since First Year. It’s where my love of public speaking comes from and also where my opinion that public speaking should be taught as a subject stems from.

The two main school debating competitions available to us are Concern Debates and the VEC Competition. It’s interesting to be able to be able to contrast the two competitions. As Concern is a charity, all of their motions revolve around current affairs and world issues. While it’s good that students debating these motions learn a lot about the topic, it terms of debating itself, the motions are difficult, narrow and not particularly ‘fun’.

VEC, on the other hand, are trying to get students interested in debating and their motions are generally more relatable to teens and laid-back. The Irish do too much drinking and too little thinking” and “technology is the ruination of our social lives” are typical examples of VEC motions.

I’m not saying which competition is better or anything, as they each have their individual merits, but there is a very definite difference between the Concern and VEC competitions.

For Junior Cert Music, which I do, you have to do four practical pieces for the exam. I’ll be doing two on voice and two on drums. One of the songs I’ll be singing is this one, A Long December by Counting Crows.

Counting Crows are a relatively new find for me. I’d known Accidentally in Love from Shrek 2, which I’d liked but hadn’t loved. I can’t remember who recommended them to me, but I decided to check out the band’s other stuff. I went onto Spotify and found their “Best Of” album, Films About Ghosts and really liked it, and my love of Counting Crows has truly been cemented.

Part of the reason I like them is because they remind me in a lot of ways of R.E.M., one of my favourite bands of all time. They’re not as good as R.E.M. (I recently described them as R.E.M.’s less talented younger brother) but their music carries a similarly emotive quality and they’re both catchy bands.

Speaking of R.E.M., for my second song on voice, I’m reasonably certain that I’m doing their song Losing My Religion. A supremely catchy, supremely hum-able song, it speaks to me of my time in America, walking through the snow to a bookshop or café to study biology or the Russian Revolutions at the start of the 20th Century.

On drums, I’m looking at doing something fast and slow. Something by Green Day (like American Idiot or Hitchin’ A Ride) will do fine for fast, and I’m thinking maybe Creep by Radiohead for the slower song.

(Click for bigger)

Posting might be sporadic for the next four weeks or so as I’m in the midst of the exams. Yes, they’re only my Mocks and yes, it’s only the Junior Cert but like I said in a previous post, no reason in not putting the effort into it.

Luckily, the exams seem to have fallen nicely, with the hardest ones (Maths and Science) towards the end, affording me more study time for them. I even find myself with an exam free day in the middle of it all!

I also have a school debate coming up on Thursday. My team and I are proposing the motion that the UN has failed Africa. Stay tuned to see how that went.

I was talking with my Dad (through Irish) the other day about how the language has some really beautiful turns-of-phrases. I agreed with him but pointed out how I didn’t think Irish as a subject in school was geared keeping appreciation for the language going and generally keeping the language alive.

Now, before we continue – this isn’t a whiny post. I’m quite happy and content to continue Irish as is because I imagine that I have very little chance of changing anything; especially for my Junior Cert. in 2011 and Leaving Cert. in 2013 or 2014 (Transition Year is still being considered and I don’t have to choose until 2011). Think of this post instead as one of those hypothetical games we all played in primary school: If you were President of Ireland for the day…

Let me begin by saying that I really quite like Irish. I know about half of you have raised eyebrows at this stage, but I’ll continue. I love the language and speak it quite often around my parents and siblings (when they’re home; maybe subconsciously to make sure they’re not becoming too Americanised.. have you heard Patrick’s accent?!). English is most definitely the dominant language but we’d definitely use it a fair bit – more than any other family I know actually and I’ve asked around.

I think it’s a beautiful language actually – English has no real nice turns of phrases while Irish is full of them. Case in point: To say ‘last week’ in Irish, one would say an seachtain seo chaite. A literal translation of same would be something like “The week just spent”, which I find quite nice.

So: these problems I mentioned in the title.

As an Exam Subject

I think most of the dislike of Irish stems from the core thought of “When will I need this?” – one can’t help but somewhat agree with this. Unless one wishes to be the next Conn Ó Muíneacháin (not that there’s anything wrong with that), the chances are that your future vocation won’t require you to know the ins and outs of Irish poetry.

With this in mind, I’d no longer teach Irish as an exam subject – if we changed the core method of how it was taught, I’m confident that interest, respect and general enjoyment of the subject would go up. Instead of focussing on getting you through exams, we spent the 155 minutes per week just appreciating Irish, much more in terms of keeping the language alive (which is the end goal, right?) would be achieved.

Speak, Speak and Then Speak Some More

You immerse yourself in a language by speaking it and 155 minutes (how long we have now) of speaking Irish would be endlessly beneficial. After all, that’s how you keep a language alive; not by writing a page and a half on the theme of ‘sadness’ in Reoiteog Mharfach (a poem about a young child who, in his eagerness to buy ice-cream, gets run over by a car. The title literally means “Deadly Ice-cream”).

Change Your Focusses

One can’t help but get the feeling that the purpose of most classes (not limited to Irish) are geared toward getting you through exams. Students love SPHE (Social, Physical and Health Education) because, well, it’s a bit of a doss. A class not geared toward the Junior Cert. is welcomed with open arms. We’ll watch some film clips or have a class discussion and it’s generally a more relaxed atmosphere.

I believe that making students enjoy Irish (an impression I can’t say I share with any of my class-mates) is the only way you’ll succeed in keeping the language alive. How do you expect these students to speak Irish with their kids when their strongest memory of the subject is resentment?

Differences

Perhaps it’s because you have a better grasp of Irish than a continental language upon entering secondary school, but I’m always surprised at how different Spanish/French/German is taught in comparison to Irish.

I finish 2nd year this afternoon – looking back at the two languages I do (Spanish and Irish), there are startling differences in how they’re taught. In Spanish, we study directions, post-cards or shopping terms. We do listening comprehensions to practise understanding spoken Spanish and learn off lists of fruit, vegetables and other such foodstuffs. Sure, we also practise conjugating verbs and such; but there’s a helluva lot more such everyday work than there is grammar work.

I’m always happy doing the donkey-work in Spanish because I know how much it’ll stand to me when I go to Spanish speaking countries. It’s perfectly obvious why we’re learning what we’re learning and thus, I (and, I think, my class-mates) quite enjoy Spanish.

So why in Irish do we focus on poetry and such?

Conclusion

I adore Irish. I don’t adore Irish classes in school while I agree with the end goal of keeping the language alive, I feel the way it’s taught in school doesn’t/won’t achieve this.

I’d love to hear about your thoughts on Irish being compulsory, why we’re doing Irish poetry, the differences between how the continental languages are taught in comparison or what you think about Ireland’s need/duty to keep the language (or lack of that belief) alive?

I started my last two weeks of proper school today, which means that come this time 3 weeks, I’ll be on summer holidays. I’ll also be in France! :) Before that, though, I have to get through 10 summer exams! Irish, English, Maths, History, Geography, CSPE (stands for Civic, Social and Political Education; basically learning about government), Spanish, Music, Business Studies and Science all have to be completed before I can enjoy my uninterrupted summer :)

Apologies if posting here will be a bit thin on the ground for the next while, so. As you can see from today’s 365, I’m actually planning on studying for these so I can feel like I earned this summer. :)

There have been so many posts bitching about the Irish education system – this isn’t one of them.

According to a new survey conducted by Newspoll for training website reasontospeak.com, the fear of public speaking ranks number one in the minds of 23% of people. Think about that for a moment. To some (23%) people, the fear of public speaking is more frightening than death.

“People’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if they go to a funeral, they’d prefer to be in the casket than doing the eulogy.” – Comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

In my opinion, public speaking is one of the most important things you can learn. Certainly, if you were to rank the most important life skills in a list, the ability to get up and speak in public is a hugely important one that would be near the top. Because of that, I think it’s hugely important to make it a mandatory subject in school. I personally don’t know where you’d fit it in, but I think it’s of vital importance that it should get taught alongside biology, geography, english or any other subject.

Chances are, somewhere in your career, you will have to talk in front of other people, and this shouldn’t be a problem for anyone. It’s a common issue that really shouldn’t be so common. In fact, I don’t even think it can afford to be a common issue.

Photo owned by codepo8 (cc)

Except poetry.

For the most part, I enjoy reading poetry. I just don’t enjoy studying it. Don’t worry, this isn’t one of these teenage angst posts about how ‘the Irish secondary school system is a farce’ and ‘as if I’ll ever use trigonometry/chemical bonding/ox-bow lakes in later life’, it’s just that poetry isn’t my thing, as it were. I’ll put effort into it and everything, but don’t ask me to like it.

Anyhow, I’m showing you a poem from my English book. Why? Because I like so few of them, finding one I actively enjoy should be noted!

War and The Simpsons – Hilary McKay

The really good thing about war is that they generally put
it on at 6 o’ clock.
Same time as The Simpsons

And nowadays, of course, war is quite safe.
It stays in the TV and makes no mess.
Even if it gets too noisy you can just turn down the sound.

(If you can find the remote.)

Also it is very clean,
No dust, nor smoke, nor blood leaks through the screen.
And when it gets boring you can switch over and watch
The Simpsons

(If you can find the remote.)

The only trouble is, it still goes on.
(The war, not The Simpsons. The Simpsons lasts for
twenty minutes — unless it is a special.)

The war still goes on. The noise and the smoke and
the leaking blood. The dirt and the boredom and the fear.
You cannot switch it off with the remote.

(Even if you can find the remote)

You have to switch it off another way
You have to say, No
No
No war
You have to say No To War.

Then you can watch The Simpsons
In peace.

I think I like it because it’s a poem on an everyday subject, and not something difficult to relate to. I think that’s why I enjoy this poem of Sinéad’s so much. (Check out her other stuff, it’s good too)

Photo owned by Bramus! (cc)

Whenever I get exam papers all I do is glance through the questions and see what I can definitely answer and what I don’t know, because I find it really comforting knowing that I have a reasonably good idea of what the answers are as I plough through it. I rarely if ever go along with some teachers’ suggestion of ‘do what you find easy first’ because I can be a bit scatter-brained in that if I pick and choose what I answer as I go through a test, I’ll invariably not see a second part of some question or something. Instead I’ll look over the test and proceed to plough through it, ignoring anything I don’t know until the end.

I’m looking forward to being finished; to Christmas; to New Year’s Eve; to John and Patrick being home; to not having school; to the Young Scientist and to eating chocolate again.

And to be honest, all of that isn’t too far away!

Tomorrow holds Maths and Irish, with people doing Religion in between. I have an exemption from it so I’ll probably head home and study. After that, it’s the weekend, which I’ll split between studying, drumming and finally getting round to buying and wrapping Christmas presents. I always leave stuff like this to the last moment; which is silly. As I always tell myself: I’ll do it in November next year.

Yeah right, T

Then on Monday I have to soldier through History, Geography and Spanish. Once they’re done and dusted, it’s Christmas break and it will be mega.

On the far side of New Year, the Young Scientist beckons! It runs from the 12th to the 16th of January – be there or be an isosceles tetrahedron! :)