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Published: April 5th 2008
My kids
we went on a school trip!That is the name of the school I am working with - it is pronounced "skull woyruh" (means Mary's School)and it is a catholic primary school in a disadvantaged area. It's only about a ten-minute walk from here and its a pretty ncie walk. I'm very lucky because all of the other girls have to take the bus or a train or in some cases both to get to their school placements.
Ireland does not separate church and state, so most of the schools in Ireland are either Catholic or Protestant, with a few smatterings of Jewish, Islam, nondemonational, etc. The state is very careful about equalizing funding (I don't know if anyone remembers, but we tried that whole 'separete but equal' thing and it didn't work out too well for us.) They are supposed to get a certain amount of religious instruction a day but most teachers consider it an expendable subject, and many admit that Ireland is generally moving towards a separation of church and state. The kids would basically learn what ours would learn in a sunday school classroom.
The teachers here teach a lot more subjects than elementary schools back hone.. They do not have
my kids again
at the train station separate teachers who teach only PE or Art or Music, but the classroom teacher is trained to teach those as well as the core subjects. I've seen my teacher, Mr. Neenan (whom I have a huge crush on) teach English, science, geography, history, art, music, PE, dance, math, and Irish.
Oh yeah...Irish. All of the students here begin learning Irish at age four, when kids go to school. Many of them hate it but they are all fairly good at it, even in the class of 11-year-olds that I am with. Irish and English are very distantly part of the Indo-European language family, but not in the same category, there are few roots that are the same, so it is nearly impossible for me to decipher. However, its neat to listen to.
I also watched some Gaelic football, which is the strangest mixture of volleyball, soccer, football and basketball. Its set up like soccer in that you have to get the ball down the field into a goal, but you can pass it by kicking or by knocking it out of your hand like you were serving a volleyball. You can run with it, but only four steps
my teacher
handsome bloke. before you either have to stop and pass, dribble it once like a basketball, or drop it and kick it back to you like dribbling in soccer. Its basically anything goes except throwing the ball. Its bizzare.
Anyways, really hungry now and trying to meet up with a girl to go to some flea markets, so that's it for today. Monday I will post some pics of my school and the kids.
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Vic Riggs
non-member comment
Good info
Cheyenne, you write a very interesting "blog"(?). It's very informative and at the same time interesting! Thanks, babe! keep up the good work! Sounds like you are enjoying this "adventure"! Love ya! Granpaw Vic