Bloody Teenagers

Posted on November 16, 2018 by johnkilleagh

I live near a lovely village in East Cork called Killeagh. It’s a small village that’s blessed with a public woodland tucked in behind it. The wood is full of walks, and a great playground for younger kids.

The playground was the work of a local committee who managed to source the land, the funding and the goodwill to get it built. We’re quite proud of it.

And this year it was vandalised.

Not too long after there was a meeting. Unfortunately I didn’t make it. However, I heard after that someone was arguing for a higher fence to be installed, so as to keep out the anti-social element.

It strikes me that this is a particularly curmudgeonly way to a) view the whole affair and b) fix the problem. I kinda doubt a few extra feet of fence would keep out anybody determined.

*I suspect this man was at the meeting*
(From the brilliant pen of John Connolly – The Wolf in Winter)

The whole affair got me thinking about the mindset of the individual(s) concerned, and how they view teenagers.

You can see the arguments develop, can’t you?

And yes, teenagers do get involved in risky behaviours:

Teenagers can be moody (shocker)
Some teenagers drink too much
Some teenagers smoke
Some teenagers engage in self-destructive behaviours
Some teenagers engage in risky sexual behaviours
Some teenagers can engage in anti-social behaviour

But you know what? Teenagers are amazing

Teenagers sleep out every year in Dublin to raise money and awareness for homelessness.
On the quiet, many teenagers help out at home in a big way. They visit grandparents, they help care for others in the family. They take on a role far greater than we usually know about. And they do it without any great praise.
Teenagers help charities. How many teenagers go through the mammoth fundraising task of going to India to help street children? That’s incredible!
Teenagers help out in local clubs, committees and societies. They do this not for any pay, but because they enjoy it, and see it as a good thing to do.

So, whenever I hear the begrudgers giving out about teenagers, I tend to think of the generosity of spirit and the goodness that I’ve seen in the many teenagers I’ve had the privilege to know.

Headlines are easy. It’s much more challenging to look beyond the drama of that, read further into it, and come up with your own conclusion.

Bloody Hell.
Teenagers Are Amazing

Debating the 8th

Posted on May 20, 2018 by johnkilleagh

We now have less than one week to go until we vote on the referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution. The amendment currently outlaws abortion in Ireland, except under circumstances where the life of the mother is under imminent danger.

Anytime I have debated the issue of abortion I try to keep a few guidelines for myself:

I do not know if the person to whom I am speaking has ever had an abortion, or suffered a miscarriage. Therefore, I need to be mindful of the hurt that others carry
My views on religion are not always shared by others – and I do not have the right to force those views on others

This has been a difficult campaign, with some campaigners spreading vitriol and venom: personalising attacks on those who hold a different viewpoint to themselves. This is as sad to watch as it is understandable. This is a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ issue. There is no maybe.

However, there is one hard truth to be faced: In 2016 a total of 3,265 women gave Irish addresses at abortion clinics in the UK. That’s 9 women and girls a day travelling to the UK for an abortion.

Abortion happens in Ireland, whether we like it or not. We just export it at a great cost to the women who travel. The cost is not just financial, it is in terms of health. The risks inherent in getting a medical procedure with no follow-through or back-up available afterwards mean that some of these women suffer mental and physical trauma as they journey home afterwards.

One argument against abortion is that we should be able to do better as a country and look after women and children. It’s a lovely idea – but not a reality that we are likely to see happen anytime soon. Just look at this country’s history in protecting the vulnerable, we seem to be far better at protecting institutions. If we truly care about the life of the unborn, then we need to do more to change the world that our children are being born into.

I think that Sr. Joan Chittister put it very well. We need a broader conversation about what pro-life really is. But until that Utopian moment arrives we need to deal with the reality of the struggle that so many women go through each year in Ireland.

Over the past few weeks I have heard a number of stories and read a number of accounts by women who have had abortions in traumatic circumstances. Women who carried children who could not survive birth; women who felt they could not care for a child due to poverty or an abusive relationship; women who were not women but children themselves when this all happened.

Many on the No side have not shown respect towards women in crisis. I personally find a number of the posters distasteful, insensitive and occasionally emotionally abusive. That some do this in the name of their faith displays a faith lacking in compassion.

Whether abortion is legalised or not, I’m going to leave the last words to a friend of mine:

“The place of the Christian outside the abortion clinic is not shouting at those going in but holding and loving those coming out” Scott Evans – Closer Still

Action On Two Fronts

Posted on October 24, 2016 by johnkilleagh

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that we are now very close to a crisis in our secondary schools. This week members of the ASTI will undertake the first of seven proposed strikes. This action has been flagged for quite a while.

Before I go any further allow me to state my own belief – this is a totally justified strike. I am proud to be a member of a union where we are standing up for our (mostly) younger members.

At the ASTI conference in March delegates listened to newly-qualified teachers who are paid less for the same work. They are on a different pay scale, and are losing thousands of Euro a year simply because they had the misfortune to become a teacher after 2011.

(For clarity, it’s not just the different pay scale – it’s the fact that degree allowances are now gone. All this when the same teachers have to train for longer -a 2 year master’s degree on top of a primary degree being a basic requirement).

Following this, the members present voted overwhelmingly to support industrial action if the government did not restore pay parity for new teachers by September. Of course there was no move, and the union has taken the action mandated by its members last March.

So, this action is hardly a surprise, is it? The only possible surprise is that the union decided to take such a strong action in support of NQTs.

However, this is not the only action we’re facing at the moment. ASTI members are not going to cooperate with Supervision and Substitution from November 7th.

Last year, the members of the ASTI voted not to become part of the Landsdowne Road agreement – we would complete our obligations under the Haddington Road agreement, but did not see enough of benefit in the Landsdowne Road agreement to make it worthwhile to sign up for it.

This meant that we would no longer undertake the famous Croke Park Hours. Those punitive hours that were regularly denounced as being unproductive (especially seeing as out-of-school activities did not count).

Once the Haddington Road agreement ended and the ASTI did not join Landsdowne Road the government had what could be described as a hissy fit. Though their actions may also be described as those of a bully. Younger ASTI members were targeted specifically with having to wait 4 years for a CID, and the part-offer of removing the post 2011 payscale was rescinded.

Then things got nasty. Part of the Haddington Road agreement was that the government would return S&S pay to teachers. It was removed from ASTI members in a clear breach of that agreement.

The union response is this – you promised to return payment for S&S, you broke the promise, so we won’t do S&S from November 7th. This has the potential for far more disruptive than the 7 strike days. We face the possibility of the indefinite closure of a number of schools from that day. The biggest crisis to face schools in my lifetime.

And this particular dispute could have been avoided – but for the actions of a government determined to bully.

These are two huge fights to be taking on – and it will take a lot of determination and energy to succeed.

Even if we win there are still a number of issues between the ASTI and the government:

The Junior Cycle Campaign
Posts of Responsibility
Class Size

Some members of the ASTI have been vocal in stating that these are too many fights to take on. These voices need to be taken seriously – there is sense in being strategic in how we deal with these issues when faced with an increasingly hostile government.

Just what are schools for?

Posted on November 10, 2014 by johnkilleagh

It’s the kind of question that can get you thinking.

Depending on who’s standing on a soapbox, you could be led to think that schools are responsible for any number of different, and possibly contradictory, functions.

Schools should prepare students for science
Schools should prepare students for business
Schools should prepare students for the world of work
Schools should prepare students for the arts

and so on.

In the midst of all of this there is the juggernaut of assessment. The cycle of PISA brings panic and hysteria to departments and newsrooms as whole countries try to reassess how they are doing in competition with their neighbours.

I have previously stated my reservations around the Narrow Focus on Assessment, but for a better reply to PISA than I could ever write, have a look at this piece written in the Guardian.

But schools are, I believe, more than just about turning out utilitarian units destined to be productive members of the business community or of industry.

I think that the piece of Irish Legislation dealing with the running of schools (The Education Act, 1998) actually gives a good idea of what schools can be. In Section 9, (d) the Act states that schools shall “promote the moral, spiritual, social and personal development of students, and provide health education for them”

That really opens it up.

The children we take into schools will one day leave as adults ready to take their place in the world.

Yes, some will go on to be business leaders, and yes, some will go on to be innovators, entrepreneurs, productive employees.

But not all of them.

There will also students who will not find a job, there will be the students who may be too ill, or have too great a disability to work.

The students who leave our schools will go on to become parents, friends and neighbours. They will be members of communities and clubs, they will be a part of society. And how do our schools serve them?

Schools are not something that are separate, where students are trained. Schools are a part of society. They are places that children grow and develop. They are messy complicated places full of little (and large) dramas. Schools have got ranges of students of differing abilities, and differing personalities. Schools are full of students fighting their own battles and still trying to do their best.

We already know this. But in the face of the constant pressure of assessment, we sometimes forget it.

There is a great line in Terry Pratchett’s ‘Small Gods’. In a scene where a library is burning, some characters argue over which books to save. As one fights for scrolls on maths and engineering, another fights for literature and philosophy “these teach us how to be human!” he cries.

I like that.

Schools are places full of humanity, and places where we learn to be human.

Maybe, ultimately, this is what schools are for. Places where we learn to become human.