Town or Country

I was talking to someone recently who lives on the edge of a large town, her child is due to start school in September and they are not sending him to the school that is near them in the town, they are sending him to a school in a village that about 4 miles away, when I asked why she said country school are better the children are more innocent!

To me it sounded like something form the Ireland of the past...do you think thinking like that about children is still common in Ireland?

Morag

I don't think that is true at all, and small country schools have their own issues with small mindedness and bullies.

Gilda Fortune

mariaalice wrote: »

I was talking to someone recently who lives on the edge of a large town, her child is due to start school in September and they are not sending him to the school that is near them in the town, they are sending him to a school in a village that about 4 miles away, when I asked why she said country school are better the children are more innocent!

To me it sounded like something form the Ireland of the past...do you think thinking like that about children is still common in Ireland?

Sorry but i tend to agree. Schools in the country seem to be better in terms of examinations scores and classroom size. im from a big town but i live in the country now. the children here do seem to be really into GAA and after school clubs and studying. Just my experience in the rural village im in. I have not once in 3 years seen any antisocial behaviour, or unruly teenagers.

namurt

I feel so sorry for that child. As someone who used to live a 5 minute walk from school and then moved at the age of 10 to a 7 mile journey to school I hated it. Unless there is a major and definite difference in the schools, not just an idea that they might be different, from the social aspect of it I don't think it's fair on the child. Having one set of friends in school and one near home might seem like a good idea but it rarely works like that. Never being able to walk to and from school, even in 6th class. Having to get a lift if they want to meet their school friends after school. These are things that should also be considered when choosing a school.

Cat Melodeon

namurt wrote: »

I feel so sorry for that child. As someone who used to live a 5 minute walk from school and then moved at the age of 10 to a 7 mile journey to school I hated it. Unless there is a major and definite difference in the schools, not just an idea that they might be different, from the social aspect of it I don't think it's fair on the child. Having one set of friends in school and one near home might seem like a good idea but it rarely works like that. Never being able to walk to and from school, even in 6th class. Having to get a lift if they want to meet their school friends after school. These are things that should also be considered when choosing a school.

Have to say I don't agree with you. First off, the child will be starting school in this school so won't know any different, unlike your situation where you were settled into your classroom and subsequently moved, which can be very upsetting for a young child. Secondly, even in our small village, very few children walk to school or to their friends' houses - most of them are driven by their parents as there are no footpaths on our rural roads but plenty of traffic so it simply isn't safe. It was different years ago when I went to school here - there were very few cars on the road and we were allowed walk or cycle to school, but the school itself discourages this now due to a couple of accidents involving kids (thankfully none fatal). Once you are putting a child in a car to go to school, it really doesn't matter whether you are travelling 500 yards or 5 miles. Playdates can still be organised and if a parent is happy to drive the child to school, presumably they will be happy to drive them to the same area to participate in sports and other community activities. Once they are older, they will probably all be travelling to the same secondary schools in the town anyway.

Rural schools don't automatically have advantages over urban ones, although they do quite often have a much stronger community ethos as they are one of the main centres around which the locality revolves (usually along with the church, the sports clubs and the pub). I do think there is a better chance of the innocence of childhood being maintained for longer too - they are less exposed to older children (ie second level). Additionally, reports by the National Educational Welfare Board show that children in urban primary schools are more likely to be expelled or suspended and they have much higher rates of truancy/non-attendance than rural school, particularly for 20day+ truancies. Whether this is related to the size of schools (urban schools usually being much larger) or the demographics of particular areas being different (rural schools tend to have a more socio-economically diverse pupil body due to serving a small geographical area) is not explored, but the differences are there and generally put the rural schools at an advantage.

Personally, having attended a rural school myself, that is the option I would prefer for my children. My husband went to a city school and sees no problem with that type of schooling. I guess people go with whatever they feel most comfortable with themselves. Once they engage with the school and facilitate their childrens' friendships and interests, I don't see there being a problem with choosing one over the other.