Couple of questions....

CFC4lyfe

Hey there,

I've just got a couple of questions I was hoping you would be willing to answer for me. I know you probably get alot of these but hope that you'll bear with me as I am really set on a career of teaching but would like to know the following first:

1) If I were to become a Primary School Teacher by going through Arts first, would I need to have studied Irish in the course? Whilst I pass the C3HL needed for Irish, I would prefer to take on other subjects because I'm not so much in love with the Irish language.

2) What would the recommendations be to study in Arts? My heart is currently set on History but I am unsure with regards to choose either Economics/English. Would English give me a better chance of getting a job rather than Economics as I've heard Economics isn't as popular as it once was?

I hope you find the time to answer my question and thanks if you do!

RealJohn

CFC4lyfe wrote: »

Whilst I pass the C3HL needed for Irish, I would prefer to take on other subjects because I'm not so much in love with the Irish language.

I'm not a primary school teacher but as a secondary school teacher who has taught in Irish colleges during the summer, this sentence worries me. When you say you're "not so much in love with the Irish language" do you mean that it's ok but it's not your passion or that you dislike it. If it's the former, that's probably fine but if it's the latter, I don't think you should be thinking about primary teaching in this country. Irish is a core subject and if you dislike it, it's far more likely you won't do a good job teaching it and far more likely that you'll pass your dislike of the language on to your students. We don't need more teachers like that. We have far too many as it is.

To answer your question, as far as I know, there's no real restriction on what you can study but I would imagine subjects actually taught in primary school would be an advantage. I wouldn't say not having university level Irish is necessarily a disadvantage but I would think it would probably be an advantage to have it (and you might discover that you like the language more than you realise. Most people who dislike it do so because of their experience of learning it in school from teachers who saw it as an inconvenience and a chore, especially in primary school).

CFC4lyfe

RealJohn wrote: »

I'm not a primary school teacher but as a secondary school teacher who has taught in Irish colleges during the summer, this sentence worries me. When you say you're "not so much in love with the Irish language" do you mean that it's ok but it's not your passion or that you dislike it. If it's the former, that's probably fine but if it's the latter, I don't think you should be thinking about primary teaching in this country. Irish is a core subject and if you dislike it, it's far more likely you won't do a good job teaching it and far more likely that you'll pass your dislike of the language on to your students. We don't need more teachers like that. We have far too many as it is.

To answer your question, as far as I know, there's no real restriction on what you can study but I would imagine subjects actually taught in primary school would be an advantage. I wouldn't say not having university level Irish is necessarily a disadvantage but I would think it would probably be an advantage to have it (and you might discover that you like the language more than you realise. Most people who dislike it do so because of their experience of learning it in school from teachers who saw it as an inconvenience and a chore, especially in primary school).

Sorry about not making it clear as what I meant was that I wouldn't be as passionate about it as I would be about the subjects I'd prefer to get a degree out of (History/English).