What is going on in our schools?

Oldtrope

I live in a very rural part of Ireland as many of you know, the village I live in can have no more than 500 homes in the surrounding area.

This morning I took my Granddaughter to school, its her first year and she is junior Infants. What I witnessed was shocking and upsetting.

The classroom was nicely laid out but everywhere I looked foreign words were displayed all over the walls with pictures of flags and their name in their language. For Ireland the words were wrote in English, no Gaelige anywhere.

I enjoy talking to some of the other parents as I have done in the past when I took one of my grandsons to the school in the past, today was much different. Nearly every mother I spoke too were foreign, I encountered a lot of Eastern Europeans, a few Brazilians, and some English. If I had to put a number on it I would say the majority of the classroom had foreign children with only a small percentage of Irish children.

I waited to speak to the teacher, I wanted to know why Ireland was represented in English and not Gaelige. When she arrived she was welcoming and appeared almost happy someone had finally asked her the question. She told me that because the majority of the classroom could speak very little English they had to use their own languages to welcome them and make them feel at home, English was the 2nd language that all children must learn and so even Irish has to be represented in English. They do still teach Irish as part of the curriculum, but it is only taught at the bare minimum acceptance level as it was no use to the classroom because the majority of the children had been exempted by the school governors and the department of Education.

I asked her why were there so many non Irish children, she replied to me that if I thought this was bad then I should look at the bigger towns and Cities where the problem was far worse.

This is madness, we are losing our cultural heritage and now our children are minorities in their own schools and suffering because of it.

corner of hells

Popcorn, where's the fcukin' popcorn , this is gonna be a good one.

Mr. Incognito

"Our children"?

My son goes to school with children of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds.

I am very happy that he gets to experience this and will not grow up bigoted where children are divided into "our children" and "their children".

As for Irish being a second class language- It's been like that since the foundation of the school system because they dont use immersion but ram grammar down childrens throats May with so many of "them" they might bring some fresh ideas to teaching it.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

nullzero

That's my third monocle this week, I must simply stop being so horrified.

cnoc

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

"Our children"?

My son goes to school with children of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds.

I am very happy that he gets to experience this and will not grow up bigoted where children are divided into "our children" and "their children".

As for Irish being a second class language- It's been like that since the foundation of the school system because they dont use immersion but ram grammer down childrens throats

Grammar and spelling is very important.

Oldtrope

Oldtrope wrote: »

I asked her why were there so many non Irish children, she replied to me that if I thought this was bad then I should look at the bigger towns and Cities where the problem was far worse.

This is madness, we are losing our cultural heritage and now our children are minorities in their own schools and suffering because of it.

I bet you're not racist OP

darlett

What you've described is not the fault of schools. What are they to do if those are truly the ratio of Irish to non-Irish students?

Can you clarify if you were in the school classroom wandering around without the teachers knowledge? That in itself seems fairly unorthodox.

Day Lewin

If they are now "minorities" then the schools aren't their schools.

But it seem to me that children of foreign nationals, born or reared here, ARE "our children" and 'twas ever so.

We've absorbed Norman children, before that Viking children, more recently Huguenot children, English and Scots -- the movement of peoples is as natural as the wind and tides around the globe and the Irish have always done, it, too.

Irish children turned up in American, Canadian, British and Australian schools: and got an education, and settled in...even now, all over the EU, in assorted languages.

The door is open, as it should be.

cml387

Oldtrope wrote: »

I live in a very rural part of Ireland as many of you know,

Don't know you from Adam.

mloc123

Shocking and upsetting? Really?

Edit: single post user... Almost like they registered to troll.

Clearly, I'm a bit slow this evening, actually answering this!!
Obviously not true at all

SuperGrover

Cultural heritage? Like learning Báidín Fheilimí under threat of a beating from a bitter old nun? That type of thing? Good riddance. May it burn to the ground.

My kids go to a school with others from various backgrounds, where the emphasis is on education in a happy and supportive atmosphere.

They'll never know what a miserable schooling a lot of us had and that's fine by me.

milltown

Oldtrope wrote: »

I live in a very rural part of Ireland as many of you know.

Post count = 1

byhookorbycrook

Deleted- made a mess of quoting.

gosplan

Oldtrope wrote: »

I live in a very rural part of Ireland as many of you know, the village I live in can have no more than 500 homes in the surrounding area.

This morning I took my Granddaughter to school, its her first year and she is junior Infants. What I witnessed was shocking and upsetting.

The classroom was nicely laid out but everywhere I looked foreign words were displayed all over the walls with pictures of flags and their name in their language. For Ireland the words were wrote in English, no Gaelige anywhere.

I enjoy talking to some of the other parents as I have done in the past when I took one of my grandsons to the school in the past, today was much different. Nearly every mother I spoke too were foreign, I encountered a lot of Eastern Europeans, a few Brazilians, and some English. If I had to put a number on it I would say the majority of the classroom had foreign children with only a small percentage of Irish children.

I waited to speak to the teacher, I wanted to know why Ireland was represented in English and not Gaelige. When she arrived she was welcoming and appeared almost happy someone had finally asked her the question. She told me that because the majority of the classroom could speak very little English they had to use their own languages to welcome them and make them feel at home, English was the 2nd language that all children must learn and so even Irish has to be represented in English. They do still teach Irish as part of the curriculum, but it is only taught at the bare minimum acceptance level as it was no use to the classroom because the majority of the children had been exempted by the school governors and the department of Education.

I asked her why were there so many non Irish children, she replied to me that if I thought this was bad then I should look at the bigger towns and Cities where the problem was far worse.

This is madness, we are losing our cultural heritage and now our children are minorities in their own schools and suffering because of it.

Talking out your hoop.

No child in junior infants or anywhere before 5th class are exempt from studying Irish.

hatrickpatrick

Oldtrope wrote: »

This is madness, we are losing our cultural heritage and now our children are minorities in their own schools and suffering because of it.

It takes a strange mind indeed to describe being spared the death rattle of the Irish language curriculum as "suffering".

PixelTrawler

milltown wrote: »

Post count = 1

Looks like OP thought they were logged into their other account

runawaybishop

gosplan wrote: »

Talking out your hoop.

No child in junior infants or anywhere before 5th class are exempt from studying Irish.

They have one post. Clear troll thread.

gosplan

runawaybishop wrote: »

They have one post. Clear troll thread.

The could at least work on the facts though

Surely with our education system, we're getting a higher standard of troll

Harvey Normal

katemarch wrote: »

If they are now "minorities" then the schools aren't their schools.

But it seem to me that children of foreign nationals, born or reared here, ARE "our children" and 'twas ever so.

We've absorbed Norman children, before that Viking children, more recently Huguenot children, English and Scots -- the movement of peoples is as natural as the wind and tides around the globe and the Irish have always done, it, too.

Irish children turned up in American, Canadian, British and Australian schools: and got an education, and settled in...even now, all over the EU, in assorted languages.

The door is open, as it should be.

the Normans, Vikings and most English were,you know, invaders. Arguably the English absorbed us.

Harvey Normal

milltown wrote: »

Post count = 1

She had a different name a few minutes ago.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Oldtrope wrote: »

I live in a very rural part of Ireland as many of you know, the village I live in can have no more than 500 homes in the surrounding area.

This morning I took my Granddaughter to school, its her first year and she is junior Infants. What I witnessed was shocking and upsetting.

The classroom was nicely laid out but everywhere I looked foreign words were displayed all over the walls with pictures of flags and their name in their language. For Ireland the words were wrote in English, no Gaelige anywhere.

I enjoy talking to some of the other parents as I have done in the past when I took one of my grandsons to the school in the past, today was much different. Nearly every mother I spoke too were foreign, I encountered a lot of Eastern Europeans, a few Brazilians, and some English. If I had to put a number on it I would say the majority of the classroom had foreign children with only a small percentage of Irish children.

I waited to speak to the teacher, I wanted to know why Ireland was represented in English and not Gaelige. When she arrived she was welcoming and appeared almost happy someone had finally asked her the question. She told me that because the majority of the classroom could speak very little English they had to use their own languages to welcome them and make them feel at home, English was the 2nd language that all children must learn and so even Irish has to be represented in English. They do still teach Irish as part of the curriculum, but it is only taught at the bare minimum acceptance level as it was no use to the classroom because the majority of the children had been exempted by the school governors and the department of Education.

I asked her why were there so many non Irish children, she replied to me that if I thought this was bad then I should look at the bigger towns and Cities where the problem was far worse.

This is madness, we are losing our cultural heritage and now our children are minorities in their own schools and suffering because of it.

Calling bullsht on this one: where are we talkign about that has 500 houses, with a majority of kids not speaking English or Irish?

byhookorbycrook

This is madness, we are losing our cultural heritage and now our children are minorities in their own schools and suffering because of it.
I work in a Gaelscoil where we have several different nationalities, our school is enriched not impoverished by this.

I think you need to define what you mean as "cultural heritage" - the Irish language is constantly evolving as all living languages do. Our pupils play handball, hurling, camogie, Gaelic football but also tag rugby and soccer. This reflects the world that they live in. Every child from senior infants up learns traditional music on a variety of instruments- the sky hasn't fallen in since one child has used a keyboard.

I think you must hanker for the Dev days.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

All children are entitled to an education. It's only right a child is made feel welcome and like they belong. Being forigen isn't a contagious disease and if parents are worried about their child learning about their natural heritage then they should put the effort in to teach them at home, instead of leaving it to a stranger.


If God forbid the child was in an accident would you refuse to let a doctor from abroad save her life on the basis he didn't understand the Irish heritage?

I'm certainly not the most tolerant of people but even im shocked at this.

dav3

Won't somebody please think of the imaginary children.

Wilberto

SuperGrover wrote: »

Cultural heritage? Like learning Báidín Fheilimí under threat of a beating from a bitter old nun? That type of thing? Good riddance. May it burn to the ground.

Yes, because that's entirely the fault of the language. No blame can be placed on the instigator at all. :rolleyes:

SuperGrover wrote: »

They'll never know what a miserable schooling a lot of us had and that's fine by me.

That could be down to the fact that corporal punishment was banned in 1982 however, and made a criminal offence in 1996, but go on, continue to infer that your "miserable schooling" experience is due to learning a language. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Oldtrope

Oldtrope wrote: »

..no Gaelige anywhere...I wanted to know why Ireland was represented in English and not Gaelige...

What's Gaelige, is it not Gaeilge?

BabyE

We do need to keep our heritage in the wake of an increasingly global world. The richness of our worldwide future culture depends on it.

endacl

Oldtrope wrote: »

I live in a very rural part of Ireland as many of you know, the village I live in can have no more than 500 homes in the surrounding area.

How would many of us know that, unless we were familiar with you and your posting history. As of that post, your posting history was that post. Could it be that you're a rereg? Who managed to forget, before making post 1 as a rereg, that they had reregged? Surely nobody could be that..... No.... Wait....

... I can think of one or two all right...

Harvey Normal

BabyE wrote: »

We do need to keep our heritage in the wake of an increasingly global world. The richness of our worldwide future culture depends on it.

As the gaelgoir teacher showed we are doing that. Ethnicity != culture. In fact I bet we will have Brazilian lovers of Irish pretty soon putting the haters to shame.

But not all immigration is equal. We've lucked out because our immigration is benign.

endacl

BabyE wrote: »

We do need to keep our heritage in the wake of an increasingly global world. The richness of our worldwide future culture depends on it.

Yeah? So what are you doing to keep your heritage in the wake of an increasingly global world? Slagging Irish people for being ugly, and fecking off to live in Spain, if memory serves...

SuperGrover

Wilberto wrote: »

Yes, because that's entirely the fault of the language. No blame can be placed on the instigator at all. :rolleyes:




That could be down to the fact that corporal punishment was banned in 1982 however, and made a criminal offence in 1996, but go on, continue to infer that your "miserable schooling" experience is due to learning a language. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

You can roll your eyes all you want but there was more to that post than the language issue. I was addressing the 'cultural heritage' part. Didn't you read the parts about all the foreigners and how it's worse in the big towns etc?

The OP clearly laments the passing of the old ways. I say good riddance.

Tornaxx

katemarch wrote: »

We've absorbed Norman children, before that Viking children, more recently Huguenot children, English and Scots --

"We absorbed them" is different from "They invaded and relegated the native people and language to a place of lesser importance."

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Junior infants in English speaking schools do not use written Irish.
I don't see how welcoming other nationalities into the country has to mean losing our "cultural heritage?"

Junior infants in English-speaking schools don't use written Polish or Swahili or Arabic or Tagalog, so why wasn't Irish represented if they were? (Quick answer: it's handier for the troll's story. )

endacl

Harvey Normal wrote: »

Ethnicity != culture.

Indeed. The best hurler on our school team (in the 80s) was a lad from the Phillipines.

And this fella doesn't even live here... http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/how-a-london-imam-became-a-sean-n%C3%B3s-singer-1.2140767

petrolcan

Oldtrope wrote: »

I live in a very rural part of Ireland as many of you know,

Just brilliant.

alroley

Making children who don't speak english feel welcome in their new learning environment? Shocking.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Great to see more diversity in our schools. It's a shame our local school hasn't more of it. As for no Gealge on the pictures, big deal. It's Junior Infants. They are time enough learning to read Irish.

Skommando

A post count of 1 ? you lot really are gullible troll food.

Gatling

Glad I have my two in a Gael scoil ,none of this cultural nonsense its all about the education ,

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Oldtrope wrote: »

I live in a very rural part of Ireland as many of you know, the village I live in can have no more than 500 homes in the surrounding area...


For Ireland the words were wrote in English, no Gaelige anywhere.

Nearly every mother I spoke too were foreign, .

Your first post, so how could we know where you live?

Hopefully these children will learn better English than you did.

eviltwin

My son's school is officially the most culturally diverse in the country. Almost all those children have been born here, all of the kids I meet have impeccable English. He has friends from eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, south America backgrounds.....I've become friends with other mums and dads from all over....it's absolutely brilliant and I see it as a wonderful asset to this generation that they are lucky to have.

darlett

Deleted User wrote: »

What's Gaelige, is it not Gaeilge?

You see! It's already starting to happen. We need some more well chosen posters up on that wall.

Harvey Normal

Looks like maregal cross posted to politics under her own name.

meeeeh

The funny thing is that in Politics Forum the same nonsense seems to be taken seriously.

Edit: A bit late.

meeeeh

Anyway I'll eat my umbrella if there is rural village in Ireland with majority of foreign population.

The_Valeyard

meeeeh wrote: »

Anyway I'll eat my umbrella if there is rural village in Ireland with majority of foreign population.

Gotta be a six counties joke in there somewhere

pickarooney

Oldtrope wrote: »

I live in a very rural part of Ireland as many of you know, the village I live in can have no more than 500 homes in the surrounding area.

This morning I took my Granddaughter to school, its her first year and she is junior Infants. What I witnessed was shocking and upsetting.

The classroom was nicely laid out but everywhere I looked foreign words were displayed all over the walls with pictures of flags and their name in their language. For Ireland the words were wrote in English, no Gaelige anywhere.

I enjoy talking to some of the other parents as I have done in the past when I took one of my grandsons to the school in the past, today was much different. Nearly every mother I spoke too were foreign, I encountered a lot of Eastern Europeans, a few Brazilians, and some English. If I had to put a number on it I would say the majority of the classroom had foreign children with only a small percentage of Irish children.

I waited to speak to the teacher, I wanted to know why Ireland was represented in English and not Gaelige. When she arrived she was welcoming and appeared almost happy someone had finally asked her the question. She told me that because the majority of the classroom could speak very little English they had to use their own languages to welcome them and make them feel at home, English was the 2nd language that all children must learn and so even Irish has to be represented in English. They do still teach Irish as part of the curriculum, but it is only taught at the bare minimum acceptance level as it was no use to the classroom because the majority of the children had been exempted by the school governors and the department of Education.

I asked her why were there so many non Irish children, she replied to me that if I thought this was bad then I should look at the bigger towns and Cities where the problem was far worse.

This is madness, we are losing our cultural heritage and now our children are minorities in their own schools and suffering because of it.

You can't even spell Gaeilge you thundering hypocrite.

Harvey Normal

pickarooney wrote: »

You can't even spell Gaeilge you thundering hypocrite.

Not much of an argument there.

Harvey Normal

meeeeh wrote: »

Anyway I'll eat my umbrella if there is rural village in Ireland with majority of foreign population.

There definitely a village in Galway or somewhere which was majority Brazilian.

HellSquirrel

Nope, having trouble finding fcuks to give.

Also having trouble finding a town that matches the description of being tiny, rural and mostly comprised of immigrants. Although a lot of people wouldn't believe that my..er.."town" (hamlet? Bit of countryside with a school, post office and church?) is comprised of native Irish speakers and the local school (which is not an official Gaelscoil) is full of kids speaking Irish just because it's most familiar to them, either.