Please, please.....look around.

Varkov · 13-09-2007 09:52PM

Sigh,

Yes maybe some people are put under / put themselves under too much stress and pressure during school. This, however is not the sole attribute of her death/suicide.
Having recently finished secondary school and from the people I know attending mixed/gender specific/the institute I can GARANTEE you the schools are not heaping the pressures on.

Some people who do suffer from depression or other mental conditions will be afected by things like this, but it is a deeper rooted problem, the same can be said about any aspects of this modern life we're living in. Things may pile up and get us down. But it is down to the person themselves if they can deal with it, weather through medication or support.

Its very easy for people to assume the cause of something, true it probably was a contributing factor. But you never know what's going through someones head.

Terry · 13-09-2007 09:58PM

TPD wrote:

The papers arent reporting this as suicide yet are they? I was reading about it today, referred to it as a 'tragic incident' (not accident). Someone from the family asked that the media doesn't put a spin on it.

There's an attached picture of one of the papers, which reported it as a suicide, earlier in this thread.
Or maybe it was the other thread.

johnnyrotten · 13-09-2007 10:26PM

Herald ( **** rag I know ) reported it on front page tonight

phasers · 13-09-2007 10:34PM

schools definitely pile on the pressure

I've been back in school two weeks and have been told that the leaving is the be all and end all roughly 19 times

I know this is a load of toss but other girls are getting pretty freaked out, I can really see how it can be too much for a lot of people, especially if the parents add to the stress at home

mike65 · 13-09-2007 11:07PM

Wishbone Ash wrote:

I did the Inter Cert in 1984 and the Leaving Certificate in 1986. The country was on it's knees then. How can people think that there is more pressure on pupils nowadays? It was almost impossible then to get what would now be called a 'minimum wage' job. All the way through secondary school, we were told that there were no jobs out there. It certainly made learning Latin and Greek seem futile but we must have been a resilient bunch. I've never been un employed here even though, at the time, everyone was going to the USA.

Candidates for interview were shortlisted using ridiculous methods like the colour of pen used or the amount of folds on the form. My older sister went for an interview in 1985. There were 20 positions and 2,000 applicants. (She got it). The same job is now being done by foreigners.

This tragic event this morning had nothing to do with the junior Certificate or the pressures involved. If it wasn't today , it would have been some other day.

I won't try to argue the last point as we just don't know.

On the rest, I'm the same generation as you so I know what it was like. Perversely because the country was on its knees the pressure may have been lesser. No-one expected to be a high flying achiever. Just getting a job, any job was considered a success. If you did'nt get one - that was not a matter for shame. Likewise third-level education was not presumed to be a target for almost all school-leavers and finally there was always the boat following in the footsteps of the previous generations.

Now any of the above is a considered an outright failure. If we ever hit another prolonged slump one wonders what the social fall-out might be.

Mike.

Wishbone Ash · 13-09-2007 11:29PM

mike65 wrote:

Perversely because the country was on its knees the pressure may have been lesser

Good point mike. My God, it was gloomy when you look back. I don't think we realised how bad it was at the time!

Terry · 13-09-2007 11:50PM

mike65 wrote:

I won't try to argue the last point as we just don't know.

On the rest, I'm the same generation as you so I know what it was like. Perversely because the country was on its knees the pressure may have been lesser. No-one expected to be a high flying achiever. Just getting a job, any job was considered a success. If you did'nt get one - that was not a matter for shame. Likewise third-level education was not presumed to be a target for almost all school-leavers and finally there was always the boat following in the footsteps of the previous generations.

Now any of the above is a considered an outright failure. If we ever hit another prolonged slump one wonders what the social fall-out might be.

Mike.

It never fails to amuse me how some people will look down on others because of their job. That didn't happen when I was growing up. You were lucky to get a job and it didn't matter is it was sweeping roads (some people fail to realise that a job with the council is one for life, with a decent pension), working in McDonalds or any other so called crappy job.

I remember reading a comment by someone about how hairdressers are thick as **** (not the thread from the other day) and wondering what that person worked at. It turned out they were unemployed at the time.
Three of my cousins left school early in the late 70's to work as hairdressers. Two of them now own their own successful businesses and employ 15 people between them.

As for the possible slump, I think a lot of people will be eating their words.

Wishbone Ash · 13-09-2007 11:57PM

Terry wrote:

some people fail to realise that a job with the council is one for life, with a decent pension

In the mid 1980s, I think everyone realised that but it was nigh on impossible to get a job with the Council/Corpo then. I probably would have jumped straight in at the chance but it doesn't look as appealing nowadays. No doubt, it may look very attractive again soon!

oneeyedsnake · 14-09-2007 12:23AM

So Glad wrote:

I was told and can now confirm that a young girl aged 15 I think it was, received her Junior Cert results today and failed one or two subjects. Because of this, she decided to jump in front of a train at Howth Junction station, right beside where I live.

You most likely won't find this in the news.

I know there is a thread about it here, but I wish to ask a favor of you all. Look around the world you are creating for your children. Look at what it is doing. The pressure put upon this child by the schools and (possibly) the parents, who don't know what the REAL priorities in life are anyways made her give up the WILL to live. This child was lead down the path of illusory life-goals, handed down and given the stamp of approval by the powers that be, and given to the schools (AKA robot factories) that pat you on the back and give you a gold star for being repeaters....and if you disagree with this, or FAIL this, you fail life.....and will live a sad, lonely, poor, meaningless life. As if it isn't already like that anyways.

Please, take this, and other things like the kids who are smoking pot and getting drunk younger and younger by the day, and developing terrible mental illnesses as a SLIGHT HINT, that the society you're working for, DOESN'T WORK and it's killing us.

Please, please, realize this.

Cue the personal insults...:rolleyes:

This is going to sound harsh but tough sh1t,if she can't hack the pressure of the junior cert then she was never really likely to make it anywhere in life. Who are you to say that schools are robot factories, if you have a modicum of intelligence and aplly yourself you will get by just fine. That are these real priorities you speak off ,only the exceptionally stupid or gifted can say that a proper education is not a real priority. I'm sorry the girl died but there must have been some underlying mental illness that made her throw herself in front of the train.

So Glad · 14-09-2007 12:41AM

oneeyedsnake wrote:

This is going to sound harsh but tough sh1t,if she can't hack the pressure of the junior cert then she was never really likely to make it anywhere in life. Who are you to say that schools are robot factories, if you have a modicum of intelligence and aplly yourself you will get by just fine. That are these real priorities you speak off ,only the exceptionally stupid or gifted can say that a proper education is not a real priority. I'm sorry the girl died but there must have been some underlying mental illness that made her throw herself in front of the train.

Wow. That has to be the most heartless thing I have ever heard.

Well done, you are official the spawn of Satan.

Varkov · 14-09-2007 12:52AM

So Glad wrote:

Wow. That has to be the most heartless thing I have ever heard.

Well done, you are official the spawn of Satan.

Well, we could say you are an over idealistic out of the loop hippy.

But we wont, t'is opinions n all that.

So Glad · 14-09-2007 01:01AM

No, because you're 100% right!

Nothing wrong with hippie idealogies!

bonkey · 14-09-2007 11:27AM

Wishbone Ash wrote:

My God, it was gloomy when you look back. I don't think we realised how bad it was at the time!

We were probably too busy being angsty teenagers.

SnkPlissken · 14-09-2007 11:42AM

I dont know if its down to pressure, but the kids are boozing like never before, sure all the kids out my way are going to have liver and kidney diseases by the time they are 20, But they are never kept in check by their parents, The cops actually do a great job, they try their very best. But I have never seen a parent do anything to stop it. They squeeze them out and then let them run wild.

But then again, it is the state who place so much importance on these kids at a young age, why do they have to decide their future when they are 17 with some silly little exam ?

14-09-2007 11:53AM

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/tragedy-as-exam-girl-loses-life-on-rail-line-1077756.html

She got 10 honours, As and Bs, I think we can say it wasn't suicide

Snake747 · 14-09-2007 12:09PM

It doesnt matter how many honors you have, it doesnt mean you will be happy ?!

14-09-2007 12:10PM

Snake747 wrote:

It doesnt matter how many honors you have, it doesnt mean you will be happy ?!

It doesn't mean you'll jump in front of a train either

Snake747 · 14-09-2007 12:16PM

bluewolf wrote:

It doesn't mean you'll jump in front of a train either

That made no sense !

mike65 · 14-09-2007 03:31PM

Perhaps she thought she'd be happier and saw she was'nt and had one of those "is that all there is?" moments that drunks are prone to at 3 am. Or maybe anything less than 10 As was considered failure after the work put in.

Mike.

humanji · 14-09-2007 04:01PM

bluewolf wrote:

It doesn't mean you'll jump in front of a train either

What if she was really gearing up to get full A's? If her parents wanted to strive for a perfect grade and she didn't get it, she might feel like she really let them down, and she couldn't deal with it.

14-09-2007 04:22PM

Alright, fair points. Just the way everyone was going on, I was expecting to see she'd failed most of the subjects or something.

Please, please.....look around.

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