Why does the Irish Education system force me to learn subjects that I wont need for m

Trog · 17-01-2011 11:59PM

To echo a previous sentiment, I wouldn't give up on everything else just because you want to do physics now. I wanted to do architecture, then I wanted Engineering, then I wanted psychology. I did philosophy nad english and dropped English. I love it. It's WAY better than the subjects I once thought I wanted.

Most of the lads I know who had one subject in mind in 6th year did that subject for a year or two then dropped out and did something else. I spoke to one lad recently who busted his a*se to get into medicine. He is now happy as an apprentice electrician. Some of them still kept their original ambitions, but trust me, nothing is definite.

F-Stop · 18-01-2011 12:02AM

Never mind your problems, why does the Irish tax system force me to pay money that I need for m?

Seloth · 18-01-2011 12:11AM

I jsut wish History was mandatory..the amount of people who dont know who Hitler..yes Hitler! was is quite disturbing.

18-01-2011 12:16AM

stovelid wrote: »

Irish should be taught after lunch on Fridays with conversational classes taught around a subsidised bar in the school.

Popularity of Irish goes up 2-300% and actually produces people that can speak it fluidly

Trog · 18-01-2011 12:17AM

Seloth wrote: »

I jsut wish History was mandatory..the amount of people who dont know who Hitler..yes Hitler! was is quite disturbing.

Irish people? Really? That's on the mandatory history course which finishes at Junior cert, no? It disturbs me that nobody knows anything about any of the politics involved, and all they know is Hitler=Bad, american A bomb=good. A bit of education about what really went on politically mightn't go amiss.

take everything · 18-01-2011 12:21AM

Scarydoll wrote: »

Whats m?

Letter after l, before n.
Bit like an upside down w.

darragh16 · 18-01-2011 12:24AM

thisisadamh wrote: »

A friend and I have been talking recently and we think it is stupid that we have to learn subjects that we dont need for university. For example, 3 languages??? For a course in Physics? 3 languages for most courses. Personally I hate learning languages, I dont intend to touch languages after the leaving cert, so why do I have to learn them and why to colleges require them for courses that have nothing to do with them?

What is everyone else's view?

You have to remember that everything you learn in school, Every piece of vocabulary, every poem, every formula etc. all of it is ABSOLUTELY VITAL in the real world.

TeddyTedson · 18-01-2011 12:28AM

Everyone should have to learn a language like German anyway I think and be relatively fluent in it.

Trog · 18-01-2011 12:32AM

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Everyone should have to learn a language like German anyway I think and be relatively fluent in it.

Wasn't there some guy that tried to force everyone to speak German years ago? Can't remember who it was though...

Agricola · 18-01-2011 12:32AM

10/15 years from now, you'll be in some dreary job (if your lucky) and you'll wish that your biggest problem in life was having to broaden your mind by learning some languages.

iheartthailand · 18-01-2011 12:37AM

I learnt Irish for 14 years and French for 6 and Im out of school 4 years now and doubt I could string a sentence together. Did well in the them in the leaving cert but really didnt know how to actually speak either language. Im a science person myself and although I would love to speak a loada different languages I was crap at it and hated it. It was an absolute waste of my time.

People say you dont know what you'll want when you leave school, in that case should they stop someone from studying say, business, economics and accounting. Should they be forced to study a science subject?

m@cc@ · 18-01-2011 12:37AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Popularity of Irish goes up 2-300% and actually produces people that can speak it fluidly

Taking the piss?

18-01-2011 12:50AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Popularity of Irish goes up 2-300% and actually produces people that can speak it fluidly

m@cc@ wrote: »

Taking the piss?

It's well known that learning(practicing) a language in a social environment is very beneficial to the learning process.

Make it enjoyable and it's easier to learn!

fluidly = joke

plein de force · 18-01-2011 12:51AM

i do agree with you but i have the opposite thing. I'm good at languages, love them (except irish) and pick them up quickly but i've always hated science. i don't do science now of any form and i'm glad i don't, it was such a hindrance on my learning. If you have no interest in something, have no talent for it, after JC there's no point in it being drummed into you to the detriment of something you're good at. Cultivating your strenghts should be allowed.

iheartthailand · 18-01-2011 01:09AM

plein de force wrote: »

i do agree with you but i have the opposite thing. I'm good at languages, love them (except irish) and pick them up quickly but i've always hated science. i don't do science now of any form and i'm glad i don't, it was such a hindrance on my learning. If you have no interest in something, have no talent for it, after JC there's no point in it being drummed into you to the detriment of something you're good at. Cultivating your strenghts should be allowed.

Your lucky you could drop all the subjects you werent good at/disliked after the JC, I was forced to continue french and irish when I would have much prefered to replace them with some other subjects. In my school you didnt even have to do science for the JC, it was a choice subject.

bonerm · 18-01-2011 01:11AM

I've always wondered, how exactly does one become James Bond's boss?

MultiUmm · 18-01-2011 01:21AM

iheartthailand wrote: »

Your lucky you could drop all the subjects you werent good at/disliked after the JC, I was forced to continue french and irish when I would have much prefered to replace them with some other subjects. In my school you didnt even have to do science for the JC, it was a choice subject.

It's not always the case that if someone is granted an opt out from Irish or chooses not to do French (or German) that they can pick any other subject to do instead. People who don't do Irish for whatever reason spend the class doing homework and people who choose not to do a European language have to do geography, at least that's how it works in my school. I'd imagine other schools are more or less the same as the timetable wouldn't allow them to pick any subject freely, so in a way a person is still constricted to a subject they mightn't like. Still, it's good for people to have the option at least.

Logical Fallacy · 18-01-2011 01:23AM

thisisadamh wrote: »

A friend and I have been talking recently and we think it is stupid that we have to learn subjects that we dont need for university. For example, 3 languages??? For a course in Physics? 3 languages for most courses. Personally I hate learning languages, I dont intend to touch languages after the leaving cert, so why do I have to learn them and why to colleges require them for courses that have nothing to do with them?

What is everyone else's view?

Look, if you can't wrap your head around languages at a secondary school level you haven't a ****ing hope of getting college level physics.

TeddyTedson · 18-01-2011 01:33AM

Trog wrote: »

Wasn't there some guy that tried to force everyone to speak German years ago? Can't remember who it was though...

Yep. How quickly we forget!

MultiUmm · 18-01-2011 01:35AM

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Look, if you can't wrap your head around languages at a secondary school level you haven't a ****ing hope of getting college level physics.

Where in OP's post did he/she say that they were completely useless at languages? OP said they hate doing languages, not that they're bad at them. There is a difference, no need to berate the OP.

iheartthailand · 18-01-2011 01:40AM

MultiUmm wrote: »

It's not always the case that if someone is granted an opt out from Irish or chooses not to do French (or German) that they can pick any other subject to do instead. People who don't do Irish for whatever reason spend the class doing homework and people who choose not to do a European language have to do geography, at least that's how it works in my school. I'd imagine other schools are more or less the same as the timetable wouldn't allow them to pick any subject freely, so in a way a person is still constricted to a subject they mightn't like. Still, it's good for people to have the option at least.

Im not talking about opt outs, Im just saying he was lucky that the subjects he disliked were ones that werent compulsory. Im saying some subjects like french should not be compulsory after the JC (which it was in my school). It should be a "choice subject", just like physics, economics, music etc.

iheartthailand · 18-01-2011 01:41AM

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Look, if you can't wrap your head around languages at a secondary school level you haven't a ****ing hope of getting college level physics.

Thats a ridiculous comment and incorrect.

ardmacha · 18-01-2011 01:48AM

The Irish education system forces you to learn things so that you will be educated.

MultiUmm · 18-01-2011 01:52AM

iheartthailand wrote: »

Im not talking about opt outs, Im just saying he was lucky that the subjects he disliked were ones that werent compulsory. Im saying some subjects like french should not be compulsory after the JC (which it was in my school). It should be a "choice subject", just like physics, economics, music etc.

And I think it is in plenty of schools now, but what I'm saying is that someone who chooses not to do French has to do another subject they have no choice in picking, e.g Geography. If they don't like either subject it's a matter of picking the lesser evil really.

iheartthailand · 18-01-2011 02:02AM

MultiUmm wrote: »

And I think it is in plenty of schools now, but what I'm saying is that someone who chooses not to do French has to do another subject they have no choice in picking, e.g Geography. If they don't like either subject it's a matter of picking the lesser evil really.

Why would you not have a choice? In my school anyways english maths irish and french were compulsory and you choose the other 3 subjects. If I didnt have to do French I would have choose geography on top of my chemistry, biology and music. I can see why maths and english are compulsory, however I dont see how french or irish are more important than biology or economics (depending on what you want to continue studying /what job you would like after school).

MultiUmm · 18-01-2011 02:07AM

iheartthailand wrote: »

Why would you not have a choice? In my school anyways english maths irish and french were compulsory and you choose the other 3 subjects. If I didnt have to do French I would have choose geography on top of my chemistry, biology and music. I can see why maths and english are compulsory, however I dont see how french or irish are more important than biology or economics (depending on what you want to continue studying /what job you would like after school).

Because while the majority of the year is doing French or German, you can't have have different option classes for about 25 people who aren't doing a language, the numbers wouldn't be big enough for different classes and teachers have other years to teach while languages are being taught to the remaining 100 pupils. It doesn't work with the timetable, so basically anyone who doesn't do a language has to do geography, regardless of whether they wanted to or not.

Capt'n Midnight · 18-01-2011 02:09AM

with an election looming I wish more people had done economics or maths or history or civics or any subject that would help them understand how bad our politicians are , and how bad they are at keeping promises or presenting solutions that aren't the same old ones that don't work

the celtic tiger money could have meant decent pubic transport, world class broadband, houses that aren't a badly insulated white half cube
instead we are dependent on imported fossil fuel for transport and heat not to mention the have vs. have not thing

ArtSmart · 18-01-2011 02:11AM

it's the homer simpson dilemma.

to paraphrase.

'every time i something new enters my brain, and old piece of information leaves.

aint easy

iheartthailand · 18-01-2011 02:14AM

MultiUmm wrote: »

Because while the majority of the year is doing French or German, you can't have have different option classes for about 25 people who aren't doing a language, the numbers wouldn't be big enough for different classes and teachers have other years to teach while languages are being taught to the remaining 100 pupils. It doesn't work with the timetable, so basically anyone who doesn't do a language has to do geography, regardless of whether they wanted to or not.

How do you know that if it was a choice that the majority of the year would pick french?

Only 5 people in my year did chemistry and even less did physics, we still had a class and i was still able to do all the subjects i wanted, none clashed (they generally work the timetable around people choices). Im only talking about 1 subject here. All those hours I spent doing french (and irish) and it was a complete waste.

MultiUmm · 18-01-2011 02:23AM

iheartthailand wrote: »

How do you know that if it was a choice that the majority of the year would pick french?

Only 5 people in my year did chemistry and even less did physics, we still had a class and i was still able to do all the subjects i wanted, none clashed (they generally work the timetable around people choices). Im only talking about 1 subject here. All those hours I spent doing french (and irish) and it was a complete waste.

Because they did in my school? A European language is a requirement to do almost any if not every university course, the vast majority of people intend to go to university so most picked French or German, while those who picked neither do geography. I'm using this as an actual example of my own year, not an abstract thought.

I'm just using my own school as an example. Maybe it's different in other schools, but either way if you don't do a language you automatically have to do geography while the rest of the year does French/ German. My point was is that it eliminates the choice factor either way.

Why does the Irish Education system force me to learn subjects that I wont need for m

Comments