13 thoughts on “Anne Marie McNally: Failing Before We Start

  1. ben

    I sat the Leaving Cert in 1992 and:

    * It was not all “rote learning” — the English exams, for instance, were two 3-hour papers entirely of essay questions

    * It was not “miles away” from this sort of question where you had to write an essay on complex and abstract topics

    * “Rote learning” is not a terrible evil. There are a lot of things you need to learn by rote.

    1. Fact Checker

      Exactly. A lot of life, and work, is about absorbing lots of information and re-producing it on demand. The LC is not a bad test of this.

      1. Cian

        Really? What job, outside of a sports commentator, involves rote learning of lots of information and re-producing on demand?
        Most common jobs are [14% of people]:
        1. sales and retail assistants, cashiers and checkout operators
        2. Farmers
        3. Other administrative occupations
        4. Nurses and midwives

        I’m not sure if any of them need to regurgitate 3 hours of information.

        1. The Old Boy

          Sales and retail assistants have to (or should) memorize a great deal of product information that may be meaningless to them.

          Nurses and midwifes have to memorize vast amounts of pharmacological and other medical information these days.

          I imagine the point is really “we can have both, you know”, but I think you’ve given poor examples.

        2. Rob_G

          @ Cian –

          Lawyers, computer programmers, doctors… all of these jobs involve learning and and being able to recall a large volume of information.

  2. TheOpposition

    Do we prioritize additional resources for schools?

    OR

    Do we prioritize more pay for graduate teachers?

  3. Elron

    “It’s a prize worth fighting for, for all of our young people and all our citizens. Maybe then we’ll start seeing the kinds of change that the country needs”

    This generic bullpoo could be written by literally any party about literally any issue.

    Up your game. Say something original. You can’t do all your campaigning on the back of the McGill Summer school and referenda.

  4. Fact Checker

    “It doesn’t take a Social Democrat to recognise that socio-economic deprivation leads to lower education, physical & mental health, and employment outcomes”

    Or maybe lower education and health lead to greater socio-economic deprivation?

    It is very glib to say that the ‘chain of causation’ runs one way. Having a low income is not good for your health, but having poor health is not good for your income either.

  5. Termagant

    Christ, I wish this subject had been around when I was sitting, having seen the sample papers and the project outline it looks like the easiest points you could ever hope to pocket. What an absolute load of bullpucky.

  6. pok

    So if “politics doesn’t represent you or your community” ( and whatever about your own views how can you claims to know the mind of “your community) then why are you in a political party ?

Comments are closed.