Cheri and Donal are incredibly wonderful people. Cheri took me to the Irish version of Circuit City and bought a bunch of Irish movies for me to watch and an alarm clock. Next week they are going to Nice, France to celebrate their anniversary and Donal's 46th (?) birthday for three days. Which is on this upcoming Tuesday. Peter is probably going to stay at a friend’s house in Beachwood and Conor will stay at home and study for national exams.
I thought that OGT's were bad! National Exams are not something you study for weeks before the tests. Every level of high school students studies for months. Conor sometimes stays an hour and a half after school to study. He has been sick for the past three days and he still studies for hours. The amount of subjects differs from 6 to 12 subjects. Mathematics, English, Irish, geography, social studies, and literature are some of the subjects. If the student passes in the test they are awarded with a Leaving Certificate, allowing them to go to college. The test itself is not multiple choice but essay, leaving room for the test to be scored in a biased way. Catrina O'Mathuna (who goes to Columbus State) had 33 hours of essays. Suicide rate from national exam ages (I believe it is 15-17) is high. Suicide rate for boys at this age is 5 times higher then females. Let me give you an example on the point system:
-There are three levels of difficulty: Higher, Ordinary and Foundation.
Kid 1 is taking a Foundation test and kid 2 is taking a Higher test. They both score 100%. Kid 1 gets 20 points and kid 2 is awarded with an incredibly higher amount of 100 points. Because kid 2 is able to comprehend at a more advance level he is given more points, furthering his chance of getting the Leaving Certificate. But kid 1 did just as well with getting an equally high percentage on the exam. Why should he get 80% less? It is not his fault that he is on a different pace.
What is really disappointing in educational system here is that depending on the student’s scores determines what career and college you are aloud to enroll in. Kid 2 is now stuck with a few digits that ultimately determine what his next 40 years is like. It is so unfortunate for kids who struggle -like my brother-. This infuriates me. A few digits should not condemn anyone’s future and dreams.
On a lighter tone Donal's mum said she would be happy to take me under her wing for a few days in the small town Ballybay. She loves history so I am hoping, as a local, she will show me around. A locals point of view is more interesting then a tour guides in my point of view.
2 comments:
"The Mouth of the Ford of the Birches" wow the internet is fun. supposedly this is what the town of ballybay means. i agree that it is fun to get the local flavor of what is happening.
so i wonder how you think you would do taking those tests? not fair i know but aren't you curious?
take care
evan
WOW. For second there I thought you could read Gaelic!
I don't know how I would do under that much pressure. I don't think I have been under that much academic pressure in my life. Not that the Graham School does not challenge me. The National Exams are over the top.
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