John Heffernan

So school is out for summer. You would have to pity the poor Leaving Certs and the pressure that they are under. Is the pressure that we put them under worthwhile. Do really many LCs really know what they want to do with the rest of their lives at the age of 17. I am a hell of a lot older than those LCs and I don't know what I want to be. The concept of a job for life is gone yet in secondary school we just gear them up for one small but pressurised part of that. Failure at the LC does not equate with failure in life yet to some students the Leaving is their raison etre. I read recently that one in 15 millionaires in the USA is a high school dropout. I suppose instead of teaching about the failures of the league of nations and dihedral angles on the vertical plane should be we be teaching them how to achieve their dreams and help overcome the difficulties and challenges that the real world will throw at them.

So school is out for summer. You would have to pity the poor Leaving Certs and the pressure that they are under. Is the pressure that we put them under worthwhile. Do really many LCs really know what they want to do with the rest of their lives at the age of 17. I am a hell of a lot older than those LCs and I don't know what I want to be. The concept of a job for life is gone yet in secondary school we just gear them up for one small but pressurised part of that. Failure at the LC does not equate with failure in life yet to some students the Leaving is their raison etre. I read recently that one in 15 millionaires in the USA is a high school dropout. I suppose instead of teaching about the failures of the league of nations and dihedral angles on the vertical plane should be we be teaching them how to achieve their dreams and help overcome the difficulties and challenges that the real world will throw at them.