The Leaving Cert is upon us again and it’s a stressful time for our young students. But they shouldn’t worry if they don’t get the points they want. In fact, they may even be better off if they don’t.
When I was a school kid, I never got too much encouragement from the teaching fraternity to reach for the stars. As far as I can remember, I never received any type of career guidance. In those days, there were two categories of student. Those who were academically inclined and those who weren’t. The former group got all the attention and the latter group of no-hopers were left to their own devices. This group included me.
There was a kind of unspoken understanding that the achievers merited the extra interest so they could reach their full potential. While the rest, well they would find their own level with a trade or a factory job. They’d be fine.
There were certainly some guys in every class who were completely oblivious to what was going on around them. They lived in a bubble. They had absolutely no interest in what was taking place and it was an achievement to even get these characters into a classroom. But there may have been reasons for that.
Not much was known in those days about autism, dyspraxia or dyslexia or the myriad of other inhibitors that make learning difficult for some people. Conventional teaching methods didn’t work for everyone. The supports weren’t available for kids suffering from these ism’s so they were left to struggle on. Maybe I’m being hard on the system of the time but that’s how I remember it.
Things have progressed a lot since then and there is much more recognition and understanding of the various conditions that can have an impact on a child’s ability to learn. Teaching methods have changed and special needs assistants are a great addition.
So now, every child has a decent chance and we want them to make the most of their opportunity and to be whatever they want to be. Hopefully, they will be content with their lot and be happy in themselves and that’s as much as we want for our kids.
At the other end of the scale, as we get older, things change. We realise that time has moved on and some of the stars are no longer within reach.
I was lying in bed the other night and I woke around 3am and my mind was racing. It dawned on me that I was never going to be an Olympian. I am too old to run anywhere and too fat to jump over anything and I have a lower back that has a mind of its own.
For those same reasons, I will never climb Mt. Everest, I will never play football for Liverpool and I will not compete against Roger Federer at Wimbledon. I will never be an explorer nor am I ever likely to discover anything unless it happens to be lurking in my garden or resting somewhere near my recliner.
I can live with that, but I can’t help wondering at how it came about so quickly. The years between my school days and grand-fatherhood have disappeared in the blink of an eye.
I remember as a young garda in Dublin getting advice from an old hand and he told me to enjoy my service because the time was going to fly by. He said that the first ten years would pass quickly. The second ten years would go ever quicker and the third ten would pass in a matter of miniutes and soon, I would be heading for retirement.
I was twenty-one at the time so I wasn’t listening because thirty years was an eternity and way off my radar. How right he was though.
When you look at the bigger picture, it’s incredible to think how little time we have on this planet. In 1979, I walked through the gates of the Garda Training College in Templemore. Then someone pushed the fast forward button and here I am writing this nearly forty years later.
I have encountered many who are obsessed with their careers, with a burning desire to achieve greatness or simply to make as much money as possible. Very often they leave casualties in their wake, including their own families. They work in stressful environments, often away from home, beavering away to get more. Never seeming to be satisfied with what they have.
But like me, one day, they too will wake up to find that the kids have grown up and have gone off to make their own lives. They will realise that time has passed them by and they are now elder lemons and are more likely to be talking about pensions, nursing homes, prostates and gout.
I know guys who hardly have time to stop for a chat because there is always something more important to be done. They can’t take a day off because, in their minds, they can’t be done without. They’re the essential cog in the wheel and without them, work will grind to a halt.
The bad news for them is that everyone is dispensable. Anyone who imagines that their services can’t be done without, is not living in the real world. There is always someone waiting to take over and the wheel will continue to turn as if they were never there.
So, maybe all those years ago, the system did us some good. Maybe the system did identify the high achievers and pushed them on because they knew what lay ahead and maybe they also realised that the rest of us would have a better life just plodding along.
If that was the case then maybe I’m not giving them enough credit.