[HN Gopher] Ireland's big school secret: how a year off-curricul...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Ireland's big school secret: how a year off-curriculum changes
       teenage lives
        
       Author : joveian
       Score  : 117 points
       Date   : 2024-10-16 17:36 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
       | It seems like such a year could be either revelatory or totally
       | miserable, depending what you got and what type of person you
       | are. Just the thought of many of those activities brings me back
       | to all my school year anxieties.
        
       | MattPalmer1086 wrote:
       | Sounds like a great idea.
       | 
       | In England, I've seen education get consistently more rigid and
       | inflexible over the years. All about tests, tests and more tests.
       | Teachers leave the profession, children turn off. And as it
       | consistently fails to produce better results, the answer is
       | always to do more of what has failed.
       | 
       | Bring something like this to England, please!
        
         | soperj wrote:
         | Sounds like Bill Gates has gotten a hold of your school system
         | as well.
        
           | sixo wrote:
           | sounds like you have something to say but can't be bothered
           | to say it
        
             | snozolli wrote:
             | I was curious, so I googled it. I'm guessing GP is talking
             | about this:
             | 
             | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-
             | sheet/wp/2018/06/...
             | 
             |  _The aim was to create teacher evaluation systems that
             | depended on student standardized test scores and
             | observations by "peer evaluators." These systems, it was
             | conjectured, could identify the teachers who were most
             | effective in improving student academic performance._
             | 
             | (it's not clear to me if this _created_ any standardized
             | tests for students, or just depended on existing ones)
             | 
             | Sounds like it ran from 2009-2015ish. If Bill Gates is
             | going to be brought up, then I guess George W. Bush should
             | be, too, with No Child Left Behind. AFAIK that's what
             | kicked off the trend of standardized testing for students
             | in the U.S.
        
             | soperj wrote:
             | Gates Foundation put an outsized amount of money into
             | getting support for Common Core, standardized testing and
             | merit pay for teachers.
             | 
             | - https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/got-dough-how-
             | billio...
        
         | illwrks wrote:
         | Is this not the same as a gap year?
         | 
         | I'm Irish but unfortunately never bothered with TY. I live in
         | the UK now so I've a limited understanding of TY and the 'Gap
         | year'.
        
           | MattPalmer1086 wrote:
           | The article says it is like a gap year, but during secondary
           | school.
           | 
           | Clearly not the same as taking time off before university
           | when you are already an adult though. Participation in some
           | activities is required, so it's a bit more structured - and I
           | don't think you can take off on your own to travel the world!
        
             | talideon wrote:
             | It's nothing like a gap year. It's just less academically
             | focused.
        
           | Macha wrote:
           | A gap year is normally between the end of secondary school
           | and starting college (so 18-20 or so). TY is between junior
           | cycle (junior cert, or inter cert if you're older) and senior
           | cycle (leaving cert). So 14-16 year olds (who couldn't
           | legally take a gap year)
        
           | aussiegreenie wrote:
           | The Gap Year is a year-long deferral from university or
           | college. Sometimes, it occurs directly after finishing High
           | School, and other times, it occurs in the middle of your
           | course.
           | 
           | Many countries allow young people (under 30) to live and work
           | in-country under a Working Holiday visa. Both are effectively
           | Young People travelling (aka backpacking).
        
         | wiredfool wrote:
         | The other 5 years of schooling at that level is all about the
         | tests.
        
         | timthorn wrote:
         | > it consistently fails to produce better results
         | 
         | The performance of the English education system has improved
         | markedly over the past couple of decades. At least, as measured
         | by tests!
        
           | dijksterhuis wrote:
           | my physics A level teacher did something really interesting
           | with us.
           | 
           | we spent a whole class looking at an old O Level question
           | from an exam.
           | 
           | all of us, including the boffins in the class, were
           | completely stumped by it.
           | 
           | he explained it to us at the end, but it did solidify an
           | appreciation in me that, at least 20ish years ago, we
           | definitely had it easier than folks before us.
        
         | SoftTalker wrote:
         | > tests, tests and more tests
         | 
         | Same in the USA. The old student question "will this be on the
         | test?" is now also asked by teachers and administrators. If the
         | answer is "no" they skip it.
        
       | datadrivenangel wrote:
       | I took a year off after high school in the US to work part time
       | and take welding and accounting courses at the local community
       | college. Great experience that convinced me that I did actually
       | want to go to university.
        
         | SoftTalker wrote:
         | I'm pretty sure that if I had taken auto shop or welding in
         | high school (it was still offered, but I was "college-bound"
         | and steered away from anything in that wing of the building) or
         | in a "gap year" I would have ended up doing something in that
         | field. I love making stuff and repairing stuff. I also was
         | interested in computers and programming them, I think there's a
         | lot of overlap there in terms of motivations.
        
       | anotherhue wrote:
       | 20 years ago it was considered a 'doss year' (waste/screw-around
       | etc.), and the general perception was that it was for those that
       | require a little more time in the oven developmentally before
       | proceeding to the next stage. I was a child then so I don't know
       | if that was true, but certainly the majority of people who took
       | it were not academically inclined.
        
         | Filligree wrote:
         | Which seems fair enough. There's already a year difference
         | between the youngest and oldest student in any given class; if
         | you want your children to do well, make sure they're among the
         | oldest.
         | 
         | The problem is it might come too late to change their self-
         | perception. A year is a lot of time when you're nine
        
           | wiredfool wrote:
           | TY is typically at 15ish.
        
             | SoftTalker wrote:
             | A year is still a lot then. You can do a lot in a year if
             | you don't have to worry about earning a living and have the
             | time to engage in things that are interesting.
        
         | Macha wrote:
         | It was both extremes when I did it 15 years ago. Those who
         | needed it just to catch up on what they were supposed to have
         | learned in junior cycle and those who wanted a bunch of extra
         | curriculars for whatever reason. Note that admission to
         | college/university in Ireland is not a motivator for extra
         | curriculars - for school leavers the only things that matter
         | are your overall grades, and for some courses, grades in
         | specific subjects. (For foreign students, over 25s, those with
         | special needs etc. there's a 10% or so allocation for an
         | alternative process which is more subjective application based.
         | But the 90% go through the purely grades based CAO)
         | 
         | Think it varies a lot school to school and sometimes even year
         | to year.
        
         | talideon wrote:
         | Not in my school: the vast majority who took it (this was the
         | '90s, when it started) were the ones doing almost all honours.
         | 
         | It heavily depends on the school, I would guess, however, but
         | often those who need "more time in the oven" come just as much
         | from the academically inclined side as from the less
         | academically inclined side. For both, it allows them a broader
         | window on who they might be.
        
       | grej wrote:
       | https://archive.is/duzFR
        
       | wiredfool wrote:
       | In Ireland -- with one kid in Junior Cert and one who did Junior
       | Cert, then had an external Transition Year, then self studied for
       | A levels, and one who's done home school/self study through GCSE
       | and now doing A levels.
       | 
       | It's an optional, definitely not universal thing. Not all schools
       | offer it, and even then I get the impression that it's well less
       | than half the students take the opportunity. The implementation
       | is also highly school dependent, which is either totally expected
       | or a complete surprise, given that the rest of the curriculum and
       | tests are all national level standards.
       | 
       | This article paints a far rosier picture than I've really seen
       | from the local experiences, but that's probably as much the lack
       | of drive at the school than anything else.
       | 
       | My eldest's TY experience with us was great -- we took the
       | opportunity to AirB&B around Europe, at least till Covid hit. But
       | we were totally comfortable with dealing with the home schooling
       | part of that for the three of them.
        
         | Loughla wrote:
         | What are A levels, by the way? I hear this a lot on British
         | television but have no context.
        
       | aj7 wrote:
       | Folklore?
        
       | jamesblonde wrote:
       | Patrick Collison (Stripe) credits the Transition Year in Ireland
       | for his computer interest
       | 
       | " Ireland actually has this interesting thing called "transition
       | year," this year between two major exams of high school or at
       | least Ireland's high school equivalent.Transition year is a
       | formally designated year that's optional, where you can go and
       | pursue things that you might not otherwise naturally tend to
       | pursue, and the school tends to be much more permissive of going
       | and spending three months abroad or going and doing some work
       | experience in this area or whatever the case may be. And so, in
       | that year, I basically decided to spend as much of it as possible
       | programming, and so I did that.""
       | 
       | https://networkcapital.beehiiv.com/p/stripe-ceo-patrick-coll...
        
       | petesergeant wrote:
       | > What he really wanted to close was the cultural gap between
       | rich and poor
       | 
       | This sounds great!
       | 
       | > Then there is the financial aspect of TY: some parents just
       | can't afford it.
       | 
       | oh for fuck's sake
        
         | alephnerd wrote:
         | Yep! Good extracurriculars are expensive.
         | 
         | I remember taking part in Debate, MUN, XC, DECA, Wrestling,
         | Quiz Bowl, Volunteering (NHS/CSF), and a bunch of Olympiads in
         | HS and there was always a cost associated with participating
         | (either a fee or the need to travel to the place hosting the
         | EC).
         | 
         | Unsurprisingly, this meant ECs would skew upper middle class
         | and upper class. Sadly, these same ECs are also blockers for
         | college admissions.
         | 
         | I might get hate for this on HN, but this is why I support
         | unweighted GPA, relative class ranking, and SAT/ACT for college
         | admissions - sort of like what the UCs do. It's the least bad
         | option out of the other options. Alternatively, going open
         | entry with university admissions and then ramping up the
         | difficulty with weedout classes is a good option as well.
        
           | sodality2 wrote:
           | Open entry would change a lot of things - lots of schools and
           | rankings use drop out rate as a proxy for how useful
           | attending there is, because of the assumption that if the
           | dropout rate is higher, there's a worse education. It would
           | at least upend the old saying about the hardest part about
           | some colleges is getting in.
           | 
           | I agree with the SAT/ACT part - they pushed "holistic review"
           | during Covid but ultimately SAT prep is way lower barrier
           | (Khan Academy) than gobs of ECs.
        
             | heisenzombie wrote:
             | Open admission is an interesting way to do things. I spent
             | a bit of time in Belgium where the main universities will
             | accept anyone who has a high-school level education. The
             | first year dropout rate can be 70% in some courses. This
             | system seemed to be very well loved by Belgians.
             | 
             | https://www.oecd-
             | ilibrary.org/docserver/eag_highlights-2010-...
             | 
             | Notably the US has the lowest dropout rate, so obviously
             | they are pre-filtering students hard. That necessarily
             | means that there are lots of people who /could/ have
             | succeeded but were excluded at the admissions stage. The
             | degree to which that's the right choice probably depends on
             | whether you think doing a year of university and then
             | leaving is a huge waste, a horrible failure, or a
             | worthwhile experiment.
             | 
             | (The unique economics of US universities obviously interact
             | with this calculus in pretty major ways.)
        
           | rahimnathwani wrote:
           | unweighted GPA, relative class ranking, and SAT/ACT for
           | college admissions - sort of like what the UCs do
           | 
           | UC admissions decisions don't use SAT or ACT scores.
           | 
           | Relative class ranking is a poor measure for students who
           | gained entry (by merit) to a selective high school.
           | 
           | Like if you do well in middle school and get into Lowell by
           | the skin of your teeth, should you be penalized for being in
           | the bottom 10%?
        
             | alephnerd wrote:
             | > UC admissions decisions don't use SAT or ACT scores.
             | 
             | Ope. I forgot that changed after COVID.
             | 
             | Pre-COVID SAT/ACT was required.
             | 
             | > Like if you do well in middle school and get into Lowell
             | by the skin of your teeth, should you be penalized for
             | being in the bottom 10%?
             | 
             | Someone is always going to be penalized no matter what.
             | Most schools in California as well as nationally are not
             | specialized or gatekept via entrance exams like Lowell was.
        
               | rahimnathwani wrote:
               | Most schools in California as well as nationally are not
               | specialized or gatekept via entrance exams like Lowell
               | was.
               | 
               | Right, but 'school' is not the relevant unit. 'Student'
               | is the relevant unit.
               | 
               | Imagine the top 10% of middle school students in SF go to
               | Lowell. Half of those will be in the bottom half of the
               | graduating class.
               | 
               | So 5% of students in SF (half of the best 10%) might not
               | get into their UC of choice, just because they managed to
               | get into Lowell.
               | 
               | That's a lot of students' futures we're talking about.
               | Why penalize half of the best students in SF?
        
       | sollewitt wrote:
       | In TY in 1998 I:
       | 
       | worked at an architect's, an archeologist's, a hospital, an
       | epidemiological research institute where I got to use _my own
       | computer_ all day - decided I needed to work with computers, got
       | a summer job there.
       | 
       | earned the President's Award medal
       | 
       | had one class where we stripped an engine over the term
       | 
       | got my first aid certificate
       | 
       | learned how to develop film
       | 
       | took night classes touch typing (on an electric typewriter)
       | 
       | took part in the Irish language school music competition
       | 
       | took German
       | 
       | was in a play
       | 
       | got an award at the Young Scientist
       | 
       | I really developed as a person. I hadn't ever really stopped to
       | think what my life would be like without that development but I
       | suspect it was very beneficial. It certainly wasn't a "doss" -
       | and it started to grow a self determination muscle - find your
       | own work experience, find projects you want to try etc.
        
         | dotnet00 wrote:
         | I often mention to people that graduate research helped me
         | mature for this same reason. Prior to grad school, I just
         | followed the strict well-defined path modern schooling tends to
         | have - spend most time studying, very limited investment in
         | hobbies and out-of-school friendships, get good grades, focus
         | only on moving to the next year. My grades were great, but it
         | left me as an underdeveloped anxious mess of a person who was
         | incapable of being independent.
         | 
         | Having a few years where I had to do things mostly on my own
         | while still being somewhat 'sheltered' (because a research
         | advisor doesn't have time to babysit, but also won't exploit
         | you the way an employer can) helped me a lot to become my own
         | person and to stop having panic attacks over trivial decisions.
         | At a younger age, the same effect could've been achieved with
         | one year.
         | 
         | Plus, while everyone used to act like missing a year of ~high
         | school would be a permanent blemish on a career, having gone
         | through all this education, I feel that high school was the
         | least consequential part of it. It could easily be replaced
         | with a year of professional 'exploration' with no loss.
         | Especially nowadays, where undergraduate degrees are very
         | common (high school grades can already be entirely forgotten
         | after obtaining a degree), and undergrad programs spend much of
         | the first year redoing a lot of high school material to bring
         | everyone up to the same level.
         | 
         | As a result, when I have children of my own, I plan to
         | emphasize this sort of exploration a lot more.
        
           | BeetleB wrote:
           | > but also won't exploit you the way an employer can
           | 
           | Eh, my experience is the opposite. A _lot_ more exploitation
           | in grad school than in industry. It 's a lot easier to change
           | jobs than change professors/universities.
           | 
           | I recall multiple cases of formal/semi-formal interventions
           | where other professors or the department had to force an
           | advisor to let the person graduate (they wanted to keep
           | milking them for more papers).
           | 
           | And then when you do graduate, forget a career in research if
           | you can't get recommendation letters from him.
           | 
           | But otherwise, I agree. A ton of benefits if you go to
           | graduate school and don't have an abusive advisor.
           | 
           | (I also took a year off after high school. Never understood
           | why everyone said I was making a big mistake...).
        
             | dotnet00 wrote:
             | >Eh, my experience is the opposite. A lot more exploitation
             | in grad school than in industry. It's a lot easier to
             | change jobs than change professors/universities.
             | 
             | >I recall multiple cases of formal/semi-formal
             | interventions where other professors or the department had
             | to force an advisor to let the person graduate (they wanted
             | to keep milking them for more papers).
             | 
             | That's kind of what I mean though. In grad school other
             | professors you've worked with might still keep an eye out
             | for you. Under an exploitative employer, the way I was
             | previously, I wouldn't know any better, I had no sense for
             | the value of my time/work and I used to panic about having
             | to send simple emails to people, quitting a job used to
             | sound equivalent to suicide.
             | 
             | For me there's also the factor that as an international
             | student, it's a lot easier for employers to exploit me than
             | a school.
             | 
             | Edit: Although, come to think of it, I do know of other
             | departments at my uni where even other professors can't be
             | relied on to help in such cases. So I guess you're right.
        
               | BeetleB wrote:
               | > Under an exploitative employer, the way I was
               | previously, I wouldn't know any better, I had no sense
               | for the value of my time/work and I used to panic about
               | having to send simple emails to people, quitting a job
               | used to sound equivalent to suicide.
               | 
               | Seems the lessons you learned as a grad student are the
               | lessons I learned as an employee :-)
               | 
               | My first job was exploitative. I eventually gave them the
               | middle finger and left. Everyone told me I was crazy:
               | "All jobs are like this. You have to suck it up"
               | 
               | Eh, no. None of my jobs since then have been that bad.
               | Half of them I actually _enjoyed_.
               | 
               | This is very relevant: https://xkcd.com/1768/
        
         | jan_Inkepa wrote:
         | School for me (in Ireland) was more or less a race to get out
         | of school (+ concomitant bullying) and into university to study
         | what I was interested in (maths - at that point I wasn't able
         | to advance any further on my own and there was nobody who could
         | help/guide me further where I lived) - the idea of adding a
         | year on felt like it would be a waste. In retrospect, yeah I
         | think I made a good call. Happy to see other people getting
         | benefit from it though.
        
       | Eumenes wrote:
       | My child is too young for school but my partner and I expect to
       | homeschool. We've talked about gap years in the childs early/mid
       | teens for travel/backpacking/nature excursions. I wish fellowship
       | and apprentice work was more commonplace in the younger years
       | too. Get out of the classroom and experience the real world.
        
         | dyauspitr wrote:
         | How do you plan on your child building out their social skills?
         | Surely a couple of playdates a week with a few other kids isn't
         | going to cut it.
        
           | AnimalMuppet wrote:
           | We homeschooled. When we worried about our kids'
           | socialization, we yanked them into the bathroom and beat them
           | up for their lunch money.
           | 
           | I'm kidding, but... you want _school_ to build your kids '
           | social skills? Apart from all the pathologies common in
           | schools, you want your kids to grow up to live in an adult
           | world, which is almost completely unlike school.
           | 
           | Yeah, homeschooling _can_ be done where the kids are isolated
           | and never interact with anyone outside the family. It doesn
           | 't have to be, though.
        
             | squigz wrote:
             | > I'm kidding, but... you want school to build your kids'
             | social skills? Apart from all the pathologies common in
             | schools, you want your kids to grow up to live in an adult
             | world, which is almost completely unlike school.
             | 
             | I mean... yes, it seems reasonable to learn social skills
             | from a school setting? Interacting with other people, some
             | of whom dislike/disagree with each other, interacting with
             | other adults, etc. This seems like a reasonable step toward
             | what you describe as 'the adult world' - which, yes, is
             | rather different from school, but that seems a good thing;
             | throwing a child into 'the adult world' without preparation
             | would be crazy, right?
             | 
             | (I'm not trying to deny that one can learn the necessary
             | social skills while being homeschooled, just disagree with
             | the implication that school is not also a good place to
             | develop them)
        
               | Eumenes wrote:
               | "Children learn what they live. Put kids in a class and
               | they will live out their lives in an invisible cage,
               | isolated from their chance at community; interrupt kids
               | with bells and horns all the time and they will learn
               | that nothing is important or worth finishing; ridicule
               | them and they will retreat from human association; shame
               | them and they will find a hundred ways to get even. The
               | habits taught in large-scale organizations are deadly."
               | -- John Taylor Gatto
        
               | squigz wrote:
               | > cage > isolation > interruptions > ridicule > shame
               | 
               | I wonder if this person's view on schools is at all
               | biased.
        
               | Eumenes wrote:
               | I'd say someone who taught in NYC public schools for 30
               | years and won teacher of the year award is a good
               | resource to learn from?
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto
        
               | squigz wrote:
               | So biased toward American public education, in New York
               | City of all places.
               | 
               | For what it's worth, I look back on my time in school
               | with relative fondness. Certainly I don't agree with
               | anything like it 'being a cage' or feeling isolated from
               | other people (????)
        
               | yongjik wrote:
               | And put those children in an invisible cage with two
               | adults who will tell them when to get up, what to wear,
               | what to eat, what to read, and when to go to bed, and
               | these kids will learn...... what?
               | 
               | I think homeschooling _could_ work for some combinations
               | of parents and kids, but so many discussion sounds like
               | "Of course it's going to work for my kids because I'm
               | different!"
        
               | BeetleB wrote:
               | > And put those children in an invisible cage with two
               | adults who will tell them when to get up, what to wear,
               | what to eat, what to read, and when to go to bed, and
               | these kids will learn...... what?
               | 
               | Sounds like a typical day for a regular school kid. Most
               | school kids up to a certain age need a parent to wake
               | them up, and don't get to pick their clothes or their
               | food. And get shepherded into the bed.
               | 
               | Not sure what any of this has to do with homeschooling.
               | It's just basic life.
               | 
               | In fact, from the parents I know who home school, the
               | kids actually have more freedoms than school kids do.
               | Their work is tailored to their skill level, so no BS
               | tedious homework. As long as the parents have time, the
               | schedule is flexible as well. If your kid performs better
               | at noon - great! Start then.
        
           | Eumenes wrote:
           | Plenty of family/friends nearby with young families. I'm in a
           | rural area with a tradition of homeschooling so there's
           | weekly/biweekly events/classes. Not really worried about the
           | socialization. Over socializing can be bad too.
        
           | BeetleB wrote:
           | From what I've seen, surely going to school doesn't cut it
           | either :-)
           | 
           | Let's not cherry pick. Plenty of people have adverse social
           | outcomes due to school.
        
       | cmcconomy wrote:
       | In Quebec you find a similar program; elementary school is K-6,
       | and high school is 7-11. Following this you can optionally attend
       | an interstitial educational system called "CEGEP".
       | 
       | It's government funded and costs next to nothing.
       | 
       | CEGEP has two streams, pre-university or professional. For the
       | latter, you learn skills like aircraft mechanics. For the former,
       | you pick a stream that bulks up what would normally be first-year
       | university courses like calculus, biology etc for a science
       | stream.
       | 
       | However, you are required to take approx 15-20% of your courses
       | in an "opposite" stream to force you to get acquainted with other
       | alternatives before you commit to university. In addition, the
       | structure is much like university (you pick your classes &
       | schedule, class sizes are increased compared to HS, your
       | responsibility is increased) which is a good transition for
       | university if that's where you're headed.
       | 
       | I think it's a wonderful system and I wish it was more
       | widespread.
        
         | WorkerBee28474 wrote:
         | .
        
           | Hello71 wrote:
           | I googled "quebec educational attainment" and found
           | https://statistique.quebec.ca/en/communique/university-
           | gradu..., which says that "Quebec has the highest proportion
           | of people aged 25 to 64 with any postsecondary certificate,
           | diploma or degree (71.2%).". According to
           | https://www.statista.com/statistics/467078/median-annual-
           | fam..., Quebec's median annual family income in 2021 was
           | 96,910, almost the same as the median 98,390. The top
           | "provinces" are Northwest Territories and Yukon, whose ways
           | of doing things, for better or worse, cannot be easily copied
           | to other provinces.
        
           | hluska wrote:
           | Stats Canada data disagrees with this. Do you have a source?
        
       | tadhgpearson wrote:
       | It works on the other end of the spectrum too. Much of my class
       | just wanted to leave school at 16 to work on the family farm. TY
       | gave them practical experience of running a business, stripping
       | an engine, how to use an manage credit etc. before they went out
       | in the world.
        
       | asdasdsddd wrote:
       | I think a lot of the mental illness for young boys is that the
       | education ladder deprives them of responsibility until way past
       | maturity.
        
         | acjohnson55 wrote:
         | Out of curiosity, why do you think that's a problem for boys,
         | in particular?
        
           | justonenote wrote:
           | can't answer for GP but most likely because he is male
           | himself and so speaking to what he knows.
           | 
           | Your question sounds like you are baiting, like you are
           | pretending to be so naive that you are not aware that men and
           | women face different expectations and circumstances growing
           | up, and moreso there is something wrong with expressing
           | concern for boys without also including girls.
           | 
           | Maybe, hopefully, I'm reading you wrong.
        
       | TRiG_Ireland wrote:
       | TY was good to me, but I think it could have been better. As the
       | article says, each school does it differently. We did a mini
       | company, where we created knick knacks and tried to sell them.
       | But the entire class of 30 students was one company, which was
       | therefore quite badly organised. I remember the teachers saying
       | that they wouldn't do it that way in future years. There was also
       | orienteering.
       | 
       | And we still did some academic classes. Maths, anyway. And I
       | think some others.
       | 
       | In my school, most of the kids didn't do TY, so there was just
       | one class in TY, which meant that the maths, in particular, was
       | fairly basic: there weren't enough of us for streaming. And
       | jumping back into higher level maths in Fifth Year was, frankly,
       | a bit of a shock to the system.
        
       | kayo_20211030 wrote:
       | The Cillian Murphy reference seems off. He might have been too
       | old when it was mandated in 1994, even though it was available
       | earlier. Anyone know for sure?
        
       | talideon wrote:
       | I was in one of the first years that did transition year, and it
       | was almost nothing but good for me. It got me much more out of my
       | shell and I was able to do subjects I wouldn't have been able to
       | do otherwise. Art, in particular, thought there weren't enough
       | subsequently in the senior cycle for me to continue with it,
       | sadly. My work placements were fun in different ways: I worked in
       | a electronics repair shop and learned to solder and basic
       | electronics (I already had a healthy respect for high voltage),
       | worked with some architects, and also in a music studio and got
       | an understanding of music production.
       | 
       | I've heard reasons for not doing it, but it's so good for
       | broadening the horizons of who you think you are that almost all
       | of those reasons are almost moot.
        
         | colmmacc wrote:
         | I did transition year in 1997, and I think we were only the
         | second class to do it in my school. We took another European
         | language for a year, and I did Art, Home Economics, Metalwork,
         | and Woodworking classes that had no aptitude for and never
         | would have picked for my leaving cert years. They were great
         | and I learned skills that I still use.
         | 
         | For my work placement, I worked in a folk instrument store and
         | learned a lot about acoustic instruments, but also the basics
         | of showing up on time, getting things done, and more. It was
         | invaluable. The reduced pressure meant I could also work at the
         | local McDonald's, and the income from 6 months of shift-work
         | there made a big difference for me and my family. It was a
         | start of some modest savings that allowed me to even consider
         | going to college later (I still had to work through college,
         | but at least it was doable).
         | 
         | Transition Year, the introduction of Free Third Level
         | Education, and the blinded CAO application process for
         | universities were all game changers for me. I grew up in
         | Ballyfermot, a working class part of Dublin, and when I went to
         | college I found out there was still only a tiny handful of
         | people from there who'd had that opportunity. Still so
         | thankful.
        
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