Sir, – The Leaving Certificate results are due shortly and there will be much media coverage of this event. I think most of this coverage is “hype” and very unhelpful “hype” at that. I have previously appealed for the media to show restraint and maturity in their coverage of both the exam and the exam results. I am now repeating that appeal.
While the Leaving Cert is a big event, ultimately it’s just another step along the journey of life. I am 52 years old and I have completed three Leaving Certs in my time. I did the first when I was 18 and to be honest, it didn’t mean very much to me at the time. I completed the other two as a mature student (in my 20s), because I wanted to go to college. I might never have succeeded in my return to education, had it not been for the experience of completing that first Leaving Cert, when I was 18. Later on in my 20s, I completed a university degree. I have been teaching for the past 17 years, as well as doing an interesting variety of other skilled work, along the way.
What all this has taught me is that education is (or should be) about creating options. Life is a series of choices and challenges. Life also involves a lot of “trial and error” and there is nothing wrong with that. Every experience in life (including the exam process) has the potential to educate us and you can never have too much education, whatever its source.
Everybody who has done the Leaving Cert this year should be allowed to review their results and their options calmly and logically, without all this annual media cackle. – Yours, etc,
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TIM BUCKLEY,
Cork.