Are you interested in one week's work placement in The Irish Times? Transition Year students can learn first-hand about the workings of this newspaper if their submission is published in Media Scope's weekly Over to You column. Just send us a 200-word piece on a media-related topic.
Martin Crummy, Abbey Grammar School, Newry, Co Down
Foot-and-mouth is gripping the country and the consequences if it takes hold would be the end of the Celtic Tiger. Yet the Irish people are sticking to the task of stopping the disease entering the Republic of Ireland. Every farm is secured with mats and straw and the general public have responded very well to cancelled events and the request from the authorities to stop visiting the countryside.
This awareness and commitment by the public is in no small fact related to the very wide and effective coverage the crisis has received through the media. No television station in England has an advertisement like the one RTE is running currently, and daily newspaper updates on the disease give people a very clear picture of the problem - a sound base from which to build a successful campaign. The value has been shown by the outbreak which has gripped Britain: the British media never had such a concerted campaign.
The Government may have been criticised for a slow start, but with the help of the media foot-and-mouth disease can be beaten.
Aisling Seery, Loreto Secondary School, Bray, Co Wicklow
I am enraged about the amount of discrimination there is against girls in the Irish school system today. I'm not talking about spoken acts, or violence, but the inequality the Government has allowed and almost encouraged.
The subject choices offered in schools are highly offensive. While most boys' and mixed schools have moved with the times, girls' schools have not. Technical drawing is rarely offered, nor woodwork or metalwork. Instead, students are given nearly no choice but to do home economics if they do not like science or business studies.
Home economics helps to breed a sense of inferiority in girls' schools as it is rarely taught in boys' schools. Girls feel they are less capable of working outside the home - because, after all, the authorities are telling them to spend their time sewing, knitting etc.
The Minister for Education should encourage schools to widen the curriculum choices, and give girls the same chance as boys. In doing so he would show students that everyone is equal and entitled to the same choices, regardless of gender.
Write to media scope by posting your comments to Newspaper in the Classroom, The Irish Times, 1116 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, or faxing them to
(01) 679 2789. Be sure to include your name, address and school, plus phone numbers for home and school. Or you can use the Internet and e-mail us at mediapage@irishtimes.ie
media scope is a weekly media studies page for use in schools.
Faxback: Worksheets and other materials are available to teachers who place group orders through their schools. The worksheets are sent to all subscribing schools via the automatic faxback system. This system will re-try an engaged line up to four times.
If you do not receive material by Wednesday morning, and you have a touchtone fax machine, please use it to dial (01) 670 9709. Follow the recorded instructions and material will be faxed to your machine. If you have a pulse-dialling machine, refer to your fax manual for details on how to set it for touchtone dialling. If you have problems, telephone (01) 679 2022, ext 8568 or 8580.
For group orders, FREEPHONE 1-800-798884.
