One of the most crushing put-downs I ever witnessed to a pupil was during my own second-level schooldays. When a friend snarled at a teacher, "You hate me!" the teacher in question merely raised an eyebrow and replied: "Far from hating you, I rarely bother even to think about you," writes Breda O'Brien
In contrast to my teacher's alleged indifference, scientists appear to have spent a great deal of time recently thinking about teenagers, or at least their brains. At one point, it was thought that the brain of a 12-year-old was more or less the same as an adult's. Now it appears that the brain goes through an explosion of activity just before puberty, producing quantities of grey matter which are pruned back drastically in the early years of adolescence. This vital pruning enables the brain to work more efficiently afterwards. However, some faculties of the brain are not fully developed until the early 20s.
A recent issue of Time magazine looked at functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) research, which provides fascinating information about brain activity.
Studies carried out over years with the same people suggest that one of the last parts of the brain to complete the maturation process is the pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with planning, judgment and self-control. Or as the Time article puts it somewhat wryly, the last part of the brain to mature is the part capable of deciding to finish homework before texting friends.
Most people are over 20 before the brain has completed the processes designed to facilitate that level of maturity. It is, of course, an incremental process. You are not a jackass-type decision-making moron one minute, and fully mature the next.
Yet it is still chastening to consider that our expectations of young people may be seriously mismatched to their level of growth and development.
It would be hard to blame teenagers, particularly those sitting the Leaving Cert, for coming to the conclusion that everyone hates them. Look what we do to them. To do well in the Leaving Cert, you not only need a particular type of academic intelligence and an excellent memory, but you also need executive-level decision-making and time-management skills.
Recently, a British expert group accepted that a grade in the Irish Leaving Cert was the equivalent of two-thirds of an A Level grade. Except that British students do two or three A Levels and most Irish students do seven.
You don't need to be capable of sitting an honours maths paper in the Leaving Cert to figure out that we are putting huge pressure on them at a time when they are still in the throes of growing up.
Reform of the Leaving Cert is in the air these days, and an important National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) meeting took place this week, from which recommendations will go forward to the Minister for Education. While the NCCA proposals may be overly-idealistic in places, they are radical and innovative. For example, transition year will become a series of modules, which may happen throughout a three-year senior cycle.
There is an emphasis on self-directed learning and alternative means of assessment.
One can only feel pity for those trying to steer a way towards transformation of the senior cycle. There are formidable obstacles ahead of them. First are the representatives of "survivors' syndrome", those who feel that if it was good enough for them, then it is good enough for the present generation.
Oddly, they seem to forget that the entire culture has changed in the interim, and that the pressures on young people have never been greater. Sitting the Leaving Cert 20 or 30 years ago cannot be compared to today. They are also the people who scream about dumbing down the Leaving Cert, as if force-feeding information in whatever way possible into unwilling recipients was in some way a highly intelligent activity.
Then there are the teachers, battle weary and sceptical, who have seen lots of ministers' bright ideas translate into lots of hard work for teachers and precious few resources to facilitate change. Earlier this year, teacher representatives pointed out that cutbacks in support services for Leaving Cert Applied courses were seriously endangering the whole enterprise.
Allowing new teachers to enter the LCA system for the first time without adequate in-service? Now, there's dumbing down for you, particularly given that the LCA is a lifeline to many pupils who would otherwise leave school early.
Teachers wonder about the practicality of some of the NCCA proposals in the real world of the classroom. They have also signalled clearly that they are not happy about assessing their own students. At the moment, teachers are the cheerleaders, the ones turning up to boost morale outside the hall on the day of exams. The relationship between pupil and teacher will be completely altered if the teacher decides grades that will determine a young person's future.
There are ways to overcome this dilemma which should be explored. Teachers, if consulted, listened to and supported, will be the most enthusiastic proponents of any system that enables them to work as educators, not spoon-feeders.
Parents, naturally, will worry about their children being used as guinea-pigs in a new system, and will often instinctively prefer the familiar, even if all too aware of the cruel nature of the current exam.
The most formidable obstacle, ironically, may be the Department of Education and Science. If it only tinkers with the system rather than initiating bold reform, it will be disastrous. Nor does their current fetish for cutbacks bode well for a project that will demand immense resources.
One of the best proposals from the NCCA is the focus on developing learning skills. Given the extraordinary level of development going on in their brains, it only makes sense to try and help young people create efficient habits that will help them learn for a lifetime. Likewise, it only makes sense to attempt to help students prepare for the world of work or university, where no one will be holding their hand.
It is potentially a very exciting and creative time in Irish education. Let's hope that, unlike the tongue-in-cheek claims of my teacher, the Minister and Department will think about this one quite a lot.