RONAN WALSH,
Madam, - Alas, Dr Cosgrave's letter (November 22nd) asserting Transition Year's dubious value is built on poor research and background knowledge. He seems to be under the misapprehension that Transition Year is only about work experience which in fact takes up only between two and four weeks of the school year. Unfortunately the misapprehensions do not end there.
Maths is a core subject. This means that it is taught in Transition Year to the same extent it is at Senior and Junior Cycle. There is no gap. The learning is "sustained" and cognitive capacities are nurtured. In most Transition Years all subjects, core or not, are taught and in our own case Transition Year facilitates the students to make difficult and defining subject choices in a safe environment. The huge enrichment possibilities offered by Transition Year take place within a subject-based school timetable.
All Transition Years have enrichment programmes too full to list here that range from, for example, Outdoor Pursuits to Museum Appreciation, and Community Action to the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). None of these programmes are part of an "an anti-intellectual snobbery".
How could a Transition Year take place at the end of Senior Cycle? Then it would be failing to deliver on one of its key promises, to provide a transition between Junior and Senior Cycle. No student in my opinion is ready for Senior Cycle subjects after their Junior Cert without a period of acclimatistion.
It is not just about academic choices. Transition Year also encourages maturity and a nurturing of lifeskills. It allows us to attempt to bring out all that is best in our students.
Dr Cosgrave may rightly be upset about the distractions of part-time work and how it affects fatigue indices but that is not the fault of Transition Year. - Yours, etc.
RONAN WALSH, Transition Year Co-ordinator, Sutton Park School, Dublin 13.