it’s one of the two official languages of the State, why should one be optional and the other not? Irish is the first official language
sry.
Because people use one in their day to day life while the other is a pastime.
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so should it be removed democratically as the official language of the country? Until such point as it is, it will always be a mandatory subject in schools
You make out that I’m arguing that Irish should be optional from start of primary school, which I’m not. It should be taught up to the end of junior cycle for reasons outline by @Juhniallio . However, after that optional is the way to go. It would certainly ease the pressure of leaving cert for a lot of students, which ultimately is a good thing.
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so the same with English? Optional after Junior?
No, as I explained above.
If you don’t know how to write correctly after the Junior cycle then you’ve no hope, all leaving cert English is, is poetry and old literature, it has very little to do with learning the language itself
Going by the writing abilities of a lot of posters on this forum, it already is and has been for a long time.
What are you going to do when we run out of Irish teachers? There has to be practicality here.
It’s largely a waste of time for people to be sitting in Ordinary Level Irish class. Put the resources where it matters.
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Yes it should. For a variety of reasons. Including that it will have to be removed as part of a United Ireland.
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At least this is some class of answer. I dont believe it happens other than for religious reasons myself. Irish is not high enough on the priority list.
As a fella with a degree in Irish and a bunch of people who graduated with me I can tell you that most of them have nothing to do with Irish now. It seems the gaeilgeratti never pulled the strings for them.
I also have an English teaching qualification and it hasn’t stopped me being offered teaching jobs here.
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For God sake. This is what you are up against.
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You don’t know much about leaving cert English I’d say. One of the two papers is based on stuff the student wouldn’t have seen before. It’s probably the subject which is the least based on rote learning.
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We’re getting to the nub of it now.
Pay Irish language teachers extra? I might go back teaching then…
I have absolutely no interest in poems and Shakespeare, I was forced to sit through that bullshit, I’d have been happier doing Physics or Economics instead
There’s two papers on the Leaving Cert for English which includes essay writing, you don’t have to do Shakespeare at ordinary level.
That you dont like Irish and I do? Sure that was clear from the outset.