Dancing at the crossroads of the knowledge economy

Maths was never my strong subject in national school. I struggled. I was labelled a “slow learner”. While the rest of my classmates worked away on incomprehensible maths problems, the teacher took myself and some others to a separate part of the room for special attention. In secondary school, physics and maths were still my Achilles heel. I loved English though. I was a good student overall. A bit above average I guess, but not a star pupil by any means.

I will never forget the day I collected my leaving cert results. A big day in the life of any teenager. I arrived in to the principals office. The head brother (I went to a De La Salle school ) looked down through my results and pointed out my disappointing maths and physics scores. Nothing about my wonderful result in English. I left feeling deflated. I’d done the best I could. My mood wasn’t helped by the fact that as I left, a “star pupil” was next in line. I could hear the enthusiastic voice of the principal as he congratulated the maths, physics and everything else superstar on his results. I walked home under a cloud.

Roll forward to today, I find myself thinking again about education. The various reports about grade inflation and the need for science and maths in schools is a topic exercising many minds. The former head of Intel, Craig Barrett, spoke at an economic think tank in Farmleigh about one of the reasons the company came to Ireland. It was education.

He told the audience that the Irish aren’t as clever any more and we needed to do something about it. Fair enough, we need to sit up and take notice on hearing  a wake up call like that.  Unfortunately, there is a danger in listening to someone like him that we lose sight of the people that actually matter in all of this – the student. Is it unrealistic to want an education system that is truly interested in unlocking the potential of each and every child rather than preparing them as cogs in the machine of American imperialism? Is it right to force a child along a career path that maybe they don’t have the aptitude  or real passion for? Shouldn’t we aspire to living in a country where every child is equally valued and cherished no matter what their academic ability or how much money is in their parent’s bank account?

You may have heard of Gillian Lynne, the celebrated ballerina, director and choreographer. She is famous for her work on Cats and the Phantom of the Opera (the longest running show on Broadway). The following is an extract from her Wikipedia entry:

Lynne had been underperforming at school, so her mother took her to the doctor and explained about her fidgeting and lack of focus. After hearing everything her mother said, the doctor told Lynne that he needed to talk to her mother privately for a moment. He turned on the radio and walked out. He then encouraged her mother to look at Lynne, who was dancing to the radio. The doctor noted that she was a dancer, and encouraged Lynne’s mother to take her to dance school.

One wonders how many people are doing jobs today because they were pushed into it?

Maybe, just maybe, the key to Ireland’s future recovery is allowing the dancers to dance and the singers to soar.

Image by mandaloo [cc]