Rediscovering education
This summer has brought an unprecedented number of events in the region which celebrated times gone by. The latest took place at the weekend in Ballinamuck where Dromard GAA hosted an old-style fair and carnival.
The event was well attended with many people dressed up in garb from times of yore. Chores like butter churning are remembered with nostalgia, with little reference to the back breaking work that it entailed. These are genteel celebrations, a remembrance of yesteryear through a sepia coloured prism.
In Ireland of the 1930s, '40s,'50s and '60s, there was an intrinsic understanding that education provided a route to a different life. The arrival of free education in the 1960s made that a real possibility for a generation that otherwise would not have afforded this.
We were the land of the saints and the scholars where education was revered and respected. The path from education to employment was clearly mapped out in our minds. This was, we believed, the path to prosperity.
It is striking, then, that when prosperity arrived somehow education became less valued. We went from the land of the saints and scholars to the land of the quick buck. In the madness that followed, cute hoorism was revered and respected more than anything else.
Along the way, education and the hard slog that went with it became a lot less glamorous.
Last week, around 600 students in Longford received their Leaving Cert results. These students will have an integral role in a new era for Ireland. They have missed the mayhem of the Celtic Tiger years but, arguably, they have missed nothing at all.
They are a unique generation in that, for the most part, they have only known Ireland in the good times. This has instilled them with new type of optimism and self-belief. But, like the generations that went before them, the path from education to employment and prosperity is mapped out in their minds.
With nearly 6,000 people on the live register in Longford, further education is now seen at a route to a new life for many people who otherwise might have eschewed it. The Adult Educational Guidance Service in Longford has reported a significant increase in the number of queries it has received about courses. More and more people are looking at learning new skills, or upgrading their existing skills, as a means to getting back into the workforce.
Education isn't the answer to everything but it provides us with a mechanism to find the answers and a platform from where to ask the questions. Its importance is deeply embedded in the Irish psyche and there is a sense that we are rediscovering this after a few heady, if not headless, years.
It is hard to imagine if a day will come when we will look back on the outcome of the boom years with the same nostalgia as we look back on other times. (Instead of butter, would the churn be dispensing with quick bank loans?)
The fact that we are so easily brought back to book, so to speak, says a lot about Irish people. It shows a quiet determination and a sense of optimism about the future. It demonstrates that people aren't willing just to sit around and wait for the green shoots to arrive.
They are going to get out there and get prepared for when they do actually arrive. These positive traits are often missing from the national 'doom and gloom' laden conversation.
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Weather for Longford, Ireland
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: North west
