Education Conversation
Conversation With Br Padraig McDonald March 2009
Education Office LEDP.
Outline some of my own history and background and where I come from in all of this.
My time in Sean McDerrott St. and form there to now. How things were then and now
Using the Fitzgerald Report/ S.Shanker Meeting as our guide in these action and just picking key phrases he talks of….
Poor parenting skills….
Anti- social behaviour…
“One size fits all”
Need for an intensive focused intervention…..
Full service integration….
Target families at risk…
Variety of educational activities to suit different learning needs to be encompassed into the curriculum…..
He is also recommending that there be consultation around these interventions
Looking at these key phrases and reflecting on them, the question of education and its importance in all of these issuses arises.
But first I must stress three aspects of young people that set the agenda of this discussion
…. Lack of trust towards adults
…. Anxiety for the future
…. Difficulties in the process of socialization
If education is to be the main plank of our intervention, then we have to be guided by certain guidelines…
.. To restore authority by developing an educative relationship based on trust
…to allow the young person to project themselves in the future as a witness of hope
… To learn to live together among young people and adults
Out of these statements three core values come… namely Trust, Hope, Covenant,
And from what I have seen you are all operating out of these values
TRUST
Without affection there can be no trust. Without trust, there is no education
Education based on unshakable faith in the capacity of the young person to grow, regardless of his present difficulties.
Beilief that education empowers each one regardless the difficulties and helps /invites them to grow
We must continue to believe in the young people.
HOPE,
The only way to respect the right of a child to grow is to see in the young both the child that he/she is and the adult that he is called to become.
This reality “offers a sense of security” and makes them responsible
What the young at risk suffer most is a lack of security
To offer security is to experience success.
What are our institutions teaching our young people, are we empowering people by our actions?
What most young people need is not so much an adult that offers to “help” but one that is capable of saying “I need you” and by doing that you are giving a feeling of importance, of being wanted, of being responsible,
and a place in society.
For this sense of Hope to work we need to focus the spotlight on what they are capable of doing inviting them to grow
CONVENANT
This provides for a process of socialization.
The young person can not be seen as only a recipient, and doing for them but rather as a partner in the interaction.
In this process of socialization we need to bring all these elements together, the elements of School, Community, Parents and any other elements that help in this process.
For this process to be successful we need to open conversations at this moment in time
…to ascertain how we can take a lead in the education field in this area.
…To find out where the Gaps are in the system .
…The effectiveness of the Agencies in which we work
…. How best to lead in a managed fashion. What does this mean?
…. By mapping this data it can help us to think outside the box, look at new opportunities and move away from the traditional view of education that relies on “one size fits all” because it does not.
In this aspect Limerick has the potential to develop new thinking on this area of development in education and become the leading light.
The process has begun but it is not a one man show for any of us /or agency and we are all part of this jigsaw picture and have some valuable piece to add to it.
In this conversation with all the partners we have the ability to make a difference so I suppose the question for us in our community / agency what difference do we want to make and how do we go about it.
If we are to lead this element of HOPE we must return to and listen to what is happening on the ground. A lot of this is difficult to hear and can be frightening to listen too. The words TRUST , HOPE, COVENANT when put together can build a powerful system of education in this area. I believe this has far reaching implication for us all, but more especially for the care and education of the families and children we come in contact with everyday
Poem for Hope
As long as we have hope,
we have direction,
the energy to move,
and the map to move by.
We have a hundred alternatives,
a thousand paths and infinity of dreams.
Hopeful, we are halfway to where we want to go;
Hopeless, we are lost forever.
Hopeful people see alternatives and are willing to try different ways.
With hope you are halfway to where you want to go;
This is the challenge for all of us. These are the challenges for all of us.
YES WE CAN!!!
Click here to Download Text of Regeneration Presentation Given by Declan Blackett to Conversation (7MB, Powerpoint Presentation)
