“I am totally depressed as I believe a huge amount of work has been totally undone … support structures to assist the most vulnerable have been undermined, which will mean that discipline and pastoral care structures will be affected”
-    Principal, boys’ secondary school, Leinster

A Leaving Cert. student could do worse than present this type answer in their exam, if a question about a "personal response to John Keats" happened to come up.

Write a Personal Response to the Poetry of John Keats.

If I was a Leaving Cert. student and was asked to write a letter to John Montague, this is what I would write.

Write a letter to John Montague

17 Main Street,
Small Town,
Co. Galway.
12/06/08

Dear Mr Montague,

If I were a Leaving Cert. student and I was asked to give a talk on Elizabeth Bishop's poetry, here is what I might say.

Write a Speech to your Classmates on the
Impact of Elizabeth Bishop’s Poetry on You.

Good afternoon, classmates.

A student at AllHonours.ie needs help with Michael Longley's poetry. Here's an introduction to his work that I wrote from the point of view of a Leaving Cert. student. Hopefully it will help him/her.

Write an Introduction to the Poetry of
Michael Longley.

A girl over on All Honours asked for someone to write her a personal response to the poetry of Derek Walcott. I decided to help out. Here's my personal response to Walcott's poetry, based only on Leaving Cert. poems, and written from the point of view of a Leaving Cert. student.

Write a Personal Response to the Poetry of Derek Walcott.

The loose network of struggling groups from around the world calling itself the International Students Movement has called for a Global Week of Action 2009 this coming April (20/04 - 29/04).

This is the text of a letter that I sent all TDs this morning in a last ditch attempt to get them to change their minds over the cuts to education announced in Budget 2008.
Feel free to copy it and send it your self.
____________________
Dear TDs,

This is an open letter to you all, asking you to do your utmost at this
very crucial time to revert the impending cuts to our education system
that were announced in Budget 2008.

I have a solution to some of the cuts announced in Budget 2009.

It has to do with the TDs taking a 10% pay-cut.

I laughed when I heard the politicians were taking a 10% pay cut. 10% - so what. If they took a 50% pay cut they would still be getting paid twice the industrial average. In perspective, this means a politician could take a 50% pay cut and still receive about €70,000 a year (plus expenses). Here is where my solution comes in: the other €70,000 could be used to keep TWO teachers in a job.

Every area of business is getting in on the act: targetting students, that captive audience of impressionables. In this latest attempt, AIB asks students to build a bank in their school, and of course AIB will give the students all the help they need. (Campaign for Comercial-Free Education (CCFE) does not think the banks are in the best position to be giving financial advice at the moment.)