Draw Breath

It's that time of year again; start of June, weather suddenly takes a turn for the better and the Leaving Certificate starts. Tomorrow, in what must be an age-old sequence of subjects, students head in to sit the English paper. There is front page coverage of a 'Dumbed down' exam claim on the front of today's Irish Times. Dr Martin O'Grady from the Institute of Technology Tralee suggests that today's students engage in an exercise of "memorising material given to them in a pre-packaged form by someone else". Now, it is not today or yesterday that I did the Leaving myself, but I do remember that a large proportion of what was necessary to do well on the day was linked to memorising large tracts of primary and secondary reading. Indeed, you could go in to the Honours History exam with one question totally prepared (special topic of your choice). What has changed in the meantime appears to be an attempt to make the syllabus more accessible to the wider student population. This might mean that the more impenetrable areas of study are excluded, but is not tantamount to dumbing down. If anything, I would imagine the teenagers of today have it tougher when it comes to studying. The most distraction a Leaving Cert candidate of the early 1990s could hope for was Dave Fanning on the radio. Communication methods of the future existed only as an essay topic on the Higher Level English paper. Good luck!