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Irish Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, May 15th: On TikTok teachers, dereliction, power and money addicts
Sir, – I read your recent article on TikTok teachers with growing unease (' Meet the TikTok teachers – and their surprising predictions for the Leaving Cert ', Education, May 13th). While it is encouraging to see educators engaging students through popular platforms, this trend raises deeper questions about what we value in education and what we may be losing. The rise of exam-focused influencers, with their bite-sized hacks and algorithm-boosted predictions, reflects an increasingly transactional view of learning. It reduces education to short-term performance strategies, exam shortcuts and curated content designed for engagement rather than understanding. In doing so, it reinforces the already unhealthy obsession with grades while sidelining the kind of slow, reflective, critical thinking that education should foster. There's also something troubling about how the popularity of a teacher is now mediated through social media metrics. When pedagogical credibility becomes synonymous with likes and views, we risk replacing thoughtful educators with charismatic content creators. Antonio Gramsci reminded us that hegemony is not just maintained through force, but through culture – through what people come to accept as common sense. If we are not careful, a generation will come to believe that real learning is something that happens online in 30 seconds, and the purpose of education is to win the game of exams, not to understand the world. – Yours, etc, READ MORE GAVIN REDDIN, Swords, Co Dublin. Stark failings on infrastructure Sir, – Arthur Beesley and John McManus describe the failure to provide infrastructure in stark terms (May 14th). They cite Uisce Éireann and the Greater Dublin Drainage project, EirGrid, the passenger cap at Dublin Airport and the Ardee bypass, the National Maternity Hospital, social and affordable housing in Ringsend, wind farms and MetroLink. Both refer to the problems of planning as favourite culprits in this failure, particularly referring to individuals standing in the way of the common good. This has never been a real factor. With the exception of EirGrid, whose problems are of resources, the failure lies firmly with the leadership of the infrastructure providers, not with the citizens who occasionally attempt to hold their power to account. It would take too long to analyse all the examples cited, but looking at just two of the failures, the passenger cap was a condition of planning permission granted in 2007; the DAA had more than 15 years to address it but did not. Metro North was actually granted planning permission in 2011 and that permission was allowed to lapse. Effective leaders take responsibility for their actions and unite people with a shared vision, working together to overcome vested interests. Without gifted leadership, we would not have been able to tackle the financial crisis nor the pandemic. We would not have the IFSC and the Dublin docklands. Ardnacrusha was the gift of the leadership of a young Irish engineer in the 1930s. It's time that we stopped blaming the citizen for failure. The responsibility lies with the leaders of the infrastructure organisations, who should be capable of carrying out their tasks. – Yours, etc, ROBIN MANDAL, chair Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Sir, – There is something profoundly wrong with Ireland. From the politically engineered housing crisis to the absurdly dysfunctional planning system, we seem incapable of delivering even the most basic public infrastructure, whether it's public or active transport, healthcare or community amenities. There is no political leadership or ambition, and there is no accountability. Every time I visit another European country, the contrast becomes starker, and the dysfunction at home even more glaring. We deserve so much better. – Yours, etc, OLA LØKKEN NORDRUM, Dublin 4. Money and power addicts Sir, – I agree with Prof Ian Robertson's piece about the pursuit of money shaping US politics and the love of money being an addiction (' Want to understand what money does to your brain? Look at this photo ', Opinion, May 11th). 'Money and power addicts readily dispense with values that they seemed to hold, so that they can feed their habit,' he writes. There is a great paradoxical lesson to learn with this understanding. Money and power addicts do not have power over the choices they make as the addiction has authority over them. They have, in fact, lost their power to the addiction. Paradoxically, money and power is their master rather than their servant. I live in hope that we become more aware of this lesson. Perhaps the world has taken the wrong road to the right place! – Yours, etc, ELAINE BYRNE, Ballinteer, Dublin 16. Scourge of dereliction A chara, – Does it not say it all when the lobbying body for the construction industry owns a derelict building that collapses in the centre of Dublin? (' Collapsed Victorian cottage in Ranelagh is owned by Construction Industry Federation ', News, May 12th.) The fact that a reported derelict building in a prime area, served by sustainable transport, services, schools, employment and social outlets can be allowed to occupy a site for so long is scandalous. When will this Government enforce and address dereliction in our existing urban centres and stem our unsustainable suburbanisation of the country? – Is mise le meas, COLM WALSH, Rathmines, Dublin 6. Catastrophe in Gaza Sir, – There are children dying every day in Gaza . These are children who should get to live, play, learn and grow up. Right now they are dying because Israel is choosing to starve them and the international community has decided to stand idly by. I cannot understand it. I cannot believe that the world's leaders can watch and continue to act as normal towards any nation who would treat humans in such a deplorable way. How abandoned and distraught must Palestinian people feel, to know that the world watches and does nothing? Where has our humanity gone? Words are not enough, real actions are needed by our leaders. – Yours, etc, GRAINNE FARRELL, Maynooth, Co Kildare. Sir, – Taoiseach Micheál Martin in recent statements on the catastrophe in Gaza has reiterated his call for the implementation of the 'two-state solution' (' Taoiseach Micheál Martin accuses Israel of war crime over blocking of aid entering Gaza ', News, May 6th). This is fine as political rhetoric but the Government appears to be in danger of wilfully ignoring Israel's repeated rejection in practice of the Palestinian right to self-determination. The 'two-state solution' was fundamentally undermined by Israel's actions many years before the current plan to 'conquer' Gaza. Has Israel ever taken the idea seriously? Since the Oslo Accords, Israel has continued to increase its colonial grip, building military and civil infrastructure, and allowing a massive influx of Israeli settlers on to Palestinian land. The Israeli state was busy changing the facts on the ground while the US and EU mumbled listlessly about the desired 'two-state solution'. Pretending otherwise is unhelpful and encourages the dangerous delusion that words alone can persuade Israel to stop what it is doing in Gaza and the West Bank. – Yours, etc, FINTAN LANE, Lucan, Co Dublin. Climate justice and art Sir, – I warmly welcome Sadhbh O'Neill's article on art and climate justice (' Art can communicate messages about our dying planet that are otherwise hard to hear ', Opinion, May 13th). It is heartening to see the power of art recognised, not just as a way to express emotion but to connect people to complex issues such as climate change. Here in Ballymun, we are seeing that notion in action through a project called Ballymun is Brilliant. This climate action project brings locals together through art, community events and shared ideas about building a fairer, greener future. Funded by the Government's Creative Climate Action Fund, the project helps people to feel more connected: to each other, to the place they live in, and to what is happening to the planet. What makes this project stand out is its commitment to inclusion, recognising that climate justice must make space for voices often left out of the conversation. – Yours, etc, NIAMH NÍ ICEADHA, Education coordinator, Global Action Plan, Axis Centre, Ballymun. Ireland's lack of priests Sir, – Fintan O'Toole's plumps for the populous solution of allowing priests to marry and the introduction of women priests (' Ireland is running out of priests. There is an obvious solution ', Opinion, May 13th). However, one straightforward solution would be for the Catholic hierarchy to invite young priests from developing countries, where vocations are abundant, to come and re-evangelise Catholic Ireland. Great things are happening with priestly vocations around the world. – Yours, etc, CORMAC MCCONNELL, Raheny, Dublin 5. Sir, – Just over 400 priests will be ordained from US seminaries this year. I'm sure we could spare a few to help shepherd Ireland, just as Ireland generously provided so many of her sons when the US was a mission field. I admit it will be a challenge to 'make Ireland Catholic again', especially among Fintan O'Toole and other 'heathens' (his word). But I reject the view that it's a lost cause. – Yours, etc, MARK HOLAN, Washington, DC, US. JFK and Pope Leo Sir, – I had the privilege of viewing the JFK Memorial in Eyre Square, Galway recently. This commemorated the visit of JFK to Galway on June 29th, 1963 on the back of his visit to see the ancestral home of his great grandparents in New Ross, Co Wexford. I remember as a 10 year old hearing his speech to the huge Galway crowds on TV (I was living in Scotland) and being inspired by his passion for all things Irish. Echoing JFK and his desire for peace between the great nuclear powers of the US and Russia, I find it poignant that Pope Leo XIV has appealed for 'no more war' and an end to the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine and India and Pakistan in a message to world leaders during his first Sunday address at the Vatican. In JFK's 'A Strategy of Peace' speech at American University on June 10th, 1963 he stressed the utmost importance of all nations in conflict to work for dialogue, tolerance and compromise. The parallels between JFK and the new pope's quest for peace are striking. – Yours, etc, ANTHONY WILLS, Hertfordshire, UK. Playing the long game Sir – There is no doubt that Jim (JJ) Walsh played the long game, mastered the middle and now, after nearly 70 years, this unique and special Irish Times chess columnist, is making his final move by retiring. It is hard to believe that Mr Walsh has written close to 16,000 puzzles, outlasting grandmasters such as Bobby Fischer and Cold War tensions from his first column written in 1955. He surpassed the world record as the longest-serving chess columnist in 2016. At 93, Mr Walsh has shown how important mental stimulation improves one's brain function and can prevent the development of cognitive problems. The old adage of 'use it or lose it' is never more poignant than when making reference to one's brain. He is a role model for all older people, inspiring them to find ways of improving their brain function. As a clinician, I see clearly the value of reading, writing, doing crossword puzzles, bridge, chess, etc, when it comes to looking after the old grey matter. I would like to thank Mr Walsh for the joy that he brought so many readers over his many years as The Irish Times chess columnist. Wishing him the happiest and most relaxing retirement. – Yours, etc, JOHN O'BRIEN, Clinical psychotherapist, Clonmel, Co Tipperary. 'We should be kind' Sir, – Knowing that our time on earth is limited can motivate us, Joe Humphreys writes ('I tried an ancient cure for procrastination for a month. It was grim', Opinion, May 12th). This need not be a morbid preoccupation. Philip Larkin's poem, The Mower, addresses the subject in a cautionary and succinct way. The poem describes how a hedgehog has its final moments when the lawnmower blades cut into him. The poet reflects that he had seen this small animal only the previous day. The poem's closing lines are: 'We should be careful of each other, we should be kind/ While there is still time' – Yours, etc, NUALA GALLAGHER, Castleknock, Dublin 15. The joy of Fighting Words Sir, – Congratulations to all concerned with the publication of the Fighting Words supplement with yesterday's Irish Times. It was such a joy to read all the stories written by such special children and young adults. Thank you. – Yours, etc, LAURA O'MARA, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.
Irish Times
13-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Meet the TikTok teachers – and their surprising predictions for the Leaving Cert
Final preparations for Leaving Cert exams are well under way and many students are frantically seeking last-minute tips and tweaks to maximise their performance in the coming weeks. The good news is that it is never too late to take on board advice from the experts. TikTok offers a less traditional avenue for study tips – and it's where some teachers are building huge audiences by leaning into the platform's snappy format. Some of them share their thoughts with The Irish Times on how students can best approach the crunch period. Their predictions may surprise and their advice on common mistakes could be crucial on the day. READ MORE Maths TJ Hegarty, maths teacher with Breakthrough Maths @breakthroughmaths Junior Cycle trigonometry shortcuts 👌🏻 Top tips for the run-in to exams? 'A Roy Keane quote: 'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.' Have all your bits sorted. Have your battery in your calculator checked. Have a clear pencil case. Pens and pencils organised. And I would start eating a healthier breakfast. 'Just the things you wouldn't think of. Everyone will give the standard answers of doing exam papers and all that. The thing you can control too, which no one talks about, is your preparation of your physical space. Take that pressure away.' [ 'Early mornings worked best. I was at my desk at 4.30am': How I got 9H1s in the Leaving Cert Opens in new window ] Hot predictions for maths papers? 'A couple of things will almost certainly be on it. For the Leaving Cert, there are four big focus points. Paper one will always be algebra and calculus – in particular, logs this year. Paper two for higher level will be a focus on trigonometry and statistics. Guaranteed questions. 'For the Junior Cert , which they're all yapping about, if you want a more tangible tip I can almost guarantee that you'll see trigonometry, SOHCAHTOA or Pythagoras' theorem. They will be 100 per cent on the exam.' Common mistakes to avoid? 'You should take a Mars approach to studying. You should zoom 30,000ft away from the exam itself. What are the six or seven big topics on each exam? What are you weak on? Make sure you box them off and then just take it day by day. 'You have that written somewhere. The six or seven topics for English, for geography, maths – write them down and then you have to cover them once a fortnight. Break it down into two-week chunks. You're touching on each topic once within that fortnight block.' Irish Séadhan de Poire, Irish teacher with Dublin Academy of Education @sdpgaeilge 🛑⏱️Last minute tips for the Irish oral ☘️🤩 Top tips for the run-in to exams? 'For higher level Irish, I would be telling them to start to simplify material to make sure it actually makes sense. I've corrected the State exams, and I've seen a lot of students try to learn material that's too difficult for them. They then try to reproduce this material in exam settings and because they don't understand what they're writing, there's loads of mistakes in it and it ends up making no sense. 'What I tell a lot of my students is to focus on having simpler Irish that they understand and that they can use instead of trying to learn things off by heart. Especially for Irish paper one, for the essay.' Hot predictions for Irish papers? 'For Irish paper one, it's all based off current affairs so there's no magical list of topics. You kind of have to be following what's in the news in and around November, December and January time. That's typically when the paper's set. 'Based off that, the topics that I'm looking at with my own classes this year would be politics, because of the elections that took place here and abroad, the education system, the Irish language, the housing crisis and a little bit on technology. A tip I'd give students is you can overlap a lot of material between those different topics. [ 'It's impossible': Will teachers be able to stop cheating for new Leaving Cert coursework? Opens in new window ] 'For example, if you're talking about politics and problems – well, housing is a political issue. You don't have to learn five brand new essays. You learn a couple of paragraphs that suit different titles and then you try to fill in the gaps afterwards.' Common mistakes to avoid? 'For Irish, the poems and the prose – students will really focus in on them and be worried about the marks. I kind of laugh a bit when I break it down for them. A poem is worth 5 per cent of your grade whereas an essay is worth 17 per cent. The two reading comprehensions they do are worth 17 per cent. They're the two questions they should spend more time on than anything else. 'Then when it comes to focusing on the prose section, they can end up just writing summaries and including every event that happened in the short story. I tell my students I don't want a summary when I'm correcting State exams. I just want to see relevant information that helps you answer the question.' French/Spanish Katie Lenehan, French and Spanish teacher with Dublin Academy @mslenslanguages1 Aaaaahhh I've finally made a Youtube ☺️☺️ I'm absolutely terrified but the full video is up there and i give you even more ideas on how to get better grades in the opinion piece question 💖 lysm x Top tips for the run-in to exams? 'The biggest piece of advice I would give is to recognise the importance of your reading comprehensions. In both papers, they're worth 30 per cent of the final grade. They're worth even more than the oral exam is and potentially it's something that students forget about because they have so many other things on. 'I'd probably recommend doing a minimum of one of them a week, if not two. For the listening papers, I'd also try to sit a full listening paper each week . . . They're quite practical elements that you can do. For the written paper, I'd recommend making sure you have a solid introduction and conclusion learned off for your opinion piece. And have 15 to 20 pieces of vocab for each topic that you're planning on covering for the exam, so it nearly becomes a game of jigsaw.' Hot predictions for French and Spanish papers? Though she prefers to steer clear of the term predictions, Lenehan encourages her Spanish students to focus on papers from 2008-2014, which may crop up again this June. She lists a range of topics to cover – emigration, social media, AI, money, changes in Ireland and the environment. For French, there is a slightly longer list with some overlap – phones in school, AI, the importance of voting, education reform, vaping, protests, young people and money, gender equality, emigration and housing. [ Leaving Cert 2025: How much lower will students' grades be this year amid deflation? Opens in new window ] Common mistakes to avoid? 'The first common mistake I see is absenteeism. They just withdraw from school completely and convince themselves that they're just going to study at home. Apart from the study element, they're still teenagers and they still need to be around each other. This isolation thing doesn't do you any use in terms of how good you feel going into the exams. 'I had such crippling OCD when I was in sixth year, and I learned the hard way how important it is to look after yourself. Absolutely, study has to be a priority, but it doesn't have to be the only priority. They need things like friendship, fresh air, good food. They need to sleep. Try to surround yourself with people that have a similar work ethic, or that have the same target grade as you, and try to encourage each other.' Biology/Chemistry Caoimhe Ní Mhuirceartaigh, biology and chemistry teacher with Dublin Academy @ Higgly requested!📚🧬✨️ H1 Guide to Leaving Cert Biology! Any questions let me know Top tips for the run-in to exams? 'The marking scheme for both biology and chemistry papers can be quite word-specific. You need to ensure when you're answering a question that it's not waffle and you're hitting the short, concise points. 'For biology especially, you need to know unit one and unit two really well. You can maximise your marks by focusing on the areas that are very repetitive. Knowing the non-negotiable topics that come up every year and are worth a large portion. In biology, the two most important topics would be genetics and ecology.' Hot predictions for biology and chemistry papers? Both subjects, Ní Mhuirceartaigh says, have quite obvious trends. Topics she thinks may appear in the short questions section of the biology paper include food, ecology, genetics and enzymes. For questions on systems, it is worth preparing human reproduction – particularly the menstrual cycle – and the human defence system. For experiments, the food test has a high chance of appearing along with the ecology experiment. On long questions, ecology, genetics, enzymes, microorganisms, photosynthesis and respiration could all be worth some focus. Ní Mhuirceartaigh describes organic chemistry as the most important area to conquer ahead of sitting the chemistry exam. Given you can feature it in three of your eight answers on the paper, it can account for 38 per cent of a student's final grade. Common mistakes to avoid? 'Make sure the study that you do is effective. You're not just reading over notes at this stage – you're assessing yourself. That can mean exam questions. It can mean doing quizzes online, mind maps, flashcards. There are loads of different ways to assess yourself but don't just be sitting reading through notes.'
