Private schools in Ireland, Part 1
When we talked about Irish secondary schools, we promised to tell you about private schools in Ireland.
In Ireland, this form of education has been in practise for hundreds of years, from the time when Ireland was considered an educational hot-spot in Europe; you can read about this in our post about the history of Ireland or the post about the monastic town of Glendalough.
In those days, education took place in monasteries, children were sent there at an early age and after years of education, usually, became priests or important people in the church because they were some of the most educated people at the time. Education in Irish monasteries was so deep and spiritual that people who graduated from these monasteries reached a high level of spiritual enlightenment, and some, like St. Kevin, were considered saints because of their spiritual perfection.
By the way, this is actually what the religious education received in most Irish schools today evolved from. Those who are not yet familiar with this, please refer to our blog posts about the ‘First Communion’ and the ceremony of ‘Confirmation’ in Irish schools. And for atheists, we would like to note that we do not know of any cases where being taught in an Irish Catholic or Protestant had a negative affect on a child.
We have to expand our information on religious education in Irish public and private schools because some people, who belong to different religions or are atheists, are afraid of the thought of having their children educated in schools where their religion isn’t studied.
Here we just want to reassure you. The thing is that all schools in Ireland are very caring towards children of other religions. Also, almost all of the Protestant schools in Ireland are considered multi-religious, i.e. schools that educate children of all faiths, even those who are non-Christian.
And even Catholic schools are very patient towards children of other religions even if they do not wish to participate in the schools religious events. This applies not only to private schools but also all public schools in Ireland. If you have been told otherwise, then that information isn’t correct.
We have slightly diverted from the main subject of this post because we thought you should know that the fact that all of the private and public schools in Ireland are either Catholic or Protestant shouldn’t scare you. Also, we did this to help you understand the origins of such a high level of education in Irish private schools.
And now a few important points on private schools in Ireland. You will not believe it, but often, children that attend private Irish boarding schools are from well-off families who live in the city where the school is located.
The thing is that, it is commonly considered throughout many countries in the world that elite education can only be given to children while they are away from their family and home. Just look at the history of prestigious British schools in the UK and you will be convinced that we are right. These schools were considered to be elite even when they used physical means to punish their students. By the way, the return of such practises is currently under consideration.
This approach has a logical explanation. If the punishment is reasonable and given out for the right misdeeds, the child learns discipline and forms an understanding of justice. Furthermore, it is very easy to find out a child’s personality in such a school. It’s almost impossible to hide flaws in your personality from your classmates, especially since in some private schools, the children live with 5-6 roommates.
Parents who have sent their children to be educated in a boarding school can, at the same time, actively participate in the school’s activities through parent committees. Through these committees, parents can influence the education process in the school where their child is being taught.
We will continue this story in our next post, "Private schools in Ireland, part 2".