"What a Wonderful World"

Hi everyone!

Yesterday, I got my first taste of Irish weather. It’s been pretty chilly and cloudy, and rain has been spontaneously falling throughout the day. It’s incredibly unpredictable- sometimes it’s a misty drizzle, but other times, it is pouring so hard that you can barely see. I wish I could say that it’ll all be over by tomorrow, but, unfortunately, the weather forecast says that there’s a 70% chance it will rain every day until next Thursday. One thing is for sure: I miss my hot Georgia summers.

I also ventured into Northern Dublin for the first time yesterday. We were doing a photo scavenger hunt in which we had to find five things that you would find in Dublin but not in Durham. Each group was assigned to a different location, and Anthony and I got to stroll down Capel Street (which is located in Northern Dublin) and along the Liffey River. Finally exploring Northern Dublin for the first time, I can honestly say that I didn’t find many differences between the North and the South. The buildings were a little more worn, and the people did look a bit grungier and rougher, but the differences were extremely subtle. I also noticed that there was significantly more diversity (more immigrants and foreigners) in the North.

While yesterday was fun, today was an extremely eye-opening day. As I previously mentioned, Derek and I will be working at an organization called Educate Together. Essentially, 95% of Ireland is Roman Catholic. Unlike the United States, there is no separation of church and state in Ireland, and depending on what religion/denomination the patron establishes the school to be, a half hour class is taught, focusing on that particular doctrine. On the other hand, Educate Together schools are:

·         Multidenominational

·         Co-educational

·         Child-centered

·         Democratically-run

Educate Together defines multidenominational as denominations of all faiths. They are committed to ensuring that all children have equal rights of access to the school, and children of all social, cultural, and religious backgrounds are equally respected. For example, instead of teaching a half hour religion class, they teach a half hour ethics class instead. They teach religion in an effort to educate and expose students to the many beliefs found around the world, but they do so without establishing any one doctrine as the “correct” doctrine. 

Derek and I received the opportunity to visit an Educate Together school called Esker Educate Together National School (ETNS). Sarah, the volunteer services officer, explained on the drive there that today was a special day because an Australian ambassador was coming to visit the school. Esker ETNS is located in a pretty empty suburban neighborhood and a temporary building (since the school was opened as an emergency school in 2007 to give the large influx of immigrant children the opportunity for education). Upon entering the school, I immediately smiled. Despite their temporary accommodation, the school certainly looked like home with brightly colored pieces of student artwork and student projects lining all the walls. Sarah introduced me to Paul, the CEO of Educate Together, and Messina, the fundraising chair of Educate Together. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming; I honestly can’t wait to start working with these cheery, warm people!

The first thing that I noticed was that the school was extremely diverse, compared to the rest of Ireland (when walking through the Dublin airport, I saw headshots of several hundred Irish people that were part of an exhibit called “Faces of Ireland.” Almost all of them were white.). In fact, the fifth class I entered had only one Irish student out of the twenty-ish students that were in the class. The other children were from various areas of the world: Pakistan, Poland, India, etc. Sarah explained that because Dublin has several large companies in the area, such as Intel and Google, diversity has increased significantly in the last ten years. Sadly, much racism still exists in Ireland, but Educate Together schools have been working to combat discrimination by working towards equality and respect for all and giving children the opportunity to learn about other cultures.

While we were waiting for the other Educate Together members to finish discussing some matters, Derek, Sarah, and I entered the fifth class (fifth grade) classroom and got to interact with the kids and answer their questions! The children were extremely inquisitive and bright. They were eager to ask us questions about life in America. Favorite question of the day, “If you open your door, are there any dangerous animals that will come inside and kill you?” Apparently, this student Adam previous did a project on dangerous animals. I think he was disappointed when I explained to him that my neighborhood really only had deer and bunny rabbits and squirrels.

Afterward, we moved to a different room with third class and sixth class students. They were putting on a presentation for the ambassador and invited us to watch. The performances were absolutely lovely. An adorable rendition (complete with singing and dancing!) of Oliver Twist’s “Consider Yourself” opened the presentation by encouraging the ambassador to settle down, get comfortable and “consider [himself] one of us.” The third class proceeded to demonstrate how the school was multidenominational by putting on a “marriage ceremony.” They explained how weddings differed in various religions. It was literally the most adorable thing I’d ever seen, and it was beautiful to hear the teachers and students talk about how interesting they thought the different religions were and how much respect they had for them. Later, they raised the “Green Flag,” which is a flag that demonstrates that their school is committed to recycling and “living green.” Afterward, they sang their school’s theme song, which was Louie Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”

Visiting the Esker ETNS put such a large smile on my face and brought me so much joy. I definitely realized how genuinely thankful and grateful I was to have respect and equality and diversity come so naturally at the schools I previously attended. The children were wonderful, and the teachers were all so cheerful and encouraging. It was a positive, supportive learning environment that truly celebrated every student’s individual identity and culture. I was so blessed to have received the opportunity to visit such an amazing school.

Later, because Derek and I didn’t have lunch plans, Paul took us to the Leinster House, which is where the Parliament of Ireland is housed. He was speaking at a panel in which various parents and supporters explained the growing demand for an Educate Together school in the area of Portobello. Even though there are currently 60 Educate Together schools, they only comprise 3% of the total schools in Ireland. The Educate Together staff has recently been interested in surveying areas that display a heavy interest in ET schools and possibly transforming the Catholic/religious schools in the area into ET schools. However, there is one major problem: even though the government funds 95% of the schools’ budgets, the schools are privately owned by the churches and religious institutions, the patrons. Thus, in order for a school to be turned into an ET school, the ET staff must negotiate and receive authorization from the patrons themselves (and most are unwilling to do so). It was an incredible opportunity that allowed Derek and me to meet various members of the Irish government (including this one really awesome senator who we later had tea with!) and begin to really understand the political issues and challenges behind opening ET schools.

Afterward, we were split up into pairs and sent on a scavenger hunt all around Dublin (literally ALL around both Northern and Southern Dublin). I’ll attach pictures once I receive them from him of all the places we visited, but one thing was for sure: we were exhausted at the end. 4.5 hours of jogging/crying/being-frustrated/falling/dragging-myself-across-the-Irish-cobblestone was probably too much for me. But the scavenger hunt allowed us to see so many notable and historic and beautiful places in Dublin and meet the super friendly, chatty local folk. They were always more than happy to answer our questions and point us in the right direction.

Tomorrow, Derek and I are officially visiting the Educate Together office (which apparently is located at the end of the face of the earth) and meeting all of our coworkers. I’m literally bouncing up and down with excitement, despite my inability to move my super sore, tired legs. I’ll definitely let y’all know all about it tomorrow! Take care!

Smiles,

Anna (: <3