T H I N K I N G O U T S I D E T H E S Y S T E M

Why do students leave schooling?

This is a question with no concrete answer, In my time at the Life Centre i learnt that any student can become an early school leaver. Many people that i have discussed this issue with have assumed a lot of the students that enrol at the life centre have had extreme behavioral issues. But on going into this environment i learnt that any single student from any gender, socio economic background can get lost among the large classroom sizes we have in Ireland.

“There are many reasons why some young people do not stay at school. The
important thing to remember when working with an early school leaver is that
their decision to opt out of mainstream education is a symptom of the wider
range of issues that they are facing. These issues may fall into a number of
categories such as personal, social, family, economic or school-based problems.
62% of early school leavers attribute their decision to leave school to school
based issues, 60% to economic and 14% to family issues and 5% to health
factors (respondents could tick more than one answer).”

Maria Lally (Foróige – Blanchardstown Youth Service) for
‘Access All Areas – a Diversity Toolkit for the Youth Work Sector’ published by NYCI and
Youthnet 2012

I can understand why people make this generalization and start to marginalize our young learners because as humans we have to categorize and make sense of things. Why do 10% of our students leave school? A lot of people will have to answer this be generalizing the individual and their choices.

“It is because of the universal human need to place other people in categories that the phenomenon of stereotyping arises. A social streotype refers to a set of characteristics which are held to be common of members of a category” (David H. Hargreaves- Interpersonal relations and education 1975)

The life centre favours a holistic approach centred around mutual respect between the teacher and student, all meals are eaten together, students and teachers engage in bracing conversations around education and personal life which gives the student respect for the teacher. The young learner when given this mutual respect builds a respect for your enthusiasm. The wall of hierarchy from past post primary education is broken down and the student starts to find solace in learning and the context of the centre.

I cannot advise educators enough on the absolute importance of this practice. The absolute colossal importance of mutual respect between educator and learner. It has guided me as an educator to embrace praxis as curriculum practice in my placement school, it has guided me to embrace a student first position always.

I want to embrace where we could go in the quality of teacher education. What will the future bring? Hopefully mutual respect between learners. Understanding that a teacher can be a “ one good adult” figure to every young learner. But how do we get here?

Getting to experience a holistic learning setting, being fully immersed in the importance of Howard Gardners “Multiple Intelligence” theory and taking a humanist approach.

-Nollaig Lynch