THE POWER OF UNDERSTANDING.

To be an educator, is to provide instruction and helpful information to people. To be a successful educator you must do this but also you must be an understanding empathetic person, you must live in the realm of a humanist ideas. The thought and fact that we must value and emphasize the agency of every person. In this writing i will be speaking about the relationship between school and society.

As an art teacher in a post primary setting i am lucky enough to deal with young learners in a day to day setting building interpersonal relationships and growing from one another in a nutritious learning environment. But what happens when people arent the same? What happens when our education system only caters for a certain social background, race, ability gender and ethnicity ? Do we understand that a round peg has never and will never fit into a square hole?

Teaching is a craft and it is best learnt as an apprentice observing a master craftsman or woman. Watching others, and being rigorously observed yourself as you develop, is the best route to acquiring mastery in the classroom. (Gove, 2010)

I don't believe the Irish education system has the ability to deal with these terms yet, we still

have these barriers within our schools whether they are visible or invisible. We do not have an inclusive education system regarding people.

Social class background exercises a direct influence on educational opportunities including school choice (Cahill and Hall 2014); it also interfaces with ethnicity and race in determining educational opportunities for Traveller and immigrant children (Devine 2011; Darmody, Byrne and McGinnity 2014). The educational advantages of the Irish professional and business elite are also aided financially through the State funding of elite schools (Courtois 2015).