A bit ’o the Irish
Chris Casey, The Greeley Tribune
March 19, 2007
The cheerful sound of a feminine brogue gets kids extra-jazzed about reading sessions at Jackson Elementary School in Greeley. From the moment the Irish college students stepped into their classrooms this winter, the grade-schoolers couldn't get enough storytelling from these young women whose homeland essentially invented the art form.
"If there's something to be read out loud, they want us to read it instead of their normal teacher because of our accents," said Rosemarie Stynes, 18, of Kildare. "It's still a novelty." The children are curious to know how their names translate in Ireland, said Kate O'Neill, 20, of County Meath. "John," for instance, is the equivalent of "Sean" in Ireland. "I can translate some but not very many because they're so different here," O'Neill said.
Exploring differences and sharing cultures is the idea behind the Irish exchange program at the University of Northern Colorado. Eugene Sheehan, dean of education and behavioral science at UNC, is an Irish native who grew up in Dublin. He set up the exchange program with Dublin's St. Patrick's College, which specializes in elementary education, several years ago. Six or seven Irish students come to Greeley each spring semester, while a handful of UNC students travel to the Emerald Isle each spring and fall.
The students pay tuition to their home institutions and pay residence hall fees at the host college during their semester-long stay. "They're out in the schools working with the students," Sheehan said of the Irish students. "It's a great opportunity for them to see how American schools operate, to see how American teachers work."
UNC participants don't work in Irish classrooms, however, because Ireland's student-teacher approach is much different than the U.S. system. So, the American students take regular college course work in Dublin. Sean Kelly, a junior studying secondary education at UNC, spent the fall semester at St. Patrick's, a campus of about 2,000 students. "I didn't know what to expect," Kelly said. "I just always wanted to go to Ireland. I come from strong Irish descent, and the school is very small, but everyone was really friendly."
College is less structured in Ireland, he said. For example, he never took an exam at St. Patrick's, and students aren't as diligent about note taking. "I'd never been out of the country before, and learning about a different culture and another way of life was just amazing," Kelly said.
Several things about U.S. education caught the attention of the Irish students, who conversely had never been to the United States. "Here, it's so strict," Nicola Cosgrave, 20, of Wexford, said of the grade-school curriculum.
"It's literally laid out day by day and you cannot stray," Stynes said. "At home, you can be a little more creative." Stynes called the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests a "shocker." While students in Colorado begin taking the annual exams in third grade, Irish students don't take standardized tests until age 15, she said.
Other differences are the length of the school day -- "we find it tiring, so no wonder the kids do," Stynes said -- and the cultural diversity in the classrooms. "At home it's more mono-cultural," Cosgrave said. "It's just more diverse here. They all get on well (here). They don't notice the differences."
But increasing numbers of people are emigrating from other European nations to Ireland, so seeing how the U.S. handles literacy instruction has been enlightening, Stynes said. The Irish students are taking classes at UNC in addition to working with the Jackson Elementary students three days a week. They plan to eventually teach back in their home country. They've enjoyed the friendliness of Americans, but can do without the snow, the lack of mass transit and the high prices of college textbooks.
"We're still cold," Cosgrave, smiling, said of Colorado's winter. But they've never really felt too far from home, since their little island has extensive genetic reach. "Everybody's Irish," O'Neill said.
Reprinted with permission of The Greeley Tribune.