My name is Katie O’Reilly and I am studying primary
education (BEd) specialising in early childhood studies at Plymouth University.
I am very passionate about the education of children of all abilities, not just
the children who are gifted and talented or have special educational needs.
I love learning (even if I am not very good at it) but I
just love it. In school I was always sat at the front of the class in awe of
what I was learning; I was not a particularly gifted or an academic person but
I was very hard working. Unfortunately this was not enough when I reached in
secondary education, I wasn’t very charismatic and was very shy which meant
that I eventually disappeared to back of the classroom. Out of sight, out of
mind.
Then there was that one moment in education that changed my
life forever. I was pulled aside by my religious education teacher in year 11
and was told that I was not allowed to take my RE GCSE as I was not deemed ‘capable’.
My face must have been a picture because my teacher said, “You’re acting like
this is a surprise to you. Give me one reason why I should even consider
entering you into the exam?” My reply: “I love RE.” My teacher gave me that
this-does-not-wash-with-me look. This ‘look’ provoked my angry parents to book
a meeting with my teacher. When we entered the room for this meeting the
teacher stood up from his desk and strode straight over to my father and shook
his hand and said, “Hello Mr O’Reilly, I’m Mr
TG and used to be a barrister.” What more should I add? This meeting
consisted of a discussion about my evident interest in religious education,
apparently I used to clock watch in the RE lessons and I never used to put up
my hand to contribute in the lessons. Little did this man know that in my own
time I was very passionate about woman’s Islamic rights in Saudi Arabia and
that I was reading all the literature that I could get my hands on about the subject.
In my eyes I could not see how memorising the definitions of words such as ‘omnipotent’
and ‘omniscience’ as relevant to the religion in the world. It was no wonder I
was bored in the lessons!
My mother eventually convinced my RE teacher to enter me
into the year 10 mock test. When I received my results, I was told by my RE
teacher (with his eyes to the floor) that I had received the highest score in
the year and had earned myself an A*! My teacher then told me he had entered me
into my GCSE exam and then turned on his heel and left the room. No apology or even
an offer of congratulations was made! At that moment I knew that the education
system needed to change.
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| A painting of my Dad painted by my sister. |
People like me are not academically bright and really
struggle to prove ourselves. Take my sister for example, she is severely
dyslexic (it took years to diagnose) and struggles to get her b’s and d’s the
right way round but she can paint a canvas so lifelike that it takes your
breath away. My father, also dyslexic and can barely read and write, has just
designed and built a house that is truly unique (he built it on top of a river
in which the river runs underneath the structure).
We should be encouraging children to be themselves and
enhance the gifts that they have already been given. During my education I felt
that a lot of what I learnt was irrelevant and uninspiring and did not prepare
me for the world outside. However this RE teacher inspired me to make schools a
better place for those pupils deemed average. I may have additional needs when
it comes to comprehending information and writing but I do make up for it by
having enough ambition and motivation to improve and reflect on my own practice.
So then, what is the current purpose of Education?
To be continued...
