We have to look at the points system and question the impact it is having on our children

Thomas Kinsella has a wonderful poem called, ‘Model School Inchicore.’ In the poem Kinsella explores the notion that the old traditional educational system of Ireland shrank creativity rather than promoted it, writes Richard Hogan.

The opening line is the longest in the poem and the final line is the shortest, representing the reductionist impact our old educational system had on a young developing mind.

And whenever I teach the poem in my classroom, the students generally have a very strong reaction to it because for the most part, they strongly argue that the same can be said of today’s educational system.