At the Gasworks on Thursday I was again introduced to a different part of the organization that make up the Gasworks. For the first two hours of the morning, I spent it with the preschool children in the program that is offered at the community center. Most of the children where under the age of 4 and had very limited speaking ability so you can imagine the type of interaction that I had with these children, but it was nice to see a very helpful community service that is provided for parents so that they can go about the early hours of the day getting their chores done or just to give them some free time. The program ended at 12 very similar to most preschool/daycares in the
The second part of my day was spent over at the Gail school that is linked the gasworks but not specifically run by anyone within the Gasworks building. For those of you out there in the blogging world who may not know a “Gail” school is the equivalent of an elementary school back in the states except for the fact that from day one they teach the children in the Irish or Gaelic language in order to give them a broader cultural understanding. From my discussions with the teachers and administration of the school I found out that they can speak both English and Irish because for the most part most of their parents either do not speak Gaelic or have forgotten over the years so the children can speak the language but their English writing skills are taught in their later years. I also found out from the principle is that once they get to the equivalent to middle there are no Irish speaking schools and the children tend to lose the language due to a lack of practice and there is a big movement to get the language to be taught in more schools and at the next level but it is meeting a lot of resistance in the political sphere due to the dualistic nature of the two sides give and take. They see the problem being that protestants feel the Irish language is an attack on their own culture so much like the integrated education system only a small number of children who’s parents choose to send them attend this school.
While at the school I got to lead a PE class for 3rd grade students which I found to be quite an experience. At first I was not wholly sure of what I was getting into because on the way to the play area the teacher only spoke to the children in Irish so I had no idea what was going on. Then I noticed that at time the students would intermix English and Irish so I could understand about half of what was being said. When I got there the teacher explained to the students that I was an American and they could only speak English which all of them spoke remarkably well considering their age and school life and the PE class started. To my surprise I these kids all the way in another country in a school that taught two languages like the play the same games I did growing up such as tag and Simon says which really caught me off guard but made the job easier and then of course we ended the day with Soccer (Football as they would call it ) which ended my day. I think this was a great opportunity for me to get a glimpse at the community first hand rather than a group that is working for the community.
