Volume 32 Number 1 October 2008 Newsletter of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors
unch La of r p e Policy Pa The Are FREEDOM Students Innovation to say in no getting ACTION SMARTER? trinity college dublin Open Day Wednesday 10 December 2008 6th year students, parents, teachers and guidance counsellors are invited to attend. Activities include mini-lectures, demonstrations, tours of laboratories, information stands for all courses, as well as informal discussions with students and staff. The full programme of events will be available on www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate in late November.
The above image shows Front Square in Trinity College. It is taken from a 3-D interactive model of Trinity College and Dublin city centre which was produced by undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Department of Computer Science. www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate http://itunes.tcd.ie www.tcdlife.ie/trinitylife Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
Guideline is published three times a year (October, Contributions of articles or advertisements February and May) by the Institute of Guidance to: Counsellors. Contributions and advertisements are Fred Tuite, Guidance Counsellor, inthisissue welcome. The Editors reserve the right to amend or Heywood Community School, abridge any contribution accepted for publication. Ballinakill, Co. Laois. Guideline at the Helpline...... 4 Items for inclusion should preferably be sent in PC Tel: (057) 8733333 Fax: (057) 8733314 Breaking Free Again...... 5 format on disk, CD or email to the address below. Email: [email protected] Psychotherapy and the Spiritual Dimension...... 6 Typeset articles or advertisements are best sent in Are Students Getting Smarter...... 8 The deadline for the next issue of Guideline Adobe Acrobat format. Innovation in Action at Glanbia...... 10 Magazine is 14th January 2009. Articles (which The opinions expressed in the articles are those of may be edited) and advertisements should be with Career Interview...... 12 the contributors and not necessarily those of the the editor before that date. Helicopter Parents...... 13 Editors or the Officers of the Institute of Guidance Cyber Bullying...... 13 Counsellors. Our advertising rates are as follows: Kilkenny Gets Ready...... 14 Acceptance of advertisements does not constitute Size...... Colour Maths Teaching...... 14 e an endorsement of the products or services by the Full page...... 600 e Thanks...... 14 Institute. Half Page...... 400 Quarter Page...... e300 Launching the IGC Policy Document...... 15 Every effort has been made by the editors to Inclusion of a flyer with the mailing: Policy Paper Launched...... 16 ensure that the information is accurate, however Single page...... e600 The Myth of the Mozart Effect...... 18 no responsibility can be accepted by the Editors or e DL size (when folded) ...... 700 RCC - Understanding Sexual Violence...... 19 the Institute for omissions or errors that may have between 20 and 40 grams Sex Education...... 20 occurred. Larger than DL and/...... e800 or heavier than 40 grams Golf News...... 22 Editorial Board Heavier items may cost more. No VAT on The Freedom to Say No...... 23 Fred Tuite, Michael C. Roberts, Gerry Flynn and advertisements. Agency fees are not included. A Trip to the Capitol...... 26 Ailish Greed. The Rehetoric of a Knowledge Society...... 27 Institute of Guidance Counsellors, Cover photo: At the launch of the Policy Paper on Tim Gleeson...... 28 Head Office, 17 Herbert St., Dublin 2 a whole school guidance and cuunselling service Mia Delaney Johnson...... 29 Tel: (01) 676 1975 were IGC President Eilis Coakley, authors Breeda Fax: (01) 661 2551 Coyle and Arthur Dunne and Sr Una Collins, who Pink Feather Pen...... 30 Email: [email protected] launched the document. See pages 15 to 17. Men are from Mars...... 30
IGC/HEI/CAO Conferences 2008 Date Start Time Locat.5ion Refreshments 4th Nov 10.00am Waterford Tower Hotel: HEI presentations begin at 10:30am. Refreshments will be provided at 10am, 11.30am and at 1pm. 5th Nov 10.00am Limerick Radisson Hotel: HEI presentations begin at 10:30am. Refreshments will be provided at 10am, 11.30am and at 1pm. 6th Nov 09.30am Maynooth Glenroyal Hotel: HEI presentations begin at 10:00am. Refreshments will be provided at 9.30am, 11.15am and at 1pm. 11th Nov 10.00am Cavan Kilmore Hotel: HEI presentations begin at 10:30am. Refreshments will be provided at 10am, 11.30am and at 1pm. 12th Nov 10.00am Donegal Mill Park Hotel: HEI presentations begin at 10:30am. Refreshments will be provided at 10am, 11.30am and at 1pm. 13th Nov 10.00am Westport Westport Woods Hotel: HEI presentations begin at 10:30am. Refreshments will be provided at 10am, 11.30am and at 1pm.
These conferences are private and are not open to the public. Admission is reserved to Principals and Guidance Counsellors. Full details are in the September mailing from CAO. We look forward to seeing you all in November.
Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 Guideline at the Helpline Breaking free The helpline showed one glaring facet of the CAO application system: it assumes applicants are thinking rationally
This year was the first time for me working on one of Parents too were at the fore at the silly CAO choices the Helplines. Previously I had been available at my their children made. One parent told how she was school around the time that the results and offers tempted to rearrange her son’s choices after he had came out but I was persuaded to travel to Dublin to gone to bed and even had a huge row with her help to man one of the helplines and I was curious husband over it. Now that the reality of his choices to know if what I had see in my own area was was sinking in he was left in hope of missing higher reflected in the national picture. choices he had put down to try and get the lower choice he really wanted. Another caller told how her I’m not sure what I expected to hear in the course daughter only put down the courses leading to one of my stints there, but confusion was one of the career area and no alternative courses should she key features. One thing that seemed to throw a not make any of those, which now looked likely. lot of people was the points system. Never mind the fact that it was printed in the paper they got the number of the helpline in, they still needed The helpline showed one glaring facet of the another human being to interpret or calculate it CAO application system: it assumes applicants are for them. There was a lot of confusion over the fact thinking rationally. Alas that is often far from the that the Department of Education prints a “helpful” case. Whether through immaturity, ignorance or conversion of percentages to grades at the bottom stubbornness many candidates make a total mess Fred Tuite of the results sheet. Now while the percentages of their applications. They put down courses in the mirror the points most of the times they do differ wrong order for what they really want, they adopt a Editor (especially for Ordinary level) and quite a number “this course or nothing” approach, or they scatter were confused by this. Perhaps the Department random courses (often based on their presumed could start including the points system onto its results) never thinking of what would happen if Leaving Cert printouts instead. they got offered one of them or whether they really wanted to do them at all. Perhaps it is due to the One other factor that I found was in the words of the fact that schools take away most of their decision old political cliché “the air was full of chickens coming making, or that they can’t or wont face the reality home to roost”. So many parents (and it was mainly of leaving school, friends and home for college or parents who rang in) were saying things like “It was get so caught up in the hype of college applications a difficult year”, “There were a lot of problems”, that they can’t think straight, and refuse to change “There were a number of issues” all explaining the even when their parents or Guidance Counsellors poor performance of their offsprings. In many cases point out the error of their ways. While irrational the offsprings did not or would not talk to them, many even spoke in low voices for fear of being behaviour and risk taking is a characteristic of overheard or had phrases like “he’d kill me if he teenagers as in the cases of drink, drugs and sex. The know I was talking about him”. The manifest lack of consequences in those as in their messed up CAO communication between parents and children and applications can be long term. The ones who feel the way the children though they could hide things it most are the parents who have to steer a course like not studying or working from their parents by between allowing their children independence and either silence or bluster was obvious. Alas when the guiding and advising them, and us, the Guidance results appeared they could no longer hide and had Counsellors, who have to help both to pick up the to face the consequences of their actions. pieces.
Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 Breaking free SHANE HEGARTY
I HAD A few days away from the computer last month. The sighing sound was my brain drawing breath, relaxing, then exhaling in relief. The shuddering which followed was that again! of the withdrawal symptoms kicking in. What is this if not a techno tyranny? If computers were Which was a shame, because I had briefly broken an to become sentient in the morning, they’d hardly need appalling routine (although when I say “routine”, I really to make any efforts in their enslaving of the human mean to say “addiction”) in which I was drawn to the population. We’d willingly open an account with www. keyboard and screen first thing in the morning, countless human-slave.com. times during the day, in the evening before dinner, then By the way, none of this is intended as a flirtation with after dinner, then before bed, and maybe a sneaky look neo-Luddism. before I got too sleepy. Del.icio.us is a very useful programme for bookmarking It bled into the weekends and into holidays, when even web pages; social networking sites connect people in turning off the phone would lead to me being driven a way that was largely unforeseen a decade ago; the half-crazed with suspense over what messages lay within, short text blogs of Twitter broke the news of the China waiting to chirp gleefully upon release. My first, almost earthquake before the mainstream press; and the iPhone unconscious instinct in any hotel was to register the makes absolutely everyone who looks at it mutter an location of the nearest web access. impressed, Keanu Reeves-esque “whoah”.
Until recently I wrote a daily blog, and when I posted on And the web, in so many respects, does offer the this particular problem a few weeks ago I received an opportunity for freedom. If this wasn’t the case, then empathetic response from some readers. Then, at the end regimes in China, Burma and North Korea wouldn’t of last month, I ceased writing the blog altogether, partly spend so much money and time trying to stifle it. On a due to the grind of keeping the thing going, day after day, professional level, it is a deep well of instant information. in posts and comments. Since then I still have a Pavlovian On a personal level, it is the most entertaining time-waster response to the glow of the screen, but without the blow we could ever have hoped for. to write I often stand there paralysed by momentary However, there are times when it simply becomes too confusion while my brain gently implores me to back away much; a point at which you are never out of contact, never from the keyboard. off work, never alone. A point when the days become too short to do everything; when your brain becomes too Yet I am not as plugged in as so many other people. I do full to absorb everything that has landed in your mental not own a Blackberry. I balked at the price of the iPhone. inbox. I do not Twitter. I am not Linkedin. I have never been to Technology is Del.icio.us. You will not find me on Facebook, Bebo or There are few of us who would like to return to the MySpace. pre-digital days, but it would be good to get occasional glimpses of the simple life. supposed to Still, I sometimes have the nagging fear that I should be doing all these things, that it is better to be washed away in I thought that it would be fascinating if we were to set aside have set us the fast-flowing stream of popular culture and technology one day a year on which we turned off the world’s non- than be standing on the bank wondering if people were essential computers for a day –24 hours of digital silence. free, instead waving or drowning. This suggests that there is not only It turns out that I am not alone in the idea. oppression from the technology we use, but increasingly we are from that which we don’t. The last Sunday of every January is International Internet- Free Day, which proclaims its worth as follows: “Because tethered to it, Technology is supposed to have set us free, instead we are people’s faces are clearer in reality than YouTube… tethered to it, responding to its rings and chirps, start-up Because you can’t subscribe to an RSS feed from your responding to jingles and error sounds. grandma... Because if this has riled you, you really need it…” However, you’ll gather that my noticing this several its rings and We are irresistibly drawn to the glow of the screen, jolted months after it happened suggests it’s not as successful an by the way a phone will suddenly vibrate and attempt to event as it would like to be. chirps, start- shimmy off the table. We graze constantly for information. We check our mails, our texts, our messages. So perhaps we need an enforced sabbatical. Some legally- enforced severing of the internet connection. Something up jingles and We have some notion that we have created technology for that would give our minds some breathing space, a few our own ends, moulded it around our individual needs. minutes of calm and serenity –just before the developed error sounds. Yet, we are so beholden to it now that many of us get world collapses into Lord of the Flies-type societal jittery if the phone dies, our e-mail access is cut or our breakdown. broadband freezes. [email protected]
Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 Psychotherapy The Spiritual Dimension Although modern psychotherapy emerged as a neuroscience at the Holmholtz Institute in Vienna, Freud professional procedure within the last century, historians of was required to swear an oath to be faithful to the tenets of psychotherapy trace its earliest roots to the ancient& Greek science. He was a dedicated scientist and was determined rhetoricians. Plato proposed that medicine should be to protect his system of psychoanalysis from the criticism assigned the task of curing the body and that philosophy that it did not qualify as a science. As a result, he based be assigned the task of curing the soul as the soul is the his theories on firm biological foundations. Also, Freud essence of the human personality. Socrates was a healer regarded religion as a collective obsessional neurosis, he of the soul, that is an iatros tes psuches, which is the origin reduced God to an idealised projection of the individual’s of the word psychiatrist. In healing the soul through the father and he equated spirituality, in the form of a mystical therapeutic power of the word, the use of charms, prayers experience, with “the restoration of limitless narcissism.” and incantations was similar to methods used by healers Consequently, this reductionist view prevailed among in primitive societies and historical and anthropological Freud’s disciples throughout most of the 20th century. research has uncovered evidence of the use of similar However, one who didn’t reject religion as Freud had methods of treatment as those used by modern done was Erik Erikson, a highly influential thinker who psychotherapists. emerged from the field of psychoanalysis. He formed a concept of the religious experiences of Luther and Gandhi While the Greeks contended that the in terms of ideology and identity and this enabled him to philosopher was a physician observe transcendent meaning in a secular world. Thus, of the soul, most cultures he was searching for a spiritual connection at the core of consider that soul care the individual identity. Other prominent and influential is encompassed individuals in the field of psychotherapy also support this within one’s view.
Alfred Adler’s positive attitude towards religion is apparent when he contends that it is a “manifestation of community feeling, the cure of souls…an anticipation of psychotherapy (and) God…the materialization of the idea of perfection and the highest of all thinkable ideas.” Thus, he entered the sphere of the transpersonal because he maintained that social interest and community feeling was t h e
ability to feel at one with the whole of humanity. In a more profound way than Adler, Carl Jung developed a theory that reflects a self-determined spiritual being and this presented a serious challenge to Freud’s reductionist thinking. He equates psychological maturity with authentic spiritual experience and contends that the spiritual dimension is part of the human psyche and should not be ignored. He argues that all humans have “a natural religious function” religious and expression of it is vital to psychic health and stability. belief. However, the growth of science Carl Rogers used the term “actualizing tendency” in order in the 17th and 18th to describe the individual’s desire to grow, develop and centuries and the decline of reach his maximum potential. This holistic development religion in the 19th century resulted of the individual includes the spiritual, emotional, physical in increasing secularism. This culminated and creative dimensions. He considered that humans have in soul, or psyche, care being moved into the a tremendous range of intuitive powers as well as intellects domain of medicine and psychology. However, when and, in his later years, considered that the capacities of Freud developed psychoanalysis, any association with the the non-rational, creative part of the brain had been concept of spirituality was inconceivable. As a researcher in neglected.
Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
Viktor Frankl considers that each individual comprises is evident also from research carried out by the Manager of BIBLIOGRAPHY body, psyche and spirit and is directed towards fulfilling Lough Derg in County Donegal, a centre of pilgrimage for Assagioli, Roberto. Psychosynthesis, London: Harper his potential. He was adamant that psychotherapy must many years. It highlights the various reasons that people Collins, 1993. consider the individual’s spiritual dimension as well as have for visiting the centre: Barry, Seamus. Introduction to Adler, Alfred. Social the instinctual dimension of neurosis and used the word Interest: Adler’s Key to the Meaning of Life. ed. Colin Brett. noogenic for therapeutic and ontological reasons, instead of What can Lough Derg offer to pilgrims? England: Oneworld Publications, 1998. the work spiritual, as this has definite religious connotations • Refocus/Reassess 22% Benner, David. Psychotherapy and the Spiritual Quest. in the English language. Abraham Maslow considers • Closer to God/Reconnect Spiritually 21% England: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1989. that man’s higher and transcendent nature is part of his • Time Out 18% Burke, Mary Thomas and Miranti, Judith, ed, essence. He outlines a hierarchy of needs in which the • Peace 13% Counseling; The Spiritual Dimension (U.S.A.: American fulfillment of the basic psychological and personal needs • Challenge 7% Counseling Association, 1995). can result in meaningless and boredom. However, the • Thanksgiving 2% Colledge, Ray. Mastering Counselling Theory. New York: fulfillment of the higher needs results in “more desirable • Other 17% Palgrave MacMillan, 2002. subjective results that is, more profound happiness, Corey, Gerald. Theory and Practice of Counselling and serenity, and richness of inner life.” In Irvin Yalom’s view, Other Comments: Psychotherapy. 7th ed. the personal change and growth of the individual results • Get away from the rat race for a few days U.S.A.: Brooks/Cole Thomson Learning, 2005. from his confronting his existence. He considers that • Reappraise values Ellenberger, Henri F. The Discovery of the Unconscious: & the four “givens of existence”, that are death, freedom, • Hallowed place The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. London: existential isolation and meaninglessness, constitute the • Put on list of “things to do before I die” Fontana Press, 1970. essence of existential psychodynamics and have immense • Get in touch with yourself, God and religion Favier, C.; Ingersoll, R. Elliott; O’Brien, E.; and relevance for clinical work. Rollo May emphasises also the ➢• Chance to touch spiritual base McNally, C. Explorations in Counseling and Spirituality. necessity of understanding the human being. In following • Detachment from a busy, modern world U.S.A.: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning 2001. the reductionist tendency, he argues that the individual is • Unique experience Field, Nathan: ed. Ten Lectures on Psychotherapy and reduced to isolated parts and becomes lost in the process. • Life review Spirituality. (London: H. Karnac (Books) Ltd., 2005) In confronting the human dilemma, the whole human • Inner peace Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality. U.S.A.: Harper and Row, 1987. being is considered. Roberto Assagioli, who was influenced • Finding positives in your life May, Rollo. Psychology and the Human Dilemma. New by Jung, developed psychosynthesis, which incorporates • Chance to find and remember God religion and spirituality into an overall view of the human York: Norton and Co., 1996. McNeill, John. A History of the Cure of Souls. U.S.A.: being. In his view, the spiritual is as basic as the physical Consequently, if it is of relevance to the client, it may be Harper and Row, 1951. part of the individual. As a result, higher or spiritual states essential that counsellors acknowledge the importance O’Murchu, Diarmuid. Reclaiming Spirituality. Dublin: Gill of consciousness influence both inner reality and outer of the spiritual dimension in the healing process. Mary behaviour and must be taken into consideration. and Macmillan, 1997. Thomas Burke and Judith Miranti consider that: ______. Religion-in-Exile: A Spiritual Vision for Counselors must be prepared to deal with all issues, It is necessary to distinguish between spirituality and the Homeward Bound. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2000. including the quality that lies at the very core and religion. Spirituality is associated with an ancient and Rogers, Carl. A Way of Being. New York: Houghton essence of the clients being. That core, which transcends fundamental search for meaning. It is considered an Mifflin Co., 1995. the physical and material aspects of existence, which is innate human quality and has been a part of the life of Schreurs, Agneta. Psychotherapy and Spirituality: untouchable and often times undefinable, is so necessary the human species for at least 70,000 years. Significant Integrating the Spiritual Dimension into Therapeutic for an explanation to one’s existence. Clients themselves anthropological and archeological evidence indicates Practice. England: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd., 2002. often suggest that spirituality is the sustaining core or that there was a widespread belief in a divine energy Ungersma, A.J. The Search for Meaning. London: George essence that keeps them going. that endowed the whole of creation and evolved with the Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1961. unfolding universe. Diarmuid O’Murchu contends that While many counsellors, and those engaged in their “in the ancient spiritual wisdom the people looked to the Articles in Journals training, contend that the spiritual dimension and religion elements and cycles of nature for wisdom and guidance. Cashwell, Craig S. and Young, J. Scott. “Spirituality in should be included in counselling training programmes, They tuned in to the flow of nature itself; they were able Counselor training.” Counseling and Values 2 (2004): 96- to listen deeply and drink from wells which provided data from surveys reveal that these topics are included 109. spiritual and practical nourishment.” Religion refers to the in only a limited number of them. However, while the Hayes, Michael A. and Cowie, Helen. “Psychology and rituals and beliefs that belong to official religious systems, standards published by The Council for Accreditation of Religion: Mapping the Relationship.” Mental Health, which include Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)) Religion and Culture 8 (2005): 27-33. and Islam, among others. Hinduism, whose origins can made no explicit reference to human spirituality in 1988, be traced to the middle of the third millennium BC, is by the year 2001 there was increased attention being paid Articles in Newspapers considered to be the oldest of the formal religions. Prior to to the inclusion of spirituality and religion as one aspect of Editorial. The Irish Times. 24th January, 2005. that time, there was worship and a religious value-system a person’s culture. but formal religions did not exist. Surveys, concerning the Electronic Communication effects of religious belief on people’s lives, indicate that Also, the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manager, Lough Derg. their greatest influence is on “existential certainty”, as Manual for Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric religious faith engenders optimism about the future. As Association, 1994) has added a category for religious a result, the physical health of church members is better and spiritual difficulties. The intention of this diagnostic than that of non-church members. category is to address these difficulties as areas of concern that may or may not be related to mental or emotional While some view spirituality as a sub-system of formal disorders. Thus, they can be placed on Axis 1 that is religion, it is more central to human experience than similar to an adjustment disorder, which is a “phase of life religion and this is supported by information that has been problem”, as opposed to a mental or emotional problem. accumulated by cultural anthropologists and by historians In doing this, it assumes that a person’s spiritual life is an of religion. Thus, although extensive evidence suggests that organismic variable that may or may not be related to an religious practice is in decline and that many do not follow, organised religion. or abide by, the requirements of formal religious practice, further evidence suggests that many still refer to a “God” The inclusion of these issues in the DSM-IV may help or a “spiritual being”. To corroborate this, an Irish Times towards recognising the importance of spiritual and TNS MRBI opinion poll, published in January, 2005, details religious ideals in an individual’s life. The Ethical Standards an extremely strong belief, within our society, in God. (Section A, 1) of the American Counselling Association Also, despite a decline in formal religion, there appears to contends that, if counsellors are to guard the individual be a heightened interest in spirituality. Bookships are full of rights and personal dignity of the client, they must respect books on this subject and many stem from cultures, such the importance of the spiritual dimension and religion as Buddhism and Native American religions. Other date in the lives of their clients and, as such, incorporate that from the late Middle Ages. The search for spiritual renewal respect into their practice.
Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 Are students getting smarter? Looking beyond the Flynn Effect Fred Tuite
So, are the students getting smarter? This is the question and the Wechsler tests were seen as good measures of I ask myself as I review another group of students who native intelligence. So, if the same people tended to do have done the DAT. I should say that I have been using well on both the IQ tests and the military ones, it would the same Differential Aptitude Tests for more years than strengthen his case that there had been cognitive gains I care to remember and I have noted a steady rise in the among black Americans. achievement of students. While I have not gone as far as quantifying it (alas I don’t have the time) I have noticed a Flynn found nothing relevant to his search, but he steady creeping up of scores particularly in the Abstract did spot something else, something very strange. IQ Reasoning test (and a corresponding shrinking of scores tests are updated periodically, to replace out-of-date in the Language Usage ones). Was this an isolated questions. Whenever a test was updated, a single group occurrence or were the children of Laois getting cleverer? I of people would take both versions—the obsolete and the first suspected the presence of computer games but lately replacement—to check that each ranked people in a similar I find my initial suspicions may have some foundations as order. As a matter of completeness, the groups’ average the phenomena has been reported elsewhere. scores on both versions would be published in the test manuals. And, pretty much always, the new group would In James Flynn’s book “What is Intelligence”, published in score higher on the old test. October 2007, he sets out his explanation for a mysterious phenomenon that bears his name (the Flynn effect): the So, Flynn found himself with a much bigger hypothesis. rise in IQ from generation to generation. Your IQ is likely to Rather than just one disadvantaged group—black be higher than those of your parents, and your children’s Americans—having made cognitive gains, could the IQs is likely to be higher than yours. Flynn uncovered average person be getting smarter? He looked up every the evidence for this while researching the performance study in which a single group had been given two tests, of black entrants to the military in the USA. You may one calibrated before the other. By 1984 he had compiled remember the controversy that raged in the 70’s and 80’s results from more than 7,000 subjects, and about a dozen about race and intelligence. I remember one of the key combinations of tests. And they pointed to a startling problems was the perceived lack of verbal ability among conclusion: that white Americans had been steadily gaining blacks. Isn’t it ironic that the most intricate verbal rhyming around three-tenths of an IQ point a year for almost half patter of Rap music is primarily a black medium? In any a century. case, Flynn started wading through the manuals for the two most widely used IQ tests to see how well they correlated Following on from his research in America he looked at with the ones the military used. Both the Stanford-Binet other countries that gave psychometric tests to military
Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
recruits. P.A. Vroon, a Dutch psychologist hypothetical, and we thought the world was a place to be Steven Johnson analyses the way popular entertainment sent Flynn the results of Raven’s Progressive classified and understood scientifically rather than to be has changed as people have got better at using their Matrices, administered to 18-year-old Dutch manipulated.” brains quickly and logically. Computer games such as conscripts from 1952 to 1982. This is one of “Civilisation” and “The Sims” reward players who obey the the purest tests of innate intelligence. The As a similar exercise the psychologist Michael Cole and coherent internal logic of virtual realities. Popular television task is to spot logical patterns in groups of some colleagues once gave members of the Kpelle tribe, shows weave together multiple characters and storylines, shapes and fill in the missing ones. There in Liberia, a version of the WISC similarities test: they in narrative arcs that extend over many episodes. Think are no words, no school-taught skills and took a basket of food, tools, containers, and clothing of “24”, or “Heroes”, which require the audience to hold no general knowledge. The nearest thing and asked the tribesmen to sort them into appropriate unanswered questions in their minds through entire series. we have to it here is the Abstract Reasoning categories. To the frustration of the researchers, the Kpelle So my own theories that computer games and television test in the DAT. In those three decades the chose functional pairings. They put a potato and a knife watching has improved some of their mental functioning average score had gone up by 20 points. together because a knife is used to cut a potato. “A wise does seem to have some validity. man could only do such-and-such,” they explained. Finally, This was a huge gain. It meant that an 18- the researchers asked, “How would a fool do it?” The Flynn also turned his attention to the Chinese-American year-old with a middling score in 1982 did tribesmen immediately re-sorted the items into the “right” success story. The exceptional performance of this group smarter? better than all but a tenth of the young men categories. It can be argued that taxonomical categories in both scientific and professional life in America has led of the same age who had been tested three are a developmental improvement—that is, that the Kpelle to suggestions that somehow they have an innate superior Looking beyond decades earlier. Just as tellingly, a random would be more likely to advance, technologically and intelligence. But the estimates of this groups intelligence sample of the most recent group had been scientifically, if they started to see the world that way. But turned out to be based on a 1975 study in San Francisco’s matched with their own fathers, and the to label them less intelligent than Westerners, on the basis Chinatown using something called the Lorge-Thorndike sons had scored 18 points higher. Over the of their performance on that test, is merely to state that Intelligence Test. But the Lorge-Thorndike test was normed the Flynn Effect following year Flynn received data from they have different cognitive preferences and habits. in the nineteen-fifties. For children in the nineteen- another 13 countries, all of them showing seventies, it would have been a piece of cake. When the IQ gains. Chinese-American scores were reassessed using up-to- date intelligence metrics, Flynn found, they came in at 97 Today, no doubt remains: IQs have gone Today, no doubt remains: verbal and 100 nonverbal. Chinese-Americans had slightly up throughout the 20th century. Almost lower I.Q.s than white Americans. 30 countries, some developed, some IQs have gone up throughout developing, have recorded gains. The the 20th century. Almost 30 The Asian-American success story had suddenly been whole world seems to have got smarter, turned on its head. The numbers now suggested, Flynn and fast. But no one knew how, or why, or countries, some developed, said, that they had succeeded not because of their what this meant. higher I.Q.s. but despite their lower I.Q.s. Asians were some developing, have overachievers. In a nifty piece of statistical analysis, Flynn But, as a review of his book in the magazine recorded gains. The whole then worked out just how great that overachievement was. Intelligent Life says, paradoxes abounded. “Why Among whites, virtually everyone who joins the ranks of are we not struck by the extraordinary subtlety of world seems to have got the managerial, professional, and technical occupations our children’s conversation?” asks Flynn. “Why do smarter, and fast. But no one has an I.Q. of 97 or above. Among Chinese-Americans, we not have to make allowances for the limitations that threshold is 90. A Chinese-American with an I.Q. of 90, of our parents?” If you project IQ gains back to 1900, knew how, or why, or what it would appear, does as much with it as a white American the average score would be less than 70 on current with an I.Q. of 97. norms. “That’s the cut-off for a diagnosis of mental this meant. retardation,” says Flynn. If people in 1900 were as thick- There should be no great mystery about Asian skulled as that, how on earth did they manage to run achievement. It has to do with hard work and dedication to a modern society? Saying that the rise in IQ scores has been caused by higher education, and belonging to a culture that stresses shifting social priorities may seem like dismissing it as professional success. Among those who took rising IQs seriously, some mildly interesting, but ultimately trivial. This would be to thought the cause might be better diet, or smaller families, miss the point. Changes in what we take seriously, and Having applied his research to the different performances or more liberal child-rearing. But none of these theories what we use our minds for, are just as real and meaningful at IQ tests between black and whites he came to the accounted for the size or extent of the phenomenon. And as changes in the speed with which we process thoughts, conclusion that it was the quality of the home and cultural none could explain the odd pattern of the gains. or how much we can remember. environment in which either was brought up that made the crucial difference. “The mind is much more like a Most IQ tests contain a collection of subtests, each of “I reject the idea that either these are intelligence gains muscle than we’ve ever realized,” Flynn said. “It needs to which picks up on a different mental skill. And only some or else they’re insignificant,” says Flynn. “They’re not in get cognitive exercise. It’s not some piece of clay on which of the subtests showed an increase in scores. The average any simple sense intelligence gains, but they are still highly you put an indelible mark.” The lesson to be drawn from person had become much better at completing geometric significant.” He recalls also that his father was also rather black and white differences was the same as the lesson patterns, at spotting abstract similarities and at re-ordering unwilling to waste his time on profitless speculation. “I from the Netherlands years ago: I.Q. measures not just the scrambled picture cards to tell a story. But people were no remember frustrating occasions when it was natural for me quality of a person’s mind but the quality of the world that better at memorising lists of numbers, and their vocabulary to take hypothetical situations seriously and he thought of person lives in. and general knowledge had not expanded at all, which is this as silly. We might argue about race, and I would say: exactly the effect I have been noticing in the DAT. ‘What would you think if your skin turned black?’ And his The book makes fascinating reading and should inspire us response would be: ‘Who has ever heard of such a thing?’ all to be critical in our thinking and treatment of people. It The patchiness of the gains became a focus of Flynn’s Most moral argument cannot get off the ground unless also emphasises the values of hard work, application and enquiry. In looking at the pattern of improvement in IQ you take the hypothetical seriously.” dedication to get over any lack of intelligence. Think of that tests, you can tell how mental priorities have changed also as you contemplate the rising percentiles of the DAT if over the century. It turns out that we, far more than our As Intelligent Life puts it, everything falls into place with the you too had noticed the changes. recent ancestors, take seriously the ability to find abstract observation that, for the first time in human history, some similarities between objects (Question: how are dogs and people’s superior mental abilities are making superior Sources: rabbits alike? Answer: they are both mammals). And we mental environments available to everyone. Humans are What is Intelligence? Beyond the Flynn Effect, James R. are better at applying logic to finding abstract patterns, as social animals. The most important part of the environment Flynn, University of Otago, New Zealand (Cambridge in Raven’s Progressive Matrices. that created your mind is other people’s minds. Before the 2007) “At that point I began to get excited”, says Flynn, “because 20th century, only the privileged had easy access to ideas. Intelligent Life Magazine (Winter 2007) I began to feel that I was bridging the gulf between our Now, when one person thinks something worthwhile, we None of the Above, What I.Q. doesn’t tell you about race. minds and the minds of our ancestors. We weren’t more can all think it and that thought changes all of us. Malcolm Gladwell The New Yorker Magazine December intelligent than they, but we had learnt to apply our 17, 2007 intelligence to a new set of problems. We had detached This process does not have to be “intellectual” to have logic from the concrete, we were willing to deal with the an effect. In his book “Everything Bad is Good for You”,
Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 Innovation in action at
Glanbia Fred Tuite
Finding suitable people can be problematic. Colum finds the level of graduates from the universities that were previously very strong can now be quite weak. This is possibly a reflection on the decreased entry level to some of these courses. Glanbia therefore adopts a rigorous process to ensure that they only recruit the best. I’m not sure what Most of the people working at the Glanbia Innovation Centre have post-graduate degrees but Dr Dunne makes a distinction between your image of desk based scientists and the lab based ones with “hands-on” ability which often suits their research needs more closely. Glanbia recruits many of its new product development people at graduate innovation and an level, using a combination of talks at colleges and websites offering a Graduate Programme that initially provides a 24 month period innovation centre of employment, possibly involving opportunities for international travel. They also take people on in the work placement section of their courses (as in University College Cork) and other students is. Perhaps you for summer periods of 12 to 15 weeks in a work shadowing type have this image experience. The variety of backgrounds that are employed at the centre is quite wide. Colum gives the example of himself who did a of a dishevelled “reasonable” Leaving Certificate at Colaiste Chriost Ri in Cork but when he got into UCC for science he thrived. But he is not a food scientist working Colm Dunne scientist or technologist by training. He did microbiology at UCC, followed by a PhD in Molecular Biology and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). Before coming to Glanbia, he had worked I’m not sure what your image of innovation and an innovation among brews and as a manager running clinical trials and responsible for intellectual centre is. Perhaps you have this image of a dishevelled scientist property rights before taking up a role as General Manager of working among brews and potions to create a new product, what was then Ireland’s only cancer research centre dedicated potions to create but the Glanbia Innovation Centre is not like that. It stands in a to medical devices and gene therapy. His current team consists small business park on the outskirts of Kilkenny beside a local of molecular biologists, immunologists, biochemists, nutritionists a new product, radio station. And Dr Colum Dunne, Director of Research & along with food science and technology specialists. Development there dispels any ideas of antisocial scientists toiling but the Glanbia alone among the test-tubes. The centre is unlike an academic lab, Glanbia have operations in the US (Chicago; Twin Falls, Idaho; he explains, as it has to show a return on investment (ROI) on New Mexico and San Diego), Germany, UK, China and Nigeria. any project. And if a project does not look like it is going to show This international dimension makes it useful in that the company Innovation Centre that then it is pulled very quickly. There is no room he explains for can recruit a high calibre candidate in any of those countries and “ego research”, and while the scientists and business graduates the wide variety of skillsets involved brings a diversity of thinking, is not like that. who work there are given early responsibility they are expected experiences and perspectives to their core work of trying to add to champion & challenge within their teams to see their projects value to products. Because these innovators are looking at existing through. products through different eyes, or they are looking at doing
10 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
something with the product that may not have been done before, more peak performance as opposed to people taking sugar, it means the company can build up a propriety position to add water or protein sources alone. So the concept was developed in value and add margin to what they are making. Kilkenny, the clinical work was managed in Kilkenny, the vitamins and minerals were sourced from their German business, the The way they work is to present a business case for everything whey protein comes from Glanbia’s own processes, and these they do, so their vision is always towards the bottom line for components are combined in their UK business. This process the company. They don’t do fundamental research and projects reflects Glanbia’s maturity in the marketplace and the product are killed early if they don’t feel they can get a return on them. benefits from the company’s traceability and quality systems. The Innovation in action Markets, trends, competitors and customers are monitored & product is available online in Ireland (www.provonrevive.ie). engaged with on an on-going basis to ensure that the environment hasn’t changed since a project was started. If there are significant The company also works on novel antimicrobial agents. An differences, then the project is reassessed. There is a great deal of example is Glovon, a patented product supported by considerable commercial rigour brought into the innovation process. levels of science and which may be used in oral care as an ingredient in toothpaste to fight the bacteria that causes caries The innovation process itself comes from a push-pull dynamic. and which in another form may be used effectively as a natural Innovative products and processes can be pushed out into the preservative in cosmetics. Quite a departure for a food company! market (the Sony Walkman is a great example of this whereby a product becomes successful without there being a demand for it A tour of the facility showed how it was organised on a mini in the first place) or can be pulled into the market (for example production basis, from warehouse to initial processing, refinement consumers wish to be provided with a choice of high quality to finished products. Interestingly they have a full scale kitchen foods). So Glanbia looks to their business development teams with a professional chef. He explained how Glanbia has and their sales management teams who interact daily with their worked on natural flavouring and gourmet skills rather than the customers to come to them and say “this is what our customers preservatives and additives used by other companies. Finally there The innovation want” or “this is what our competitor is doing” or “this is where was a sensory suite with individual tasting booths that allows the the environmental regulatory directions are going and we need professionals to judge how their new products are received by you to move in this direction”. consumers. process itself Dr Dunne continues, “Alternatively you may have a scientist in It was a fascinating insight into the world of innovation and the comes from a lab who says, “I have an idea” and they bring it a little down incubation of new products. So when you come upon some the road. But it has to develop a business dimension very quickly new product and wonder “how did they come up with that?” the before it is promoted as being a good project. As part of this innovation centre at Glanbia shows you how it’s done. a push-pull process it is challenged by our internal systems to make sure it is not simply a pet project of the scientist that has no realistic chance of generating a return.” dynamic. It is The project is challenged not only for its commercial pushed out potential but also for its scientific potential through an external advisory board of academics and experts. Their critique helps to ensure that Glanbia doesn’t do the market something that is being done elsewhere or something that can be done more quickly or inexpensively elsewhere. The academics on the advisory board also and it is survey the research environment and act as a conduit to refer research being done elsewhere. In all things pulled into the the aim is not to waste money, to maximise resources and to look towards the bottom line. market. Companies in this area have targets of commercial growth primarily. Secondly they all tend to look at the same areas of consumer nutrition and consumer wellbeing, like bone health and osteoporosis, cardiac health, the obesity phenomenon and are trying to find ways that they can benefit the consumer. Several companies have come together following an initiative from Glanbia to research the potential of dairy products, and form a “Milk Mining Programme” and liaise with academic and research institutions to look at milk as a primary source of bioactive compounds. These are the ingredients that go into functional foods to bring about health benefits due to their intrinsic value beyond nutrition. This is “open innovation” working with collaborators, customers and consumers.
They have a network of innovation across Glanbia. Near to market work is being done in Germany and in the UK, for example vitamin and mineral premixes which are very high end, near pharmaceutical level quality. In the UK, Glanbia has a bar and beverage division looking at sports nutrition. In Kilkenny there is an innovation centre that partners closely with a similar centre in Idaho (USA) where in both locations the scientists are dedicated to research and new product development across the Group, but in all cases they need to be relevant to their customers. They need to be aware of market trends and move quickly and flexibly to meet those needs.
When I asked for an example of some of the products that came out of this process, he pointed out that I had just eaten one, in the Avonmore cereal bar. This, he explained, was designed in Kilkenny and manufactured in their bar facility in Middlesborough. Another product was Provon Revive, currently being promoted with the Leinster rugby team. It is a propriety combination of vitamins, minerals, protein and carbohydrate for people who are serious about sport or about recovering after sport. They have completed a study with the University of Limerick which showed that an athlete taking their product would be able to achieve 20 minutes
11 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
Questions about your career and its development I would like to see myself as being a very honest person. I also What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life consider myself to be a very calm and patient individual – these are so far? necessary traits to have when dealing with the public every day.I pay The biggest career milestone in my life so far was the decision not to very good attention to detail, which is very helpful for a career in go to University and to begin a career once I finished school. the bank. I did apply through the CAO when I was doing my Leaving Cert, Career however I didn’t accept any of the offers in my first mail offering, Questions about education and training and then decided not to go to third level and started to work full What subjects did you take in school and how have these time in a pub. After Christmas I decided that I didn’t like this job and influenced your career path? made up my mind to begin job hunting. Armed with the Internet When I was in school I completed the core subjects and the extra and an updated CV, I began to send my application to all the banks subjects I chose were History, Biology and Construction Studies. In Interview in Ireland. I heard back from Bank of Ireland and after a successful hindsight now that I am working in a financial institution I probably aptitude test and interview, was then offered a position should have chosen Business Studies, but at the time I didn’t foresee as Bank Assistant in the branch I am in today. myself in my chosen profession.
Who are the people who most influenced your What is your education to date? career direction? • Leaving Certificate My parents have had the biggest influence on my career • ECDL to date. When I decided that I wasn’t going to go to • Qualified Financial Advisor - Loans college I sat down with them and asked for their advice. They encouraged me to apply for the bank and I am What aspects of your education have proven most important extremely happy with that decision. for your job? I think a good Leaving Cert was most important for me; it is the Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you tool we must all use to help us get started in life, be it getting in to are happy with? University, or into the working environment. At present I am also Yes is the simple answer. Whilst working in the bank I doing my QFA exams through the Institute of Bankers. These are have made many new friends and because of the hours exams that must be completed by any Bank Official who wishes to i.e. 9 to 5, it leaves plenty of time for family, friends and give financial advice to customers. leisure activities. During my time working in the bank I have been very lucky to play for the Bank of Ireland Have you undertaken, or do you plan to undertake any hurling team against Ulster Bank. The match took place further training as part of your job? during the day so it was great to have a change from I am currently doing exams through the Institute of Bankers. Upon the normal working day in the branch! My manager is a my completion of these exams it is my ambition to do a Degree in very reasonable person and tries to promote a work life Business Studies at night. balance which is very encouraging for staff members. Questions about yourself Questions about your current Job What have been the most rewarding events in your career How did you go about getting your current job? so far? I was checking for vacancies on the Bank of Ireland intranet and saw The most rewarding event of my career so far was being promoted an advertisement for the position of Senior Bank Official (Customer to Senior Bank Official (Customer Advisor). I achieved this promotion Advisor) in the South Dublin Region. I spoke with my own Branch after two and a half years service in the bank. Stephen and Sales Managers to get advice as to whether or not they felt I was ready for the role. As a result of their feedback I decided to make What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your the application for the position. I submitted an application and was career? called to interview shortly afterwards. The interview itself was very I am a very hard working and dedicated individual who is a team Stapleton challenging and nerve wrecking but I managed to get through it by player. I can also be quite easygoing which allows me to get on well being well prepared and knowing the key aspects of the job I was with all my colleagues. Customer Advisor, applying for. A few weeks later my Manager called me into his office to let me know how impressive I had been in the interview, and that What is your dream job? Bank of Ireland congratulations were in order! My dream job! A professional football player, every kid’s fantasy - need I say more! Describe a typical day? A typical day in the bank starts at 9:00. This is when we get ourselves Advice for people thinking of this job as a career choice set up for the day ahead depending on the area you are in. We open What advice would you give to someone considering this to customers from 10am and it is very important that we have all our job? materials ready for the day. In my position as a Customer Advisor I My advice to someone considering a job in a financial institution meet customers in relation to all aspects of banking from lending would be to do some research. There are many areas to choose from to savings and day-to-day service. My meetings are scheduled in Bank of Ireland, from branch banking to marketing, and there are Stephen Stapleton works as from 10am and I aim to meet and help as many customers as I can many starting points to build a lifelong career in a rewarding and a Customer Advisor in one of throughout the day. The branch closes at 4pm and we then have an challenging environment. I would recommend that someone should hour to complete any outstanding administration from the day to work hard for their Leaving Cert to attain good results. The most Bank of Ireland’s South Dublin make sure all our customers’ requirements have been met. important thing about working in a bank is to have good customer service skills, from here everything else will fall in to place. branches. As a Customer What are the main tasks and responsibilities? As a Customer Advisor I am responsible for all the Personal and What are the three most important personal characteristics Advisor, Stephen is in charge Motor Loan applications, as well as all short-term lending facilities, required for the job? including overdrafts and credit cards. As a Senior Bank Official I am In my opinion the three most important personal characteristics for a of all the Personal & Motor a mentor for a lot of the junior staff in the branch and I see it as part position in Branch Banking would be: of my role to ensure that I am available to help them with anything 1. You must be a team player Loan applications and all they need. 2. You must be a very diligent worker with good attention to detail. 3. Honesty and respect – I think this is a really important point. You short term lending facilities, What are the main challenges? should always be honest and have respect for yourself and your The main challenge in this position is to be confident in your own colleagues. including overdrafts and credit ability. We work in an environment where customers come to us for advice on all aspects of their finances, and we must be comfortable What kinds of work experience would provide a good cards. As a Senior Bank Official and knowledgeable in our area of expertise. background for this position? When you first join a branch as a Bank Assistant you start off as a he is a mentor for a lot of the What’s cool? cashier. For this type of role any previous customer facing experience The thing I find most “cool” about the bank is that no day and no would be valuable, for example working in a shop or a pub. In junior staff in the branch and customer is the same.I would also have to say that the Bank of these jobs you are introduced to basic cash handling skills, and the Ireland promotes a very rewarding and challenging environment, importance of good customer service. These are two traits that I part of this role is to ensure which leads to a good career. found extremely helpful when I started out in Branch Banking. that he can provide them with What’s not so cool? Interview courtesy CareersPortal.ie. A Video of Stephen is available support and advice for their I am not very fond of the admin side of the job i.e. making sure my online at www.careersportal.ie along with over 150 career filing is up to date and that I have all my daily reports done. It has to interviews from people working throughout Ireland. own career development. be done though so what can you do! Have you any suggestions for careers you’d like to learn about? If so contact [email protected] and with CareersPortal we’ll do our What particular skills do you bring to your workplace? best to locate one for you.
12 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 The growing phenomenon of ‘helicopter’ Because so many parents are phoning in, UCAS has decided there are other academics who “accept that this will be a to allow them to act as their children’s representatives in family discussion”. the application process. “There is a powerful sense of infantilism, where parents parents Young people making applications this year through UCAS, can’t let go,” according to Furedi. The result is that the UK university admissions service, have been allowed to universities have to handle complaints from parents over nominate a proxy to speak for them and make decisions. grades awarded to students and endure constant parental independence, such as not being allowed to walk to school, About one in 10 students are estimated to have used this over-involvement during term time. and this attitude filters through to when young people apply option of nominating their parents to make calls on their “We have to remind parents that there is a professional to university. behalf. In the past, the admissions service would only deal relationship between academics and students,” Prof Furedi Meanwhile, Cary Cooper, professor of organisational directly with applicants. said. psychology at Lancaster University Management School, It is claimed that ‘helicopter’ parents - those who are over- He believes the growing parental pressure could turn believes the high-pressure parent is a reflection of involved in the lives of their children at university - are on universities into “schools for biologically mature children” consumerist values hitting higher education. the increase in the UK. and warns that UK universities may follow the trend in the “These parents are paying more, so they think they can “All universities now have to take the parent factor into United States of pitching their marketing at parents rather demand more.” Parents want to retain control of their account. On university open days you can see more than students. “psychological and financial investment in their children”. parents attending than children,” said Frank Furedi, They are also using their children as surrogates for their own professor of sociology at the University of Kent. Controlling Rob Evans, head of admissions at Sussex University, ambitions, getting them to chase the success that they might parents are “destroying the distinction between school and agrees that universities are seeing an increasing amount feel eluded them in their own careers, Professor Cooper higher education”, he added. of involvement from parents when students are making maintains. There were cases of parents who arrived expecting to applications. He links it to the higher cost of university attend their children’s university interviews, Prof Furedi and also to a more over-protective form of parenting. “Parents derive status from their children’s success,” he said. And while he tells parents that they have to leave, Safety fears mean that children can grow up with less reminds us. (Source: BBC News and Education Matters) Cyber bullying can be a matter of life or death A recent survey shows children are being bullied • Girls were more likely to fall victim to online bullies community -- from schools, teachers, parents and through mobile phone calls, text messages, e-mails, than boys; pupils -- accept bullying exists and agrees it is chatrooms and social networking sites. • One-in-eight boys admitted to being ‘cyber bullied’ unacceptable, he said. A landmark study, carried out by Trinity College Anti- in recent months; The Department of Education plans to revise its 15- Bullying Centre on behalf of the Irish Independent • One-in-11 pupils admitted that they engaged in year-old anti-bullying guidelines to take account and RTE’s Prime Time Investigates, states that every ‘cyber bullying’ recently. of cyber bullying. A spokeswoman for Education form of bullying and victimisation is widespread Frank Mulvihill, former President of the Institute Minister Batt O’Keeffe insisted, however, that the in schools in Ireland. Thirty per cent of students of Guidance Counsellors, warned that cyber bullying department already had “a strong focus on cyber surveyed said they had endured all types of bullying could have tragic consequences. It directly affected bullying”. during the past couple of months. students’ grades in the short term, and could drive She said that bullying was a complex issue that This is the first major study to probe the extent of others to threaten to take their own lives. “transcends the school environment”. While the cyber bullying among school children. More than Dr Mona O’Moore, who heads the team at the department had a strong role to play in combating 2,790 pupils from eight secondary schools - including anti-bullying centre at Trinity College, criticised it, “education in its wider sense, within the home, is public and fee-paying, mixed and single-sex schools the Government for failing to act. She said the critically important”, she added. - were asked about: Government had been “very, very slow in taking So what can parents do about their children who are • abuse carried out on social networking sites; responsibility for implementing . . . international either bullied or are themselves bullies? They can: • abusive text messages; good practice”. • Increase their knowledge of the technology that • problems with peers taking and sending abusive “We have a long road to travel. It is up to the is out there - the National Centre for Technology video clips or photographs on mobile phones; Department of Education to lead us ... Bullying should in Education (NCTE) runs courses for parents and • abuse carried out in internet chatrooms. carry a health warning, same as smoking.” teachers, and a website created by NCTE (www. More than 14 per cent of the students (aged between Dr O’Moore called on the department to initiate a webwise.ie) encourages parents to discover the 12 and 19) said they had been targeted by cyber national anti-bullying programme that would provide internet together with their children and has valuable bullies, while 11 per cent said it had happened to specific guidelines and policies to help schools deal guidance on internet safety. them once or twice, and 3 per cent said it was a with the problem. She also called on schools to play • Encourage their children to report bullying and help regular occurrence. One in ten students felt it was a greater role in educating parents on their children’s them to realise that bullying is an offence. “just part of life”. internet usage. It was found that children as young as 12 were being “Schools have to speak out and set a zero acceptance (Source: Irish Independent and Education Matters) targeted through mobile phone calls, text messages, of this, and there have to be some sanctions,” she e-mails, internet forums, chatrooms and social said, adding that service providers must not be networking sites. However, those who suffered cyber allowed to “slip away” from their responsibilities bullying were much less likely to do anything about either. it, with only six per cent reporting it to adults at John White, general secretary of the Association school. of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI), said it was The survey revealed that: “worrying” that only a low number of pupils had • One-in-seven students had been targeted by bullies informed adults of the bullying. via the internet or their mobile phones; A “culture” must be created where the entire
13 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
Kilkenny gets ready European group aims to make maths to welcome you teaching more rigorous and inspiring Even if your name is not Liam McCarthy, you’ll be welcome in Kilkenny next March as the Kilkenny-Carlow Branch of the Institute An attempt to re-energise mathematics teaching in Europe and so rarely come to see the subject as a coherent body of Guidance Counsellors host the annual conference and AGM. The is being made in a new project examining a range of of concepts and relationships which can be worth studying committee have been exceptionally busy and most of the framework factors thought to influence achievement. Mathematics for the intrinsic satisfaction it can yield,” said Andrews. “The of the conference is in place. The theme of this year’s conference is teaching is as vital as ever both in support of key fields situation in countries like Hungary is almost the complete “Changing Times: challenges and opportunities” and you will need such as life sciences, alternative energy development, or little reminding of the changes we have seen in recent years and opposite - all students experience an integrated and even in recent months. How we cope with these changes both in information technology, and also through its unique ability intellectually worthwhile mathematics taught by teachers terms of vocational needs and opportunities and in terms of the to develop widely applicable problem solving skills. It with little explicit interest in the applications of the subject social dimensions and implications of such change. should be highly relevant not just for the elite few but for but an enthusiasm for logical thinking and the problem- all people in education. solving opportunities that mathematics can provide.” The following is a preliminary outline and is subject to change, yes, changing times may apply to our conference also. It all takes place The new project was discussed at a recent workshop But the issue of mathematics teaching is not just about in the Ormonde Hotel in Ormonde Street in the centre of Kilkenny. organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF), content, but also attitude, on the part both of pupils and Within two minutes walk you have the castle, the Design Centre and which brought together experts in different areas of teachers. One significant finding to emerge from the High Street. It is very accessible from all areas of the city. On Thursday mathematics education. “It was agreed that we would workshop was that the common practice of dividing pupils night 5th March we hope to have an interesting speaker followed by begin the process of developing a comparative project, into sets defined by ability, which, in the UK context, is a buffet dinner for those who travel early for the conference. Then involving between fifteen and twenty European countries, on Friday 6th the conference takes place. We hope to have speakers applied more for mathematics teaching than any other to examine the interrelatedness of the mathematics- subject, can be counterproductive, even for the most able from the FAS Future Skills group who will have some thoughts on related beliefs of teachers and students, teacher practices the future shape and needs of careers. A huge range of workshops pupils. “Where teachers do not necessarily expect to teach and student cognition,” said Paul Andrews, the workshop’s will cover all areas of guidance, counselling, testing and information students in ability groups but expect to work with the full convenor and Senior Lecturer in Education at the Faculty technology. In the afternoon we hope to have Sr. Veronica who ran ability range, achievement is generally higher across the of Education of Cambridge University in the UK. the Aslinn Centre, a residential centre which dealt with substance board,” said Andrews.
abuse in young people and she will speak on the social dimension Andrews pointed out that the solution to the mathematics of the changing times. Evening activities include the traditional Another finding that perhaps contradicted common teaching conundrum was complex and multi-dimensional, champagne reception and banquet dinner and dancing until the wisdom was that students often progressed best when just like many of the great problems in the field itself. On early hours. taught to approach problem solving collectively instead the one hand, enthusiasm needed to be balanced with of in isolation. This runs counter to the perception, On Saturday we have the AGM and we hope many of you will stay rigour in order to motivate students while also teaching around the city to either play golf with us, go on a walking tour, skills and knowledge worth acquiring. “To assume that manifested regularly in UK schools, that mathematics is indulge in some retail therapy, check out some of the craft industry the development of enthusiasm is sufficient to guarantee a lonely endeavour pursued by individuals in competition in the region or just relax and take in the atmosphere of Ireland’s achievement would be naïve as there are countries in rather than cooperation. smallest city and its medieval core and European atmosphere. which students have little enthusiasm for mathematics but achieve relatively highly and, of course, vice versa,” It remains to be seen whether the ESF project will lead to With this edition of Guideline you should have received a map of pointed out Andrews. a radical shake up in mathematics teaching comparable Kilkenny so you can check the location of your hotel or guest house to the introduction of the so called “new maths” in the (there is no shortage of either in Kilkenny). The Ormonde itself is There has also been a tension between immediate 1980s in the place of the previous more arithmetically reserved for the National Executive and its guests although some based approach. More likely it will lead to rebalancing of rooms might become available once we know the exact number of vocational objectives in response to the needs of employers, teaching, bringing greater consistency and rigour to deliver those coming. Nearby hotels include the Pembroke, Hibernian, River and the higher ideal of teaching logical thinking and a more wholesome curriculum. Court and Club House, a little further away are the Newpark and deeper mathematical problem solving. European countries Hotel Kilkenny, Springhill and Days Hotel. Guest Houses include Zuni, have to date resolved this tension in different ways, with Berkley, Langton House and many others and of course there are the UK being at the vocational end of the spectrum, while The workshop “The Relevance of Mathematics Education” innumerable Bed and Breakfast options. There are rail connections, Hungary has taken the purest approach with its traditions was held in Cambridge, UK in January 2008. Each year, an airport in Waterford or an airfield in Kilkenny and while we await for mathematical rigour. ESF supports approximately 50 Exploratory Workshops a motorway, at least the bottleneck of Carlow is now bypassed, and across all scientific domains. These small, interactive there is a multi-storey car park opposite the Ormonde. “One of the problems of English education is that students group sessions are aimed at opening up new directions in experience a fragmented and procedural conception of research to explore new fields with a potential impact on We look forward to seeing you in Kilkenny for three in a row –nights mathematics, due to underlying notions of vocationalism, developments in science. that is! Thank you It’s the start of a new school year again and it’s as if we were never on a summer break.
I want to take this opportunity to thank former IGC President Frank Mulvihill, the members of the IGC National Executive, Brian Mooney, National Executive Conference Coordinator, Michael Gleeson, National Executive P.R.O., Ann Pilkington, IGC Hdqtrs., Gerry Tynan and Pat Lynch, the Conference Administrators and all those, too numerous to mention, who gave support and help to the Kildare AGM Committee during the Conference in Maynooth on 6-8 March, 2008.
A lot of personal time goes into bringing the annual Conference together. It could not have been successful without the fantastic commitment and energy of the Kildare Organising IGC Kildare Organising Committee (pictured l-r): Ann Egan, Josephine Phelan, Kate Walsh, Committee which was eighteen members strong. Sally Barton, Mary Quirke, Eilis Gleeson, Maura Conneely, Louise Fallon, Marius Fitzsimons, Anne Cullen, Michael Clifford, P.J. Foster, Ann O’Neill, Brian Howard, Noreen Buckley (centre). The IGC Kildare Branch wishes a very successful Conference to the IGC Kilkenny Branch. Absent from picture: Bernadette Fagan Gleeson, Catherine McCarthy, Kay O’Connell.
14 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 Launching the IGC Policy Document ‘A Whole School Guidance & Counselling Service and Curriculum: Roles and Responsibilities’ The context within which we can value this document is, I believe, On page 5 the implications of the ’98 Act, on Guidance within the context of the larger Discourse. I want to situate the document Whole School Planning, in the DES Guidelines of ’05 are quoted: ‘It within the general Discourse on Guidance and Counselling. I should involve the Guidance Counsellor in the first instance as well am using the word ‘discourse’ in the way in which Habermas, as all other relevant members of management and staff’. the German linguist and philosopher, used it…. a conversation The Framework on page 6 reflects the areas of concern found which can be validated because those engaged listen carefully, in Pastoral Care Programmes since the 70’s and 80’s. Books speak truthfully, check understanding, and therefore contribute to written by Úna Collins, and published in 1981 and re written and learning. published in 1994, give evidence of this ongoing contribution to I believe that ‘guidance and counselling’ go back to the moment the discourse. The Framework is systematic and developmental, when one human being carefully listened to another, and enabled and when it moves from being a discussion paper will, I am sure, the other to address the circumstances of her/his life in a more be very helpful for Whole School Guidance Curriculum Planning, meaningful way. The ‘guidance and counselling’ practice of the and will include Review and Evaluation. cave! Today we are launching the IGC response to this NCCA paper, We know that the thinking of Plato and Aristotle are seminal and this response is a highly significant contribution to the larger threads in the discourse of our profession, in our understanding of discourse and to an understanding of the Role of the Guidance engaging with others, and of learning from that engagement. Counsellor, the Relationships and Responsibilities of that Role, and Europe in the Middle Ages continued the discourse: In 1472, its SERVICE in the school system. Úna M. Collins CHF a ‘career book’ called ‘Mission of men’s lives’ and in 1575 ‘The The IGC Policy document emanates from: “the concern of Examination of Men’s Wits’ addressing the concept of different practitioners to preserve the highest standards in school guidance abilities (influenced by Plato’s thinking), were published. I wonder counselling service”. Frank Mulvihill, in the foreword, succinctly did the Middle Ages Guidance authors know that women, too, had identifies the core concern: “The IGC places a strong emphasis on National College lives and wits?!? the distinction which exists between the curriculum elements of The United States contributed to the discourse in the seventeenth second level guidance and the professional guidance service which of Ireland, and eighteenth centuries concentrating on vocational guidance is provided by the Guidance Counsellor”. and stressing the uniqueness of the individual. Nineteenth century The document, prepared by Breeda Coyle and Arthur Dunne, 19th September 2008 Europe’s major contribution was in the area of psychoanalysis, and situates a curricular programme as part of a school’s response the development of objective testing. to the Guidance and Counselling needs of its students. (A core And in the 1940’s the ‘grandfather’ of counselling arrived – Carl value). Rogers. It reminds us that this has been an active concern of the IGC The professional Irish contribution to the discourse began in the since its foundation, and therefore “appreciates the willingness ‘We stand on 1960’s. Some of us remember working with the Department and expertise of NCCA to assist in the curricular aspects” but…. of Labour’s Blue Leaflets! My own memory of a ‘guidance and it posits the question, ‘does NCCA understand the service remit of counselling’ moment, preceding professional training, was using the guidance counselling service?’ holy ground… these leaflets with my first sixth year English class – to enable the The document makes explicit two distinct but complementary girls consider their future career choices. One girl in that class just elements: didn’t seem to find anything in the many career leaflets. I asked 1. Trained/Professional Guidance Counsellors providing a SERVICE people’s lives’ her ‘why’, and her reply was ‘there is nothing in them that I want 2. Development of a curriculum programme which is developmental to do’. I then asked the question which I have used many times and appropriate to the needs of the students. since that day… “what is it you are doing when you feel really Guidance as a Whole School responsibility, with a clear good about you”, and she replied ‘gardening’! This was in the understanding of roles, relationships and responsibilities, and an late 60’s, and when I advised her that she might visit the Botanic appropriate systematic and developmental curriculum is, now, a Gardens to investigate a possible career her first meeting met with statutory requirement. the information that the obstacles were that she was a girl and that Against that background consider the diagram on page 6 of the she was from the city! Further searching by her were more fruitful Policy document. and she is now one of most regarded professional gardeners/ It is an excellent model of clear systemic thinking, and an landscapers in the country! understanding of the contribution needed at this time in the The ‘guidance’ discourse in Ireland developed with the intervention ongoing discourse. of CDVEC, the Department of Education and UCD training courses in late sixties and early seventies. Then Mater Dei and other Figure 1 represents the Role, Remit and Key Services of the Colleges followed. The founding and the development of IGC was Guidance Counsellor. (Note that the NCGE called these services integral in the development. ‘functions’ in a 1996 publication, and ‘activities’ in 2004). ‘Services’ is a good development. Our ‘Big Bang’ Education Act of 1998, and its implications for the Figure 2 outlines the Curriculum Guidance Programme. Discourse, are central to the Policy Document being launched Figure 3 is where 1 and 2 meet. This is the school discourse area, today. The numerous reviews, audits, and guidelines from where there is overlap, complementarily and mutual support. DES, NCGE, NCCA, ESRI and IGC are in our thinking and in our Figure 4 states clearly the School Roles and Structures which learning. supports a Whole School approach to Figures 1, 2, and 3. Margaret Wheately reminds us in her work Turning to One Figure 5 opens the school Guidance counselling personnel and Another that “Conversation is the natural way we humans think practice to a discourse with outside agencies. together”. This is at the heart of discourse…. a healthy culture In systemic theory the above diagram would score highly. It is in an organisation which is open to conversing with, and listening open, relational and clear. It will be a most helpful diagram in our to, others. IGC in its local gatherings and meetings, in its annual Maynooth training programme for new Guidance Counsellors. AGM, and in meetings like today is contributing to that healthy In launching this document, today, I congratulate Frank, Breeda culture. It is engaging relevant bodies whose core value is “what and Arthur, and the IGC system. best addresses the needs of our young people in schools today?” Let us continue, within the framework of discourse, to be open to This value is the core value of the document being launched. listening and learning with our colleagues, with the DES Guidance We are, in the larger discourse, considering two documents which Inspectorate, and with all the relevant professional bodies and relate the professional thinking of two professional bodies: systems. Let us always be renewed by remembering and reflecting 1. NCCA ’07… a discussion paper A Curriculum Framework for on our core value of ‘care for our young people, and meeting their Guidance in Post-Primary Education guidance needs in school’. 2. IGC ’08 … a policy paper A Whole School Guidance & Let us be competent and confident in our understanding of our Counselling Service and Curriculum: Roles and Responsibilities. Role and of its Relationships and Responsibilities. The NCCA paper aims: “To delineate curricular experiences in the I am a School Guidance Counsellor since 1971, and am very happy inter-related areas of personal guidance, educational guidance and to launch today this IGC Policy document, challenged by the words career development”. of Thomas Groome: ‘We stand on holy ground, people’s lives’
15 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 Policy Paper Launched beyond solely that of curriculum we believe that we have added a unique and significant chapter to the area of guidance and counselling policy creation in Ireland. All the more valuable because it represents “bottom-up” policy making by the group of professionals who are at the heart of the process.
Guidance counsellors and educators are often at the forefront of desired action by many worthy and competing interest groups; administrative, curricular or economic who expect a particular, partisan outcome from the guidance and counselling system. Thus the education system is characterised internally and externally by competing tensions and demands. Rarely, however, is the service itself, or the personal and social function of guidance and counselling highlighted. One might be led to believe that no such supports exist in our schools
On Friday 19th September in the National College of Ireland the Policy Paper of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors on a Whole School Guidance and Counselling Service and Curriculum: Roles and Responsibilities was launched. It was introduced by our President and then Sr. Una Collins formally launched the document. Speaking at the launch the IGC President Eilis Coakley said:
It is a proud day for the IGC to have the opportunity to present you with this policy document, representing as it does the vision of our service and role in the context of the Education Act and of whole school planning. A context in which we operate both comfortably and professionally.
We must thank the NCCA who in formulating their discussion paper A Curriculum Framework for Guidance energised us into taking the debate further and to articulate our vision of curriculum and professional service and how they interact and support each other. By expanding the debate further
16 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 and, where such supports exist, they only do so externally. We believe that giving pre-eminence to one area of our work to the detriment of another is unbalanced and overlooks the person who is at the centre of the process in favour of outcome.
This policy document endeavours to redress the balance and to present a coherent, balanced, holistic vision of how a service and curriculum might interact and support each other, and how competing interest agendas can be met. Our view therefore is that each area, the service and curriculum both, should be prized, appreciated, supported, resourced and expanded. The loss of either in the guidance and counselling context would be short sighted and one-dimensional.
We are in challenging times which demand all the creativity, resources, and inspired responsiveness that can be called on. We need to challenge old ways of thinking, old models, and old ways of doing. We present this policy document as our contribution and challenge in our future shared debates.
In launching the policy paper Sr Una Collins praised the document as part of the ongoing discourse on the role and function of guidance. She rapidly of the role, relationships and responsibilities and the and counselling service and curriculum roles and traced the history of guidance and the philosophical curricular and service requirements made explicit responsibilities. She welcomed the shift of emphasis and psychological principles underlying them. She in the statutory requirements. She particularly from curricular to service in terms of the role. welcomed this contribution to the ongoing discourse praised the graphical diagram on the guidance You can read her speech on page 15.
17 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
Theby Will Dowd Mythof the
Whenever stalled on an intractable problem, Einstein reportedly reached for his violin. He played to disentangle his brain and clarify the question at hand. Mozart especially did the trick. Einstein loved Mozart’s highly organized, intensely patterned sonatas. He felt, as many beforeMozart him, that music and the reasoning intellect were linked. Music and his scientific work, he said, were “born of the same source.”
It was with this same belief that Dr. Gordon Shaw, a University they examine how posture, food intake, or the time of day of California Irvine psychologist, corralled 36 undergraduates modified their listening.” Naturally, Campbell believes that had for a research experiment in February 1993. The students these controls been in place, the Mozart Effect would have were given three spatial-reasoning tasks from the Stanford- been more dramatically evident. Effect Binet intelligence tests. Before each task, they listened to ten Many scientists have proposed alternative explanations for the minutes of either silence, a relaxation tape, or Mozart’s Sonata study’s results. Who’s to say that Mozart’s sonata caused the for Two Pianos in D Major. According to a paper published later difference in scores? Maybe listening to an annoying relaxation that year in Nature, listening to Mozart boosted the students’ tape or ten minutes of dead silence impaired the students’ IQ by an average of eight to nine points. The improvement, performance. Or perhaps the students experienced a change researchers said, lasted between ten and fifteen minutes. The in mood and arousal rather than a fluctuation in intelligence. results were widely reported as evidence of what the press One study found that listening to a Stephen King short story dubbed “the Mozart Effect.” The International Herald Tribune, had a comparable effect on spatial-reasoning scores, but only for example, proclaimed “Mozart’s Notes Make Good Brain for those who enjoyed what they heard. Is it possible that Food.” Mozart’s sonata had simply stimulated or uplifted the subjects Don Campbell, a classical musician and former music critic, in the U.C. Irvine study? After all, Shaw selected that particular was the first to recognize the research’s commercial potential. sonata not just for its organized, cerebral quality, but because Campbell expanded the definition of the Mozart Effect to it is “riveting” and “never boring.” include all music’s influence on intelligence, health, emotions, But the most damaging blow to the Mozart Effect has been and creativity. In 1996, he trademarked it. Today, the Mozart the failure of other researchers to reproduce the Irvine results. Effect™ boasts the lateral spread typical of any successful Psychologist Kenneth Steele and his colleagues replicated the brand. Campbell has authored 18 books, a series of spoken experiment in 1999 and found no trace of the Mozart Effect. tapes, and 16 albums incorporating Mozart’s music. The small “A requiem may therefore be in order,” Steele wrote in Nature. commercial empire includes the recently published Mozart Dr. Frances Rauscher, co-author of the Irvine study, countered Effect for Children, which explains, in a chapter entitled that the Mozart Effect cannot be found under all laboratory “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Neuron,” that Mozart’s music enhances conditions. “Because some people cannot get bread to rise,” the network of connections forming in the infant brain. His she wrote, “does not negate the existence of a ‘yeast effect.’” recordings, one of which features Don Giovanni for the But that same year, a Harvard psychologist analyzed 16 developing fetus, have sold over two million copies. studies on the Mozart Effect, including the original experiment, Since the U.C. Irvine study, the Mozart Effect has become concluding that any cognitive enhancement was small and fixed in the public consciousness. Zell Miller, while governor within the average variation of a single person’s IQ-test of Georgia, earmarked $105,000 of the state’s annual budget performance. In 2007, the German Ministry of Education to supply every newborn with a cassette or CD of classical and Research conducted a similar meta-analysis. Their music. “No one doubts that listening to music, especially at findings were unambiguous: passively listening to any kind a very early age, affects the spatial-temporal reasoning that of music, whether by Mozart or Madonna, does not increase underlies math, engineering and chess,” he explained to the intelligence. Georgia legislature. In Florida, a bill was passed requiring all The German report did, however, propose a link between state-funded education and child-care programs to give a musical training and IQ development. According to recent daily dose of classical music to children under five years old. studies, the motor and auditory skills developed for musical Recently, the coach of the New York Jets, Eric Mangini, began performance may have a long-term influence on intelligence. playing classical music to help his football players concentrate In fact, brain mapping has revealed that professional at training camp study sessions. No word yet whether Mozart’s musicians have more grey matter in their right auditory cortex melodies will affect this season’s spread. than nonmusicians, as if practicing an instrument flexed a muscle in the brain. It seems increasingly likely that the long- What the Science Really Says term practice of playing music, rather than merely listening, While the Mozart Effect flourishes commercially, the U.C. can have the kind of impact suggested by the Mozart Effect. Irvine study that launched the phenomenon has been widely Einstein, after all, organized his mind by playing the violin, not criticized. The startling results announced by the initial paper listening to a recording. were misleading. First, the researchers claimed that the Ironically, the U.C. Irvine researchers had initially planned to undergraduates improved on all three spatial-reasoning tests. test whether music training for young children would increase But, as Shaw later clarified, the only enhancement came from higher brain function. When Shaw, a particle physicist, one task — paper folding and cutting. Further, the researchers developed an interest in neuroscience later in his career, U.C. presented the data in the form of Stanford-Binet IQ scores; Irvine gave him the freedom to research what he wanted. But, yet the study only measured spatial-reasoning, one-third of according to his book Keeping Mozart in Mind, he had to a complete IQ test. To arrive at the full scores, the students’ make do with “extremely limited resources.” So Shaw scaled partial results were inflated by a factor of three. down his ambition. He thought, “if music training might yield The methodology of the study has also come under fire. a long-term enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning, then According to some critics, the test group of 36 psychology perhaps even listening to music might produce a short-term undergraduates may not have been large or varied enough enhancement!” Fourteen years and dozens of studies later, it to produce credible results. Even Don Campbell has attacked is clear this analogy was off the mark. the experiment’s lack of controls. In the endnotes to his 1997 bestseller, The Mozart Effect, Campbell observes that the U.C. Magic Mozart Irvine researchers “did not administer listening tests before What can explain the Mozart Effect’s persistent hold on testing, as many researchers in the field recommend. Nor did the public consciousness despite the lack of solid scientific
18 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
evidence? No art-lover expects to absorb a better memory by genius; he’s a magic genius whose music rains down brief staring at a Renaissance painting. moments of enhanced brainpower. No reader hopes to pluck IQ points from a classic novel. So But Mozart is not the only magic genius. The transformation of why are the Mozart Effect™ products snatched up by the a dubious psychology study into a multi-million dollar industry millions? also has a touch of the miraculous. In The Mozart Effect, Don Perhaps it’s unsurprising that Mozart, a historical figure Campbell summarizes Shaw and Rauscher’s conclusions — the enveloped in myths, should be at the center of yet another. scientific backbone of his brand — when he writes: “Listening According to the most recent spate of biographies, the real to music, they concluded, acts as ‘an exercise’ for facilitating Mozart was an incessant reviser addicted to his work. Yet the symmetry operations associated with higher brain function. In details of the Mozart legend — his astonishing prowess as a plain English, it can improve your concentration, enhance your child prodigy, his immaculate first drafts — have bolstered the ability to make intuitive leaps, and, not incidentally, shave a popular belief that the composer was a fine-tuned antenna few strokes off your golf game!” picking up snatches of celestial song. Einstein didn’t help Campbell’s translation of the U.C. Irvine study into “plain matters. He described Mozart’s music as “so pure that it English” is inaccurate and insincere, an abracadabra that seemed to have been ever-present in the universe, waiting to replaces questionable research with fantasy. The Mozart Mozart be discovered by the master.” Effect™ has carried on long after the initial study has been The creators of the Mozart Effect have eagerly traded on the debunked because it was never about science to begin with. composer’s lingering mystique. Campbell traces the source If the Mozart Effect teaches us anything, it’s that an elegant of Mozart’s talent to his time in the womb: his father’s metaphor is always at risk of becoming a common expression, violin playing “almost certainly enhanced his neurological a copyrighted product, a popular belief infused with a magic development and awakened the cosmic rhythms in utero.” that is difficult to dispel. Shaw also portrays Mozart as supernaturally gifted. Keeping Mozart in Mind is packaged with a CD of the Sonata for Two From eSkeptic a weekly newsletter available from www.skeptic. Pianos in D Major. “Before you read further,” Shaw writes in com/eskeptic Will Dowd is a science writer based in New York the Preface, “I suggest that you slip the CD out of the book, City. He received an M.S. in Science Writing from MIT. He has make yourself comfortable, and listen to the magic genius of written about neuropharmacology and the intersection of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” To Shaw, Mozart is not a musical neuroscience and culture.
INVITATION FROM THE DUBLIN RAPE CRISIS CENTRE The DRCC would like to invite interested Guidance Counsellors to attend a training course to equip them to deliver the following programme to schools ‘Understanding Sexual Violence’ (working Title) A SEXUAL VIOLENCE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION PROGRAMME FOR YOUNG PEOPLE (15+) The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) are pleased to announce, with the support of funding from Cosc, the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, the second phase of our programme ‘Understanding Sexual Violence’ a Sexual Violence Awareness and Prevention Programme for Young People. This phase of the programme involves offering a Training Programme to Guidance Counsellors and key school staff to equip them to deliver the programme to students. The DRCC will also continue to deliver the programme to schools.
Background students to stay safer - by helping them to study and discuss various Mentoring Scheme The findings and recommendations of “SAVI: Sexual Abuse and issues thereby increasing their awareness and understanding; by using We are also putting a mentoring scheme in place for those who Violence in Ireland (a national study of Irish experiences, beliefs exercises that help students experience a ‘felt sense’ of what it might complete our training to support them as they go out and deliver it. and attitudes concerning sexual violence)”, launched in 2002 and be like to stand up to coercion and to equip them to develop skills to researched by a team from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland help them make their own decisions, where this is possible in the face Principals’ Seminar on behalf of the DRCC supports our belief in the need for such a of sexual violence. We will be holding a seminar inviting Principals and Deputy Principals programme. The report recommends that comprehensive awareness The programme is designed to incorporate a level of self awareness to a half day information seminar. Firstly to inform them about the campaigns be developed and delivered in Ireland and that a range of through which the students might pause and reflect on how they are. programme and its contents and delivery methods and secondly to educational materials on sexual violence in Irish society be developed, The hope is to begin to introduce the concept of a ‘pause’ between take the opportunity to consult with them on their experience of for relevant professionals, to complement a national public awareness the impulse to act and the action, thus developing and expanding dealing with sexual violence in the school campaign. One of the findings of the study showed that 32% of girls the element of choice with regard to how they might act. We are and 23% of boys have experienced unwanted sexual contact before conscious of the fact that, in any group, we are likely to encounter Invitation to Guidance Counsellors the age of 18. students who have been affected by sexual violence either through It is at this point that we would like to include Guidance Counsellors in Statistics from the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit at the Rotunda personal experience or through the experience of someone close to this project. We would love to hear if any of you would be interested Hospital show that in 2006, the 16-19 year old age group account for them. Our training takes the sensibilities of such students into account in participating in our training as we feel that your skills would be 19% of those who were being forensically examined following a sexual and to this end the students are invited to participate to whatever level particularly useful and suited to the delivery of this programme. assault and that 12% of those attending the unit were under 16. It can is comfortable for them. If you are interested in getting further information about this project safely be surmised that this is a vulnerable age group. It is likely that a We are careful to create a space which is both contained and safe and might be interested in applying for a place on one of our teacher quarter to a third of our students will have experienced sexual violence and also respectful of the students. Our teaching methods include training courses, (which during this pilot phase will be offered free of by the time they leave school. Support and understanding from their groupwork, smaller group work and individual work, looking at case charge) we would like to hear from you. schools, their teachers and their peers would be of enormous benefit studies, discussions, provision of information, short presentations to these young people. using either powerpoint, posters or flip chart, role plays and Contact Us experiential exercises. The Team - Maria O’Loughlin, Leonie O’Dowd Mary de Courcy or The Programme for Schools We decided that the programme should be facilitated by two Terence McKeon - in any one of the following ways:- In 2007, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre received funding from the facilitators - firstly from a safety point of view knowing the statistics of Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Department of Justice, Violence against Women Section, for the the likelihood that there will be students who have experienced some Write: The Education Dept. development and delivery of a pilot educational programme for form of sexual violence or abuse in the class and also from the position Dublin Rape Crisis Centre Transition Year students and other young people. After a process of of having two facilitators to do role plays, demonstrate experiential 70 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 consulting with schools and conducting focus groups with students, exercises, chair discussion groups, and generally being an extra pair of Telephone: 01 6614911 we developed a programme and delivered it, on a pilot basis, to eyes to observe what is going on in the class. and ask for the three schools. It was revised and developed after each of these Education Department pilots. The programme consists of meeting with students three The Teacher Training Project times for 90 minutes each time. The purpose of the programme is We are now ready to move to the next stage of the project which will be to raise awareness as to what constitutes sexual violence, to educate to set up and deliver a training programme for Guidance Counsellors the pupils of the facts, the law, the meaning and legal implications and teachers with appropriate background skills. This programme of consent and the impact of sexual violence. It provides a space will include in-depth training on understanding sexual violence and where students can, in a non-threatening environment, examine trauma and on working sensitively to support young people who have their own and others’ attitudes and behaviours with regard to sexual these experiences as well as a training on the actual methodology violence and explore how these (societal) attitudes affect the person and delivery of this programme. This training will be participative and who experiences sexual violence. One of the aims is to empower experiential and will take place over three days.
19 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
Sex Education Naomi Elster Today, let’s talk about sex. Or rather, let’s talk about sex education in Irish schools. I must say, some rather interesting approaches have been exam subjects, they tend to lose out in terms of timetabling taken in recent years. In my final year, my school called hours, teacher training, and attention – as a student put it in a pair of guest speakers from some little known devout in a report for the Crisis Pregnancy Agency “Parents are Catholic organisation who, having just spent the last ten more focused and more geared towards study … [but] minutes preaching the evils of STI’s, enlightened us that when you finish school, like, you’re released into the world protected sex was a bad thing “because sex should be a and you don’t know, you’re at a disadvantage.” The same love-act, and if you love someone you shouldn’t feel the report found that one of the greatest barriers to teaching need to protect yourself from them.” A friend in another RSE was that the school curriculum is too overcrowded, school had a swift and comprehensive overview of sex and that as RSE has no exam to conclude it – although in and sexuality “Does everyone here understand what the event of an outbreak of gonorrhea in fifth year, or the a homosexual is? Good. Take out your religion books. school’s transition year programme becoming one long The system, as it stands, is a long Chapter fourteen, the Crucifixion.” While I would never, hands-on project in “children having children,” failure is way from perfect. More care needs ever condone the treatment yet another friend had to obvious – it is the subject crowded out the most. The endure – the school decided that the parents should same report also critiscised the lack of consistency in sex to go into the selection and training be present, and at one stage placed a pink, strawberry education – one-off days tend to replace series of classes, flavoured, ultra-ribbed condom on top of a broom making it very hard for a school to reach all its students up of the teachers involved, school handle, so that everyone in what must have been a very equally. RSE policies need to be drawn embarrassed crowd could get a good view of it – it really is time we all just grew up about this kind of thing and faced I don’t think that outside speakers are necessarily a bad up, clearly and concisely, and up to the 45 minutes of embarrassment that could save idea on this subject, as long as they do not replace a lives, if done right. number of classes throughout the year. However, schools communicated to the parents, and, should be aware that extreme caution is needed when especially, RSE teachers need more Despite it being compulsory to teach RSE (Relationship inviting these groups in – many schools have invited in and Sexuality Education) since 2003, over 10% of Irish apparently innocuous speakers only to discover too late support both from the department schools do not put it on the curriculum – unless, of that they’ve entrusted their students well-being to a group and from their colleagues. course, eleven pm soft porn, schoolyard statements such of beetle-worshipping fanatics or similar, and if the school as “you can’t catch anything from him or get pregnant if gives a platform to the wrong group, they will find their you go on top,” and gangsta rap’s frequent references reputation damaged somewhat. to “hoes” (prostitutes) may be considered a clear and comprehensive guide to sex and sexuality, empowering A certain level of discomfort is perhaps inevitable – the leaders and procreators of tomorrow to make sound, perhaps, like committees, the person who suffers such a well-informed decisions on their sexual health and family lack of social phobia as to want the job is the one person planning. who should be chased away with a stick – but it can be lessened. Not having clear boundaries about what can and Ireland is still very much guided by the austerity of church can’t be discussed is possibly one of the biggest reasons rule and, even in a society where Playboy and Loaded, both for parents’ misgivings and teacher discomfort. The bums and breasts galore, are on sale in most newsagents, obvious solutions are clearer guidelines in the form of a and our televisions broadcast soft porn as early as 11p. well thought out policy and extra staff training – teachers m. alongside shows such as “Naked in Blackpool,” a should not be asked to sacrifice their precious personal reality show set in a strip joint in Northern England, time to train, and training should be improved from the and “Sexcetera,” a sex magazine show dealing mostly fragmented in-service days and half-days that are often a with fetish and swingers clubs, the concept of an open facilitator’s only resource at the minute. discussion of sex in a safe classroom setting still seems to upset people. Up to the age of eighteen – at which most people will have already left school – students are legally and morally seen Sex education needs to be seen in a different light as being under the control of their parents, and in contrast – as a means by which teenagers, at a vulnerable stage to popular belief, a parent-child relationship in which sex is sexually – can be enabled to protect themselves against regularly and openly discussed is NOT regarded as healthy sexual exploitation and abuse, the dreaded HIV/AIDS, not or functional by most psychologists, and most parents to mention a plethora of other less known, but equally are not comfortable with the idea of their child talking sinister infections and diseases, much more easily spread or thinking about sex, although it is almost universally than we would like to think, and, of course, accidental recognised as one of the key stages in the transition from pregnancies. The increased sexual activity of teenagers child to adult. Despite this, parents are still very important in modern society, becoming more and more apparent, in their children’s’ education and sometimes that is not a reason to frantically hush up all open discussion importance is overlooked. A lot of parents veto their child on sex, sexuality and sexual health, but rather a reason receiving RSE or complain about it because they were not to further endorse it – without trying to either condemn given enough information about it beforehand. It is clear or condone underage sex, it happens, and is beyond the that more communication is needed between schools and control of any school principal or SPHE teacher. Talking the parents, but I’m not sure whether RSE is something about sex in a safe classroom setting is not the catalyst for that should be opted out of at secondary level. In England, increased sexual activity, but rather the foundation which the Gardasil vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer teenagers need in order to be able to make informed as long as it is given before the patient becomes sexually decisions on what they will agree to do sexually. active, is given in schools when girls are 12 years of age on the grounds that given any later, many of these young Increasingly, as schools are being pushed as a means to women will receive it too late – and, although a move an end and not a valuable entity in their own right, focus is for a parent deciding the age their daughters would be almost exclusively put on exams, and as SPHE/RSE are not vaccinated at came in, it was discounted on the grounds
20 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
that very few parents know when their child starts to have, whether physical or psychological, for fear of being it in an extremely vulnerable state, barely knowing what engage in sex. On these very same grounds, I would say seen as sexually inadequate, and therefore inadequate as a condom was, not knowing how to get one, distrustful that sex education should be compulsory, although parents a man. of all men, scared to death of gays and the evil that they must receive more communication from schools on what do, and thinking that sex was in some way shameful, a will and what won’t be discussed. A lot of teachers find The system, as it stands, is a long way from perfect. More thing a woman has a duty to do to produce lots and lots they have to leave out a lot of very important information care needs to go into the selection and training up of the of babies. It is true that a woman over 21 should go for a in case a parent objects, but a clear RSE policy, and teachers involved, school RSE policies need to be drawn smear test every five years, and that after seven years of communication with the parents beforehand means that up, clearly and concisely, and communicated to the RSE classes and visiting nurses, I found out from a German a teacher can then do their job without putting themselves parents, and, especially, RSE teachers need more support magazine. But, on the bright side, I suppose I do have on the line for an angry parent. both from the department and from their colleagues. If a few interesting anecdotes, if a dinner party ever gets all mu sex education came from school, I would have left boring……. Two subjects need to be left outside the door in RSE classes – biology and religion. Religion, because the relationship between faith and sexuality is so complex that it obstructs the giving out of objective information, and biology because it’s not needed. Students will usually be covering reproduction in other courses, and besides, any teenager that hasn’t worked out the mechanics for themselves at that stage is probably so spaced out that it won’t matter what you say to them anyway.
Arguably, with all the influences so blatantly out there, and the carefree attitudes of the so-called swinging sixties only really coming to pass now, teenagers don’t really need educating when it comes to sex anymore – they need scaring. Doing a little online research, I was shocked to stumble across a YouTube link which, when followed up, revealed a clip of a pubic louse large enough to fit inside a standard size matchbox. It brought home the inadequacies of my own internet skills – I thought I was looking for a Crisis Pregnancy Summary Report - and it certainly wasn’t an attractive sight, but, if I were a horny teenager, I’m sure it would make me think twice about going “bareback” ie, without a condom, next time.
A lot of schools don’t go into the gory detail – or indeed, any detail at all with regard to the host of unsavouries out there, but repeat the mantra again and again “1 + 1 = 0.” That’s all very well, but aside from upsetting the maths department, many diseases can be transmitted sexually that were not acquired sexually. Herpes is caused by the cold sore virus, and certain antibiotics can give you thrush (although before we all boycott penicillin, I am keen to stress that this rarely happens!).
This is particularly a problem in girls’ schools – far too much focus is put on pregnancy when it comes to talking about protected sex. Not only does this imply that protection is only needed during intercourse, and not during other forms of sexual contact, (particularly important as most teenagers, even if they abstain from actual intercourse, will often have “done stuff”) it also leads to protection being seen as a woman’s responsibility – boys can’t get pregnant, so why would they bother?
For a young woman, sex education often comes to resemble being forced to listen to the same scratched record over and over again. “Boys are only ever after one thing. Boys are only ever after one thing. Boys are only ever……” Not the best approach by a long way. It can sometimes be taken to imply the power of men over the more passive female, and sometimes you wonder if you’re not so much being educated about safe sex as being warned off the dangers of men. Not exactly empowering, and not exactly the best foundation upon which to build future relationships either, and I sometimes wonder just how many perfectly good relationships have been wrecked by a female paranoia instilled by years of listening to “He’s only in it for the sex…….”
This mentality is unfair on men too. Not only does it make it harder for them to gain the trust of their hopefully-future wives, but it places a lot of pressure on them to conform to the archetype of the aggressive macho male – so much so that they may feel pressurised into having sex before they’re ready, and keeping quiet about any worries they
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storming, defence and attack it hardly seems a suitable metaphor for commitment and communion. Anyhow some couple had chosen the location of Student Yearbook and Career Directory Golf Classic at Kilkea Castle in County Kildare to tie the knot. There was Golf News the groom’s party standing outside the walls having a cigarette and discussing tactics and the noise and What is it about castles and weddings? Why are hubbub of the guests on the battlements. Finally to castles seen as such romantic locations? Why did Paul complete the martial image the couple were saluted McCartney and David Beckham chose to have their into the great hall with the instruments designed to By Divot high-profile weddings in castles in Ireland? It always strike terror into any combatant; the war pipes or seems to me that castles are more martial than marital, bagpipes. with their fortifications, thick walls, towers, portcullis and murder holes and all the lore about sieges and All of this was happening in the brilliant sunshine (yes there was some this summer) as we did battle with the daises and grass in the hope of driving a small white ball around a course. However, the great thing about golf is that you take as many shots as you need. The bad thing is that so many of these end up in the water (if you are me) but occasionally it does all come together, but keeping it together is frustrating.
Sponsor Joe Duddy summed it up as we approached the last hole. Squinting in the brilliant sunshine he said “Isn’t it great to be alive on a day like this and the only thing you have to worry about is how you played!” And the other sponsor, John McGinnity of NUI Maynooth declared that he had played great courses on bad days and bad courses on great days but on this occasion he got a great course on a great day.
The winner was Margaret Madden of Dublin. Several John McGinnity (left) of NUI Maynooth, Sponsor other prizes were awarded but the author was not with Margaret Madden winner and Joe Duddy, among them. Student Yearbook , Sponsor. However, the good news is that he did feature in another outing at Castlewarden under the auspices of the DIT. Most appropriately the main prize winners featured the sponsor Vincent O’Hora, soon to take early retirement. If this gives him more time for golf we may all look out as he played very well. The format was slightly different as it was a team event, with the best individual scores on a hole counting. As I say I was in prize winners, getting a golf towel. Here I must confess that although I have one I’m not sure what you do with a golf towel. They tell me that it is for wiping my clubs or keeping the grips dry. But if you wipe the clubs it only gets it all mucky and as it hangs outside the golf bag it gets drenched wet if it is raining and so is not much use to dry your grips. It is one of these mysterious objects in golf, like the single glove (why just one?) or that mini pronged thing that you get for pitch marks (what are they?)
Already plans are afoot for further golf outings so check out the emails for more details and perhaps John McGinnity is presented with his prize from Joe you too can hear some more vows and oaths near Duddy or was it the other way? scenic castles.
Thanks… The IGC Sub Committee for Higher Options would like to thank all those who helped at the Higher Options Exhibition recently.
The Institute would also like to thank those who helped on the Helplines after the results and offers were issued. 22 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
The freedom to say ‘no’
By Elaine McArdle May 18, 2008
Why aren’t there more women in science and engineering? Controversial new research suggests: They just aren’t interested. WHEN IT COMES to the huge and persistent those careers because they would simply rather do gender gap in science and technology jobs, the something else. finger of blame has pointed in many directions: One study of information-technology workers sexist companies, boy-friendly science and found that women’s own preferences are the math classes, differences in aptitude. single most important factor in that field’s dramatic Women make up almost half of today’s gender imbalance. Another study followed 5,000 workforce, yet hold just a fraction of the jobs in mathematically gifted students and found that certain high-earning, high-qualification fields. qualified women are significantly more likely to They constitute 20 percent of the nation’s avoid physics and the other “hard” sciences in favor engineers, fewer than one-third of chemists, of work in medicine and biosciences. and only about a quarter of computer and It’s important to note that these findings involve math professionals. averages and do not apply to all women or men; Over the past decade and more, scores of indeed, there is wide variety within each gender. conferences, studies, and government hearings The researchers are not suggesting that sexism and have been directed at understanding the gap. It cultural pressures on women don’t play a role, and has stayed in the media spotlight thanks in part to they don’t yet know why women choose the way the high-profile misstep of then-Harvard president they do. One forthcoming paper in the Harvard Larry Summers, whose loose comment at a Harvard Business Review, for instance, found that women conference on the topic in 2005 ultimately cost him often leave technical jobs because of rampant sexism his job. in the workplace. Now two new studies by economists and social But if these researchers are right, then a certain scientists have reached a perhaps startling amount of gender gap might be a natural artifact of conclusion: An important part of the explanation for a free society, where men and women finally can the gender gap, they are finding, are the preferences forge their own vocational paths. And understanding of women themselves. When it comes to certain how individual choices shape the gender balance of math- and science-related jobs, substantial numbers some of the most important, financially rewarding of women - highly qualified for the work - stay out of careers will be critical in fashioning effective solutions
23 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 for a problem that has vexed people for more than others were less likely to choose IT careers. Women, intriguing: Women who are mathematically gifted a generation. on average, were more likely to score high in this are more likely than men to have strong verbal A few years ago, Joshua Rosenbloom, an economist arena. abilities as well; men who excel in math, by contrast, at the University of Kansas, became intrigued by a Personal preference, Rosenbloom and his group don’t do nearly as well in verbal skills. As a result, new campaign by the National Science Foundation concluded, was the single largest determinative factor the career choices for math-precocious women are to root out what it saw as pervasive gender in whether women went into IT. They calculated wider than for their male counterparts. They can discrimination in science and engineering. The that preference accounted for about two-thirds of become scientists, but can succeed just as well as agency was spending $19 million a year to encourage the gender imbalance in the field. The study was lawyers or teachers. With this range of choice, their mentoring programs, gender-bias workshops, and published in November in the Journal of Economic data show, highly qualified women may opt out of cooperative work environments. Psychology. certain technical or scientific jobs simply because Rosenbloom had no quarrel with the goal of gender It may seem like a cliché - or rank sexism - to say they can. equity. But as he saw it, the federal government women like to work with people, and men prefer These studies looked at different slices of the working was spending all that money without any idea what to work with things. Rosenbloom acknowledges world, but agree that in a world in which men and would work, because there was no solid data on that, but says that whether due to socialization or women both have freedom of choice, they tend to what caused the disparity between men and women “more basic differences,” the genders on average choose differently. in scientific fields. demonstrate different vocational interests. To help answer the question, Rosenbloom “It sounds like stereotypes,” he said in an interview, It may seem like a cliché - or surveyed hundreds of professionals in information “but these stereotypes have a germ of truth.” technology, a career in which women are significantly In the language of the social sciences, Rosenbloom rank sexism - to say women underrepresented. He also surveyed hundreds in found that the women were “self-selecting” out of comparable careers more evenly balanced between IT careers. The concept of self-selection has long like to work with people, and men and women. The study examined work interested social scientists as an explanation for how and family history, educational background, and groups sort themselves over time. Since human men prefer to work with things. vocational interests. beings are heterogeneous, self-selection predicts The results were striking. The lower numbers of that when offered a menu of options and freedom They have a provocative echo in the conclusions of women in IT careers weren’t explained by work- of choice, people will make diverse choices and sort Susan Pinker, a psychologist and columnist for the family pressures, since the study found computer themselves out in nonrandom ways. In other words, Toronto Globe and Mail. In her controversial new careers made no greater time demands than those even given the same opportunities, not everybody book, “The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women, and the in the control group. Ability wasn’t the reason, since will do the same thing - and there are measurable Real Gender Gap,” Pinker gathers data from the the women in both groups had substantial math reasons that they will act differently from one journal Science and a variety of sources that show backgrounds. There was, however, a significant another. that in countries where women have the most difference in one area: what the men and women The concept of self-selection sets off alarms for freedom to choose their careers, the gender divide is valued in their work. many feminists. It seems to suggest that women the most pronounced. Rosenbloom and his colleagues used a standard themselves are responsible for the gender gap. It can The United States, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, and personality-inventory test to measure people’s also be an excuse for minimizing the role of social the United Kingdom, which offer women the most preferences for different kinds of work. In general, forces, including discrimination in the classroom and financial stability and legal protections in job choice, Rosenbloom’s study found, men and women the workplace. have the greatest gender split in careers. In countries who enjoyed the explicit manipulation of tools or But self-selection has also emerged as the chief with less economic opportunity, like the Philippines, machines were more likely to choose IT careers explanation in other recent studies of gender Thailand, and Russia, she writes, the number of - and it was mostly men who scored high in this imbalance, including a long-term survey done by women in physics is as high as 30 to 35 percent, area. Meanwhile, people who enjoyed working with two Vanderbilt researchers, Camilla Persson Benbow versus 5 percent in Canada, Japan, and Germany. and David Lubinski. “It’s the opposite of what we’d expect,” says Pinker. Starting more than 30 years ago, the Study of “You’d think the more family-friendly policies, and Mathematically Precocious Youth began following richer the economy, the more women should behave nearly 2,000 mathematically gifted adolescents, like men, but it’s the opposite. I think with economic boys and girls, tracking their education and careers opportunity comes choices, comes freedom.” in ensuing decades. (It has since been expanded If the gender gap in many fields has its roots in to 5,000 participants, many from more recent women’s own preferences, that raises a new line graduating classes.) Both men and women in the of questions, including the most obvious: Why do study achieved advanced credentials in about the women make these choices? Why do they prefer same numbers. But when it came to their career different kinds of work? And what does “freedom of paths, there was a striking divergence. choice” really mean in a world that is still structured Math-precocious men were much more likely to go very differently for men and women? into engineering or physical sciences than women. For example, the choice to drop out of high-paying Math-precocious women, by contrast, were more finance careers appears to be driven by the longer likely to go into careers in medicine, biological hours required in those jobs, says University of sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Both sexes Chicago economist Marianne Bertrand, who studied scored high on the math SAT, and the data showed the career tracks of the school’s MBA graduates. the women weren’t discouraged from certain career Women who want families eventually decide to walk paths. away from the career, at least temporarily. The survey data showed a notable disparity on “I’ve gone from the glass ceiling to thinking, if these one point: That men, relative to women, prefer to jobs weren’t 70 hours a week, women might not work with inorganic materials; women, in general, need to take so much time off,” she says. prefer to work with organic or living things. This Benbow and Lubinski, at Vanderbilt, found that high- gender disparity was apparent very early in life, and achieving women often pick their careers based on it continued to hold steady over the course of the the idea that they’ll eventually take time off, and thus participants’ careers. avoid fields in which that absence will exact a larger Benbow and Lubinski also found something else penalty. In humanities or philosophy, for instance,
24 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
taking a year or two off won’t affect one’s skill set very much. But in quickly evolving technical fields, a similar sabbatical can be a huge career setback. Beneath those structural questions, though, women still seem to make choices throughout their lives that are different from men’s, and it is not yet clear why. Rosenbloom, the economist behind the IT study, says little research has been done on how interests are formed. “We don’t know the role of mentors or experience or socialization,” he says. To some sociologists and many feminists, the focus on self-selection is a The troubling distraction from bigger questions of how society pushes girls and boys into different roles. Rosalind Chait Barnett, at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis, freedom says that boys and girls are not, at root, different enough for such clear sorting to be seen as a matter of “choice.” “The data is quite clear,” she says. “On anything you point to, there is so much to say variation within each gender that you have to get rid of this idea that ‘men are like this, women are like that.’ “ Sorting through the various factors is extremely challenging, all the researchers agree, and the issue is as complex as the individuals making each career decision. These findings on self-selection only open new areas of inquiry. They ‘no’ do suggest, however, that if the hard-fought battle for gender equality has indeed brought America to a point where women have the freedom to choose their career paths, then the end result may be surprising - and an equal- opportunity workforce may look a lot less equal than some had imagined.
Elaine McArdle is a writer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first book, The
Migraine Brain, a comprehensive guide to health for migraine sufferers and their families, co-authored with Harvard Neurologist Dr. Carolyn Bernstein, will be published in September by Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster.
C P AREERS ORTAL CAREERSPORTAL.ie Careers Information at your fingertips
Career Planning Self Assessment Sector & Employment Profiles Career Videos Education & Training Classroom Worksheets www.careersportal.ie
25 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008
The issue of public policy is now A Trip to the Capitol an international theme in career guidance practice. During the summer I had the opportunity Observations from the to present at the National Career Development Association NCDA Global Conference 2008 (NCDA) Conference in a very hot The conference was held over five days from July 7th to 11th. and Spencer Niles, to name but a few. Over the course Washington D.C. The title of the Although the official opening was on Wednesday July 9th, of three days I had the opportunity to attend some of the it was preceded by a Public Policy Symposium and a series sessions and gain valuable insights into current practice and conference this year was Public of Professional Development Institute presentations. The research activities in America. It was apparent that there focus of the Policy Symposium was to identify challenges is a strong emphasis on providing career guidance in the Policy and Advocacy; Finding and creatively develop strategies related to policy initiatives education system up to third level standard. However, it our Voice and Making It Heard. through the sharing of expertise in the field. International was more difficult to get a real sense of the non-formal and American panel experts included John McCarthy, Tony and adult guidance sector. Furthermore, due to America’s The Conference was strategically Watts, Raimo Vuorinen, Ed Herr and Martha M. Russell. The federal, state and local government system, funding policy located on Capitol Hill, close to symposium theme was carried through to a featured session and provision may vary across the country. This makes on the final day of the conference. This collaborative session it difficult for an outsider to fully comprehend a national the hub of government power provided information on the 4 International Symposia Series system and issues related to quality assurance in a very and the future direction of the NCDA Policy Council. short space of time. and political decision-making. The antecedents of vocational guidance and career One very important presentation session I did attend The event was seen as an development have been primarily North American. It was addressed the issue of criticality in career development evident from the level of expertise at the conference that the practice and research. The three presenters were David L. opportunity for the professionals USA is still the forerunner in terms of career development Blustein, Graham B. Stead and Mark L. Savickas. Focusing in the field to come together research and practice. On Wednesday afternoon, the particularly on social justice and discourse analysis the Keynote Address was given by the eminent Dr. Edwin Herr presentations highlighted the need for the profession to advocate for their clients who has a long history of advocating on career development to look critically at its own practice. A phenomenon still policy issues in the US Congress and abroad. Despite the relatively new to career guidance but which has been on public policy issues directly American context, his address reflected similarities with gaining considerable ground in the related disciplines of effecting practice both nationally current Irish guidance practice. He referred to the emphasis psychology and education in recent years. now placed on the efficacy of career guidance and public Despite the considerable range of conference sessions and and internationally. As the field of policy in the context of national economic competitiveness. presentations there appeared to be a limited contribution guidance is quite diverse in North Some of the results of globalisation are ‘global labour from outside of the United States. As a European delegate, surpluses’ and ‘frictional unemployment’ (short-term). I presented on my current Irish research study. There were America, and my visit was brief, People are on ‘edge’ in the workforce. This means careers also a few presenters from Asia and South America. The low are less linear and predictable and, therefore, in constant number of non-American attendants may be due to funding this article reflects some of my transition. Workers are now responsible for their own career issues and the lack of opportunities for practitioners, observations from the trip. development and so need to be able to adapt to change. researchers and academics to attend international This now requires re-thinking on career guidance theory and conferences. This is unfortunate as it may perpetuate practice. With current forecasts of an imminent recession insularity in the profession at a time when the sharing of Lucy Hearne, WIT. these are issues guidance practitioners here in Ireland are best practice is more important than ever. also encountering. I learned during my visit that, in many respects, America is Speaking about American career guidance practice and now playing catch-up with policy developments in Europe policy, Herr stressed that career counselling is seen as and the southern hemisphere (Australia and New Zealand). part of a ‘package’ linked up with training, internships, While a significant number of international reviews (i.e. and programmes for employment. Policy and funding OECD and World Bank) have taken place in recent years, is highly interactive. In the past 100 years vocational and the United States has not been part of this process. The career counselling has been involved in public policy on challenge now for the US is to undertake a national review employment. These include a number of socio-political within the next two years as part of the international public processes; policy agenda. Already, a North American Public Policy 1. Prevention of long-term unemployment and the Network is underway, as well as ongoing collaboration with development of an effective workforce for the economy the International Centre for Career Development and Public 2. Adjustment of the workforce to transitions and the Policy (ICCDPP) and the European Lifelong Guidance Policy mobility of employees Network (ELGPN). 3. Provision of assistance to the low-skilled to alleviate social Finally, arising from discussions in my own workshop, an problems important challenge for all of us is the provision of evidence 4. Enabling a personal commitment to work to policy-makers of the impact of career development Underpinning these activities is the assumption by services on people’s lives. This requires methodologies that government that the availability of career services will reduce reflect in a meaningful way the ‘realities’ of our clients in an social costs (i.e. return on investment). However, testing uncertain world. More specifically, it requires an intentional these assumptions is rare and provides a clear argument for focus by practitioners and researchers on the collection of more evidence-based research in practice. qualitative data and the translation of research findings into The conference programme itself was quite extensive. policy-makers language. It ranged from featured sessions, presentation series, Lucy Hearne is currently a PHd student in the Waterford roundtable discussions, skill building sessions and creativity Institute of Technology. Her research is funded by an Irish labs. The exhibitor stands had a surprisingly large collection Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences of providers of different career exploration and testing Scholarship (IRCHSS). packages indicating the emphasis placed on these tools in American practice. In the workshop and presentation Conference research paper available at www.ncda.org sessions many well known practitioners and researchers (Career Convergence web magazine) shared their valuable expertise. These included Mark L. For copies of NCDA conference presentation, or comments Savickas, Norman Amundson, Nancy Betz, Fred H. Borgen on this article, contact [email protected]
26 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 The rhetoric of a knowledge society The reason our young people don’t does not compute care about maths and science is WHAT IRELAND did in the 1990s is something that educating your young people to be had never really been done before by anyone. We scientifically literate. that we have smugly neglected ICT imported development. Most modern economies One simple question illustrates education, plugged foreign direct investment into an existing set the breathtaking smugness. We of skills, traditions, resources. But, to an overwhelming introduced a computer studies writes FINTAN O’TOOLE extent, we depended on the attraction of fully-formed module in the Leaving Cert in 1980 global corporations, who brought with them world- and a computing course in the junior leading technologies and processes. cycle in 1985. When were these Finland, for example, developed mobile phone courses last revised? Answer: never. The curriculum technologies, took a leading share of a growing world for the Leaving Cert computer studies programme is market and used its indigenous resources to link itself the same as it was before PCs - never mind laptops into that market. - were commercially available, before the internet, We just brought in the whole package. Our emergence the world wide web, e-mail, social networking sites as a global player in high-tech industries didn’t reflect and YouTube. (There is an updated Information and any profound organic change in our society. Communication Technology course for Leaving Cert For a long time, it looked like this wasn’t really Applied students, but just over 1,000 young people a problem. It seemed like we had actually done sit that exam every year.) something new - skipping the whole tedious process There is one computer for every nine pupils in of developing a world-class society and moving our primary schools and one for every seven in straight to the end result of leading-edge technological secondary schools - the leading countries have a ratio production. It seemed reasonable, too, to expect that, of one to five. with time, the presence of Intel and Microsoft and Fewer than a third of primary teachers, and a quarter Google and the example of some superb small-scale of secondary teachers, rate their own ability to use indigenous software companies, would in themselves Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in change the prevailing Irish culture. But yet again, the teaching as “intermediate” or above. Fewer than half Leaving Cert results and the CAO process tell us that of post-primary schools have a written ICT plan. this is not happening. Department of Education inspectors saw ICT being The generation that has grown up with high-tech used in just 22 per cent of lessons in Ireland isn’t high-tech. It’s no good at maths, and primary schools and rated the use of it’s not interested in science, engineering and ICT in the classroom as “competent or technology. optimal” in just a quarter of cases. The numbers graduating in computing applications Almost half of primary school from Dublin City University, for example, actually pupils can’t create a document by dropped from 224 in 2005 to just 74 this year. themselves, and 88 per cent don’t And third-level courses in science, engineering and know how to send an attachment technology are struggling to get enough qualified with an e-mail message. applicants to fill their places. Entry requirements for At secondary level, the inspectors engineering programmes have dropped by as much judged that just over one in 10 lessons as 45 points. involved the effective use of ICT and The gap between the number of points required noted “that the tasks undertaken for entry to science in UCD (300) and to law in the by the students were largely word-processing and same university (500) is evidence of a society whose presentation”. aspirations have been weirdly unaffected by 15 years Investment in equipment has been obviously as the poster child of the global economy. Barristers inadequate. A third of the stock of computers in are still infinitely cooler than boffins. primary schools is more than six-years-old - a long What lies behind this is the delusional nature of our time in ICT. In England, two-thirds of primary schools “knowledge society”. The smugness and indolence and almost all secondary schools use interactive of governments over the last decade have fed into whiteboards in the classroom - the figures in Ireland a fundamental failure to turn Ireland into a society are five per cent and two per cent respectively. in which technological thinking is really part of Most schools at every level don’t have a sufficient everyday culture. Some of this has been due to sheer budget to maintain the computers and digital incompetence - the stupidity of handing Eircom over equipment they do have, so much of it is out of order to foreign vulture capitalists just when we needed much of the time. a huge national investment in broadband, for And with all this we’re surprised that we’re not example. producing a decent number of students with an But some of it is a result of what happens when enthusiasm for technology, maths and science. We you import development. Because you end up with should know that with this kind of smug indifference, some of the global leaders in technology operating the rhetoric of a knowledge society does not here, you start to imagine that you’re actually compute. producing this technology. You don’t get around to © 2008 The Irish Times
27 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 Kerry Guidance Counsellors pay Tim Gleeson glowing tribute to 1 colleague…
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1. Tim and Maura Gleeson pictured at Killeen House Hotel, Aghadoe, Killarney, on the occasion of Tim’s retirement as Guidance Counsellor at St. Brendan’s College, Killarney 2. Dermot Twomey, Institute of Guidance Counsellors National Executive Member and JJ McLaughlin, Chairman Kerry Branch Institute of Guidance Counsellors attended Tim Gleeson’s retirement function at Killeen House Hotel, Aghadoe, Killarney. 3. Long standing colleagues of Tim Gleeson, centre, who attended Tim’s retirement function at Killeen House Hotel, Aghadoe, Killarney. L/R Julie Shanahan (Kilflynn), Blaithín Ní Bhric ( Ballyferriter), Nora Field ( Killorglin), Billy Ryle (Tralee), Tim Gleeson (Killarney), John Murphy (Cahirciveen), JJ McLaughlin (Castletownbere), Dermot Twomey (Tralee) and James Kenny (Tarbert) 4. Attending Tim Gleeson’s retirement function at Kileen House Hotel, Aghadoe, Killarney were L/R Bridín Kissane (Listowel), Maria Kennelly (Castleisland), Noreen Browne (Newcastlewest), Tim Gleeson (Killarney), Brendan Lynch (Ballybunion), Emer O Riordan (Kenmare), Michelle Browne Hanafin (Dingle), James Kenny (Tarbert) and Aisling O Hanlon (Listowel)
Past and present members of the Kerry Branch of the to undertake the Post Graduate Diploma in Guidance and Many verbal and written tributes were made on the night to Institute of Guidance Counsellors gathered at the beautiful Counselling at University College Cork. Tim has worked as Tim who had an extraordinary rapport with his students. He Killeen House Hotel, Aghadoe, Killarney, on a beautiful Guidance Counsellor in St. Brendan’s since his return from is gifted with the personal touch, which is very necessary in Friday evening,23rd May, to pay warm and deserved tribute UCC in 1996. the caring profession of teaching and he was a friend and to their esteemed colleague, Tim Gleeson, on the occasion Kerry Branch Chairman, JJ McLaughlin, speaking on behalf of advisor to hundreds of students who were fortunate enough of his retirement as Guidance Counsellor at St. Brendan’s the entire Brach membership, paid tribute to Tim Gleeson’s to cross his path in “The Sem”. Tim is a gifted communicator College, Killarney, after a distinguished career in education. outstanding contribution to the Branch. Tim was an active and mentor whose educational philosophy was always The function was a fitting celebration of Tim’s dedication and committed member of the Kerry Branch over a twelve- based on respect for his students and colleagues. He always to teaching, the last twelve years of which were spent as year period. He served as Chairman for a number of years, saw the best in every student and had an extraordinary Guidance Counsellor in St. Brendan’s. The Guidance where his facilitation and leadership skills were seen to best capacity to bring out and foster each boy’s individual Counsellors celebrated Tim’s illustrious career with a effect. But, without a shadow of a doubt, Tim’s exceptional talents. The boys of St. Brendan’s have been guided in their beautiful meal during which presentations were made to contribution was his skilled Chairmanship of the 2007 personal and career planning by an able and committed Tim and his wife Maura, who were guests of honour at this Annual Conference of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, educationalist. Tim Gleeson accentuated the abilities and wonderful celebratory occasion. which was held in the Malton Hotel, Killarney. In what was skills of each boy in a reassuring and non-judgemental universally acclaimed as an outstanding Conference in a way. His beguiling smile and his cool, calm and collected Tim, from Gneeveguilla, Rathmore initially trained as a uniquely beautiful location, Tim Gleeson was the person disposition insured his office was a beacon of light for Primary Teacher in St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, who oversaw twelve months of detailed preparation and students and colleagues alike. Dublin. He subsequently took up a position as a Primary was the organiser in chief of a memorable Conference in Teacher in the north side of Cork City. While working Killarney. Tim’s companionship and wisdom will be missed by as a Primary Teacher, Tim undertook evening studies at members of the Kerry Branch, particularly at meetings, in- University College Cork where he achieved a BA in 1974 Julie Shanahan, who worked for many years as Guidance service and social occasions, but the friendships will endure. and a Higher Diploma in Education the following year. He Counsellor in Killarney Community College, just across the Tim and his wife Maura have many others interests to keep then made the short move to Knocknaheeney Community road from Tim, referred to his many admirable personal them active and busy, not least of which is their four beautiful School on the north side of Cork City to work as a Secondary characteristics. Tim is never less than calm and serene daughters. Tim is a committed farmer and an accomplished Teacher. Tim moved closer to home when he joined the and always displays qualities of welcome, humour and Irish musician, who is steeped in the culture and traditions staff at St. Brendan’s College, Killarney in 1980. He taught friendliness. Tim is the ideal person to approach with a of Sliabh Luachra. Finally Tim is a consummate community English, History and Geography at “The Sem” until 1986 problem of any kind. The many students who availed man and, now that he is free from the constraints of school when he undertook a course in Learning Support at of Tim’s expertise were invariably greeted with warmth, bells and timetables, his many skills and talents will be put Carysfort College, Dublin. He continued to teach English reassurance and a listening ear. to good use in his home base. and provide learning support until he was seconded in 1995
28 Institute of Guidance Counsellors October 2008 Mia Delaney Johnson It is hard to write about the death of anyone but in the work was commended in the Whole School Inspection Or to use another quote: case of Mia who was so vibrant, so full of life and so of St. Dominic’s for increasing the participation in both joyful and loving and the fact that she died so suddenly second and third level. Such work changes lives. it becomes so much harder. “What will Throughout her years of work many hundreds if not She was an extraordinary person. Her compassion, thousands of girls benefited from Mia’s guiding hand survive of us generosity, gentleness, sense of humour and joy of living and past pupils can be found in all the major universities was evident in so many things she did. She valued all of and as leaders in the world of business. Those who is love.” the people in her life. come back to the school share their journeys with the present students. Mia worked long and intensive hours Mia was educated at Mount Anvil and obtained a BA to achieve this. May she rest in peace. at UCD where she was active in archaeological circles. Her first jobs were in teaching Spanish and English. She Our sympathies go to David, her husband, Peter and later qualified as a Guidance Counsellor. In this role she sister Wyn McCormack and her nieces and nephews. served in Holy Faith, The Coombe and St. Dominic’s There is a poem by Emily Dickenson which sums up the in Ballyfermot. She showed a great empathy to her essential qualities of Mia: students and could see goodness and a positive side in We also remember Guidance Counsellors even the most unruly. She could understand the roots If I can stop one heart from breaking who have passed away: of misbehaviour and believed in a positive discipline I shall not live in vain • Deirdre O’Shea of the Cork Branch approach. If I can ease one life the aching • Della Kent of Dublin West Or cool one pain We also offer our sympathies to Fred Tuite She could talk with the students at their own level and Or help one lonely person on the death of his mother during the NCC HP A4find (L) areas Ad 09.qxdof success 11/09/2008 to build on. 10:16 Mia found Page areal Into 1 happiness again summer and to Michael C. Roberts whose vocation in trying to change the future of students. Her I shall not live in vain sister died recently. Nursing/Midwifery A CAREER FOR YOU HONOURS DEGREE PROGRAMMES: Intellectual Disability Nursing, Psychiatric Nursing, General Nursing, Children’s & General Nursing, Midwifery
For further details on nursing and midwifery as a career: For an application form and handbook: Nursing Careers Centre (NCC) Central Applications Office (CAO) An Bord Altranais, 18/20 Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, County Dublin Tower House, Eglinton Street, Galway Tel: 01-639 8500 Fax: 01-639 8577 Tel: 091-509800 Fax: 091-562344 Email: [email protected] Website: www.nursingcareers.ie Website: www.cao.ie
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29 PIN and mightmakeyoumillionsmorewhenretire. diary. ofself Written withcareanddiligence,itwillbeyourtruestexpression Couturepjsandwriteupyour under yourLuluGuinnessduvetinJuicy putonyourpinkfluffyslippers,curlup Keep itathome!Onquietevenings, itaway! As forthatpink-featheredpendon’t throw immaculate fingernail. miniaturerepresentationsofVan paintedoneach Gogh’sSunflowers perfect senseofhumourondisplaytoooften,orarriveataboardmeetingwith racy Andit’sprobablybestnottoputthatslightly most employmentcontexts. in areprivatemattersandnotrelevant Strong religiousorpoliticalviews and friendships,buildstrongnetworks,beapproachabledependable. ofour selvesthatwillhelpustoforgealliances projection ofthegenuineparts thatwe will betakenseriously,togetherwitha to detailandourexpectation professional appearance thatindicatesourattention for isabalance;smart recommended, andmostespeciallynotinthecareerworld.Whatwestrive But forthevastmajority,neitheroftheseapproachestowomanhoodisbe divorce lawyer. the latestMrsDonaldTrump eminentlysuccessful andhasPaulMacCartney’s matters.Thisisonlyfineifshe’s distract ourattentionfrommoreimportant self-consciousand over-focussing onimageisthatitcanmakeusexcessively takeitoffagain.A realdangerin the worldandonedayforgettingtoever maskfor incapable ofrealinteractionwithothers,puttingonascreensaver andshoeparadise, rendering herself handbags, pinkfeatheredeverything French manicuresdesigner risks losingherselfinamireofhairextensions, she representation ofwhatshewouldliketobeandfeelssocietyexpects, her genuineselfinfavourofacarefullycrafted,groomedandcultivated On theotherhand,ifsheconcentratesonimageandappearance,suppressing areas oflifeandcareer. where appearancedoesn’tmatteratall.Butitreallyworkinlarge enoughtobeinacareer runsalargefishfarm orlucky is selfsupporting, beautifully groomeddogsandelegantherbaceousborders.Thisisfineifshe own legs,whomay chipped fingernails,neglectedwaistlineandslightlyhairy who retreatintoaworldofequallygenuinepeoplewithsimilarnon-hairdos, ofpeople ofappearanceandimage, resultinginthesort the importance hergenuineself atallcostsshemayriskoverlooking If sheoptstoportray balance andoftenintheteenageyears,girlsstruggletogetitright. perhaps, eleganceandconfidencecertainly. It’sadifficultandfinelytuned animageofstyleandgrooming,beauty timeconveying whilst atthesame oftheirgenuineselves toprojectthebestparts women –forinstancehow challengesforyoung goingtochange.Thisposesparticular think that’sever onimageandappearanceIdon’t life. Societyjudgeswomeninparticular, ofitinnegotiatingthetasks conscious oftheirimageandtheimportance Unlike boys,younggirlsmostlywere,areandwillbemade setoutonacareerpath. lot ofwhatcangowrongforyoungwomenasthey feather hasbecomeabitofgirlybadgeinrecentyearsanditsymbolises match, shewieldsapenwithlargepinkfeather. Thispenwiththelargepink serious mindedlawstudentswithlookinglegalnotebooksandpensto andcute.Inaroomfullof Elle, thecharacterinmovie,isdelightfulditzy excess ofitsimportance. dislike themoviebutit’shadasocialinfluencefarin himtoLawSchoolwinback.Itwashard she decidestofollow Abandoningherlifeofshopping,lapdogsandbeautytreatments, boyfriend. ofablondepromqueenditchedbyher Legally Blonde.Ittellsthestory Some yearsago,ReeseWitherspoonstarredinadelightfulmoviecalled AND WHOISTHEREALME FEATHER PEN K FEATHER 30 August 2008 Mary Hosty Mary Institute ofGuidanceCounsellors The worldisyoururinal. mechanicstellyouthetruth. Car You toawaterpark. shirt canwearNO You canwearawhiteT-shirt toawaterpark. You bepregnant. cannever You canbePresident. Chocolate isjustanothersnack. Wedding planstakecareofthemselves. The garageisallyours. Your lastnamestaysput. simple creatures? What doyouexpectfromsuch Men Are Just Happier People -- DEPRESSED NEVER ARE WHY MEN ‘Menare happier! No wonder men 24 in25minutes. You candoChristmasshoppingfor 25 relativesonDecember moustache. You a havefreedomofchoiceconcerning growing You can‘do’ yournailswithapocket knife. You yourlegslook. nomatterhow canwearshorts seasons. One walletandonepairofshoes--colourforall You canplaywithtoysallyourlife. areYou onlyhavetoshaveyourfaceand neck. hairstylelastsforyears,maybedecades. The same You areunabletoseewrinklesinyourclothes. You havestrapproblemsinpublic. almostnever Three pairsofshoesaremorethanenough. Your is underwear friend. If someoneforgetstoinviteyou,heorshecanstillbeyour You creditfortheslightestactofthoughtfulness. getextra You jars. canopenallyourown A five-dayholidayrequiresonlyonesuitcase. fromYou stuffabouttanks. know areoverin30secondsflat. Phone conversations One moodallthetime. shoesdon’tcut,blister,ormangleyourfeet. New stareatyourchestwhenyou’retalkingtothem. People never Wedding dress Wrinkles addcharacter. on abolt. You don’thavetostopandthinkofwhichwayturnanut because thisoneisjusttooicky. You havetodriveanotherpetrolstationrestroom never Mars’ e 5000. Tux5000. rental- e 8.95 forathree-pack. : e 100. October 2008 Plant the Seeds for a Successful Future.
Choose from a wide range of study options:
· Accounting & Finance · Business · Social & Community Studies · Environmental & Natural Resource Management · Sustainable Rural Development · Games Design & Software Development · Creative Multimedia · Computing · IT Support No wonder men Bringing learning to life Northern Campus T: +353 504 28000 are happier! Nenagh Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, Ireland F: +353 504 28001 Southern Campus E: [email protected] Cashel Court, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland w: www.tippinst.ie UCC Information Evenings in 2008 for parents, teachers & senior cycle students
Monday 20 October Kilkenny (Hotel Kilkenny) Tuesday 21 October New Ross (Brandon House Hotel) Wednesday 5 November Nenagh (Abbey Court Hotel) Thursday 6 November Clonmel (Hotel Manilla) Tuesday 11 November Skibbereen (West Cork Hotel) Thursday 13 November Charleville (Charleville Park Hotel) Contact Danielle Byrne, Wednesday 26 November Tralee (Brandon Hotel) Tel: 021 490 2964 Email: [email protected] Thursday 27 November Limerick (Clarion Hotel) Times for all are 7-9pm Tuesday 2 December Cork (UCC Campus)