Mr Doibhilin is Dispirited

Mr O Doibhilin is dispirited.

Mr O Doibhilin in his letter to the press feels that since Nelson Mc Causland(the culture minister in the assembly) is Oxford educated he should be open minded, free from prejudice and bias when it comes to Irish culture. Mr O Doibhilin fails to understand the weighting educationalists give to schooling in the formation of person, character, attitude and mentality in the individual.

According to the thinking of educationists, in the formation of the individual, family background is given a weighting of 60, the community background is given a weighting of 30 and education and schooling are weighted as 10. So Mr Mc Causland’s Oxford education is neither here nor there. It is his family and community background that matters in the formation of Mr Mc Causland’s mentality.

These weightings are borne out in my own experience. Many years ago when I was a student in Belfast students came up to Queens from Republican/ Nationalist backgrounds carrying with them a baggage of prejudice and bias. In Queen’s they joined Republican/Nationalist clubs and societies and had their bias and prejudice reinforced. They went down from Queens with their family and communal prejudice intact and strengthened. On the other hand students from a Union Jack Unionist family and community background went up to Queen’s with a different baggage of bias and prejudice joined Union Jack Unionist clubs and societies and went down from the university with their bias and prejudice intact and reinforced This is the only realistic verdict to be passed on education in the six counties/N. Ireland. Change will only come from the new unbiased thinking of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein not from Oxford or Q.U.B. Ireland needs new thinking, which can be found in the blog www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog


Mi9chael Gillespie B.Ed B.Sc(Econ) Dip.Ed D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)

Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein