Hello, I'm Linney, and I'm going to rant. What am I going to rant about? Something there's a 99% chance you haven't heard of.
CSPE.
CSPE (which stands for Civic, Social and Political Education, it's not some weird disease or something) is a compulsory subject in Ireland for the Junior Certificate (often shortened to Junior Cert), a set of exams taken by all Irish teenagers about half-way through secondary school. It is a common paper, which is to say that there is no Higher, Ordinary or Foundation level, everyone does it at the same level.
Doesn't sound so bad, right? I mean, in theory it's rather interesting. Let's all discuss politics, equality and democracy in a non-judgemental environment! But no, it's not like that at all. Rather, we get a one-sided view from our teacher who smells funny and has terrible teeth. She makes such blatantly childish statements as "It is everyone's responsibility to vote in a general election," -- I mean sorry, but what the hell?
Sorry madam, but I'm not putting my money (or vote) on any of the disastrous politicians here, you can make a mess of things for yourself. I don't agree with their views, they're all a bunch of lying hypocrites and I do not want to feel any hint of responsibility for any single one of them burying this country deeper and deeper in its own crap. I say any of that to my teacher and it's wrong.
Oh yay, why don't we have a nice debate on how eco-friendly Ireland is and what improvements can be made to the way we use electricity, perhaps we could even maturely discuss the fact that I'm naturally sceptical about some of the claims people make about global warming!
Oh no, sorry, we can't do that either, because of course EVERYTHING the institutions for global warming say is right. It's not like science has ever been wrong before. The universe revolving around the earth, Corn Flakes causing cancer, the world being flat -- yeah yeah, that all happened. Yes, I'll just go around with some flowers stuffed up my nose because at one stage science said that doing so stops you from getting colds.
(Don't get me wrong, we need to combat the issue of energy consumption for a number of reasons, but we won't get into that here.)
So anyway, in conclusion, all of you who aren't in Ireland are lucky you don't have to do this abomination of a course, and I hope your impressionable young minds quench their thirst for knowledge by engaging in proper debate in order to get things actually done. Unless of course you don't give a hoot about politics, in which case go and have a little run around outside and enjoy the fresh air. Or something else that is fun for you, I'm not picky.
Happy ranting!
-Linney
