A day in and an evening out

 Goofing around on the way to dinner.

 A sand sculpture of a pig and her babies: Beth Manning I hope you are reading, this one is for you.

 The show must go on: it is Ireland after all so expect some rain. If you hope to make some money you better be prepared for it.

After any good meal is a gelato even if it is bubble gum flavored and dinner was a Sub Way sandwich....

Today Cristopher learned that if you get hit by a car and die you will either go to heaven or hell. Thanks to Finn and Larkin's fine catholic education they are able to share these tidbits with the new American kid who doesn't seem to know these obvious facts of life.

Dave.... worked.

In the evening we walked down town in search of Falafel but alas the stand was closed and nowhere to be found. We settled for our stand by fish and chips. Fortunately even though they don't sell beer at the Fish place they do sell it next door and you can simply walk around the corner with your pint. Mommy had a long day and wanted one...

More School: The Vocational System
Today I learned about the universal qualifications chart that was first developed in England, Ireland and Scotland to try and standardize the educational systems from around the world. Europe and several other countries have adopted this system, the U.S is experimenting with it on a limited voluntary basis. The basic idea is that level 1 or 2 are life skills, 4 and 5 are vocational job training, level 6 is specialized vocational training, levels 7 and 8 are undergraduate degrees and level 10 is a PhD.

We also learned about the challenges of vocational education in Ireland. Only about 2000 individuals country wide participate in vocational education programs each year even though 43% of jobs require this type of training as compared to 48% of jobs that require higher degrees. Most individuals 96% go on to third level education (university level) which is higher than most countries in the world. In the United States we are lucky if the high school graduation rate of a school district is in the 90% range (and this is in Massachusetts which has one of the higher graduation rates country wide). When some of these individuals finish their university degree there isn't a job for them so they immigrate to other countries in order to gain employment. One of Irelands biggest exports is their citizens.

Immigration to other countries has always been a way of life for the Irish. My own existence is certainly a result of this phenomenon. Only in the last 20 years has the country seen a large influx of diversity in the form of immigration into Ireland. Schools are now filled with a large number of different languages, ethnicities and cultures. The country is not quite prepared to deal with this rapidly increasing number of English Language Learners.