Another view of Ireland

This is our classroom where we hear most of our lectures.

Special Education in Ireland
Our first talk today was about the Special Education System in Ireland. All services are funded from a central location. So... if a student appears to need services they are tested by a psychologist, if you can find one. The lack of availability is due to the Department not funding enough psychologists, not because there are not enough trained people. If a child is found to be eligible they receive "resource time" which is allotted based on the severity of their need i.e: Down Syndrome - 2 hours of services a week. all resource services are delivered in a 1:1 setting. Low incidence disabilities are placed in this category. For more common diagnoses such as mild LD or speech etc. students receive services from a Learning support teacher in small groups. There is subtle discrimination against students with special needs at the Secondary level where certain administrators figure out ways to discourage families from applying to enter or choosing to enter their children in their school.

The definition of "inclusion" in Ireland is attends a main stream school. It sounds like all instruction is delivered via a pull out model.

Travelers
There are a group of peoples in Ireland who are known as Travelers. They are discriminated against in a wide range of ways including being excluded from pubs and restaurants, being featured on degrading television shows and being discussed in derogatory terms (lazy, unteachable). This group was the indigenous people in Ireland and were here before the first settled Irelander. They were traditionally a nomadic people until the practice was outlawed in the 60's. The woman who spoke to us was a Traveler who was working on her doctorate. She is the first Traveler to ever get a doctorate in Ireland (as she said, way too long in coming). In the last 20 years there has been a large influx of immigrants to Ireland, our speaker commented that the Travelers identify more with the experiences of the new immigrants than they do with the main stream settled Irish. The new immigrants have forced the conversation about racism out into the open in Ireland. Unfortunately racism is alive and well in Ireland.