Technolandy

Day 30 (of 2024/25) wait – what… a gap year before the final two years if high school? That would ruin 5 year graduation rates… but…

I did NOT know that Ireland had a gap year option in the middle of secondary school… https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/oct/16/ireland-school-secret-transition-year-off-curriculum

So let me get this ‘experiment’ right… for the past 30-50 years, students had a choice in their learning journey… a secret gap year option in the middle of secondary school!

Actor Cillian Murphy said: “It felt like a real oasis between the junior cycle and the senior cycle.”  

It is Transition Year. 

There’s no curriculum for any part of TY, but core subjects – Irish, English, maths, PE – have to be covered in some form, for two hours a week. Work experience is recommended at two to four weeks a year; career guidance and social, personal and health education (SPHE) for an hour a week. Otherwise, schools decide for themselves what to do.

So… still connected to school… 

The original idea was to create a space for kids where they could take a year out, and appreciate some of the finer arts – classical music, great literature, that sort of thing

Of course there was/is resistance. I can only imagine the initial feedback on the North American community – hard enough to imagine the UK system of fining families for absences… let alone a year for students to try a job, learn to drive, figure stuff out without the usual pressure of course choices, teacher options, and all those bells and classroom changes…

It sounds pretty neat and I’m surprised it didn’t come onto my radar until now!

But there is a financial impact to TY – families pay for part of it… so not all can take advantage of the option. But there are pushes to support more taking this year, identifying it as a highly desirable and beneficial year in school… but not in school…

But now I’m starting to wonder… what if there were a built in gap year option rather than a break between secondary and ‘what’s after..’?

Anybody up for a field test?