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PODCAST

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education

How many times have you said to yourself, "If I were the Minister for Education…?" Well I do! Rather than grumble to myself, I decided to podcast my thoughts on ways I"d change the primary education system in Ireland. Every episode I"ll take on a different theme, give some background and hopefully come to some conclusions by the end. simonmlewis.substack.com

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All Episodes

01:01:24

Why Reconfiguration is Never going to Work

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/04/18

It’s probably quite fitting that the 10-year anniversary of the Patronage and Pluralism Forum Report ended in the same way it started - with a huge amount of apathy. When the Forum was set up to gather its data, the authors must have been seriously disappointed that despite having a multicultural 21st century Ireland, the vast majority of Irish people that contributed to the research were quite happy with a heavily Catholic-influenced education system. The question must be asked: why don’t people

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53:42

Interview 15: The SNA Voice with Magdalena Landziak

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/04/04

The voice of SNAs is often missing from primary education. For example, SNAs are not allowed to be on boards of management of primary schools as staff representatives. In this episode, I interview Magdalena Landziak who decided to create the first magazine for SNAs by SNAs. It's called Amygdala and it's great! I spent an hour with Magdalena discussing her work, her studies and what she would do if she were the Minister for Education!

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01:04:48

Episode 078: We Need to Talk about Gender

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/03/21

According to reports in the media, in January 2023, the CPSMA wrote to the Minister for Children, Roderick O’Gorman to say they were against the teaching of gender issues because what it means to be transgender would require to teach something about which “there is neither a scientific nor social consensus to highly impressionable young children” I thought it was funny that a Catholic organisation would argue that we shouldn’t teach something because it lacked scientific evidence given that the

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56:49

Interview 14 (Part 2): Julian De Spáinn, Siobhain...

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/03/08

In part 2 of the interview, we start to tackle some difficult questions about the Irish language and why we aren't close to being a bilingual nation. We end up with a couple of interesting ideas, including one that we might try out some time!

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57:57

Interview 14: Julian De Spáinn, Siobhain Grogan and...

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/03/04

For our Seachtain na Gaeilge special, I brought in some passionate Gaelgóirí to speak to me about the Irish language and the education system. I really wanted to delve in deeply to a number of areas and I hope you enjoy the outcome. In fact, we talked so much, we've had to divide the interview into two parts. Here is part 1!You can find my guests here:Julian: @CnaG |@juleser1 | www.cnag.ieSiobhain: @siobhaingrogan | Muireann: eolas@cogg.ie

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47:11

What do you do in those Educate Together schools?

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/02/21

According to ChatGPT, the key differences between ET schools and Catholic schools are related to their religious ethos, curriculum, inclusivity, and management structures. ET schools prioritize equality, inclusivity, and child-centered learning, while Catholic schools may have a different focus on religious doctrine and values.According to many Catholic schools and parents that their kids there, sure there's barely any difference really. So what do we do in multidenominational schools and is it very

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44:35

Interview 13: Michelle Stowe

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/02/06

Schools are complex places and teaching and learning can only take place when the classroom is in a place where this is able to happen. In the bad old days, a teacher’s job was to dole out discipline and this generally took the form of physical violence which then evolved to dark sarcasm in the classroom, to quote Pink Floyd. However, like most things in education, everything evolves and the 21st century has introduced us to better ways of doing almost everything, including how a classroom

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56:36

23 Myths about Multidenominational Schools

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/01/23

There are so many rumours and myths about multidenominational schools, Educate Together ones in particular, it really was no surprise, to me, why many parents, even if they reject the tenets of the Catholic faith, will prefer a Catholic school to a non-Catholic one. I thought it would be interesting to list the myths I have heard over the years about them, many of which were parroted during the Malahide fiasco to convince people that diversifying schools is a bad idea: all twenty-three of them! Some

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54:21

Interview 12: Una and Denise from Mind Moments

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/01/10

Whatever our feelings on wellbeing in schools, it will become part of the new curriculum. I was lucky to be approached by Úna Ryan and Denise Enright from REMind Ed™ who shared their wealth of knowledge on wellbeing as well as chatting to me about their product Mind Moments.

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54:56

To Dee from Raheny

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2023/01/03

The last story of 2022 concerned the reduction of religious instruction from 2.5 hours per week to 2 hours per week in the upcoming new primary curriculum. Lobby groups such as Education Equality and Atheist Ireland (and people like me) were unhappy that this tokenistic move was even newsworthy as it change almost nothing about the indoctrination of children in most schools. However, Dee from Raheny was not happy about the use of the word "indoctrination" and wrote a letter to the Irish Times

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46:29

Episode 077: It's Beginning to Look a lot like a...

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/12/15

With the number of people in Ireland identifying as Christian decreasing in the last decade, (CSO, 2016), with notable increases in the population of Muslims and Hindus, (95% and 135.6% increase respectively since 2006), primary schools around the country now host an increasing number of pupils that do not celebrate Christian festivals, such as Christmas. However 95% of Irish primary schools are under the ethos of either a Catholic or other Christian denomination, where Christmas is taught as a

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57:47

Live Poetry Reading: Children's School Lives Report 4

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/12/08

Don't be put off by the title: to me, the Children's School Lives reports are some of the most fascinating insights to primary education produced. This report focuses on the transition between preschool and primary education. In this episode I explore some of the things we should learn as primary teachers as well as learning what Irish parents think about primary education. I'm not often made speechless but I was shocked at some of the findings.

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01:27:56

Live Poetry Reading: IPPN's Roadmap to Sustainability

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/12/01

The long awaited IPPN report on their Roadmap to Sustainability was released at their annual conference in Killarney, Co. Kerry last week. I finally managed to delve into its 130+ pages and see what thoughts I might have as I read through it.Overall it's a good report but there was one glaring omission, which may scupper the whole thing in the end.

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41:25

Lessons from Finland - Part 2

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/11/24

In part 2 of this exploration of the Finnish Education System, I discover just what it is that sets them apart from Ireland.

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32:15

Lessons from Finland - Part 1

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/11/17

I fulfilled an educational ambition to visit Finland and learn about what's known as the "Finnish Miracle" - that is, how did Finland become the best education system in the world. Over the next two weeks, I'm going to share what I discovered and why I think Ireland could easily be the best in the world.

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34:58

In "Defence" of Father Sheehy - Part 2

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/11/10

In Part 1, we explored why Father Sheehy did nothing wrong when he preached from the altar and why what he did is no better than what isn't taught in Irish primary schools - i.e. what I call sin by omission. Join me in Part 2 where I talk about why the Catholic Church still had huge power, even in liberal areas of Dublin and what you can do if you're not happy about it.

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40:37

In "Defence" of Father Sheehy - Part 1

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/11/06

Recently a sermon from a Catholic priest was live-streamed and recorded from a church in Listowel and it went viral. The sermon was from a priest called Father Sheehy and in his sermon, he decried same sex relationships, contraception, trans rights among other things that fall under, for want of a better term, the terms and conditions of Catholic dogma. It became national news with most of the population of Ireland calling him out from beneath the altar. Regular listeners to this podcast won’t need

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25:17

AON F-up Eile - Part 3

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/11/03

In the final part of this episode, we reach the end of the debacle where the partners agree to "pause" the process. I almost finish reading the INTO response before I can't take any more spin and give up and wish the whole thing was all a dream.

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25:59

AON F-up Eile - Part 2

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/10/31

In Part 2 of this episode, we look at the latecomers to the opposition to the AON debacle and wonder why it took them so long.

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39:24

AON F-up Eile - Part 1

Anseo.net - If I were the Minister for Education ·

2022/10/28

This is the story of one week in the education system, not an average week, but one which demonstrates the contempt that representative bodies have for teachers, school staff and children. In this part, we learn a little bit about the Assessment of Need debacle and why parents and school staff joined together to try and stop the NCSE from causing further damage to children.

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