"Mom-Where is my lunchbox?"-The First Day of School

Yesterday I walked into a classroom for the first time as a student at the National University of Ireland-Maynooth. Not only was it my first day as an “official” student in Ireland but it was also my first time to venture into a class as a graduate student, or in the irish term “post-graduate.”

Let me just make this really easy-IT WAS AWESOME.

I could end it with that but for my mama’s sake, I’ll expand.

Within my program there are about 17 students. The official course title is Community Education, Equality and Social Activism. It is a joint program between the departments of Adult Education and Sociology. We finish the course with a Masters thesis (thanks to the honors college, this shouldn’t be hard work).  The core classes for the course include power and politics, understanding inequality and equality and pedagogy of adult and community education. Plus there are credit hours given to our thesis work and work within the community. We also get to choose 1 elective a semester (but have the option of sitting in on the classes we don't officially register for). This semester I get to choose between a critical media course, a class on social movement practice or the theory of political economy. Since we can sit in on the classes I'm not too worried about which one I will actually choose. 

The professors all come from really varied backgrounds but all seem to really support the idea that this isn't a typical lecture, all of our courses are centered around dialogue. We spend Monday and Tuesday from 10-5 in class together and then the rest of the week is ours to fill like we want (more to come on this, I’m in the process of joining some clubs and getting an internship). 

The class schedule is in part to make the class accessible to what the university calls “mature” students or in American university lingo,“non-traditional” and so far this has been one of the most impressive pieces of the program. The group of 17 is so diverse. There are a few of us who have recently finished undergrad (all with very different majors) but the rest of the class is largely made up of people who have returned to school later in life.

Several students have children of their own and work the rest of the week. A few have spent some time doing political activism work or community organizing and are returning to school for better job opportunities and everyone seems to have really different beliefs ranging from the far left to the far right (which mean really different things in an Irish sense than they do in an American one). It has just been really interesting to hear their stories. 

The Irish government claims that there is free education for all. Districts are broken down regionally and there is a local department that awards “grants” or scholarships to students. As Ireland was booming these grants were really generous, but now as Ireland, like most places in the world, deals with a time of financial uncertainty these grants have been drastically reduced.

However, even with drastic reduction of fees I get the impression that it is much easier for people to return to education later in life than it is in the US. Not to say that it is easy or doesn’t take courage, because I have a lot of respect for anyone who is willing to make an effort to change their course in life but it puts how the US system works in perspective. If a country like Norway is on one end of the spectrum with open and free education at any level for all citizens and the US is on the other end with really high prices and few scholarships (of course putting the US at the end of the spectrum excludes countries with little to no access to education) then Ireland is somewhere right in the middle. 

Many of the “mature” students in my class expressed how they didn’t have the opportunity to go to college when they finished high school because of issues relating to situations (like being from working class neighborhood) but through government grants they are now able to return. 

In Ireland the conversation about educational access is all about the class system and since it is a very white country the conversation doesn't include the link between class and race that is part of the same conversation in America. But the distinctions between class create the same sort of issues dealing with educational access as if we were talking about a place like Sunflower County. 

 I don’t want it to sound like I haven't thought about the opportunity of educational access (the aim of the Freedom Project is to provide access and you have to be close to blind to not think about this issue while working with the SCFP) but somehow I had spent a lot of time thinking about this notion without including myself in the equation. I just feel really lucky to have the opportunity to be here. I'm privileged enough to be given a year to do nothing but learn and grow and not very many people are so lucky. 

Everyone in my class is making big sacrifices to come to Maynooth for two days and be a part of this program. It made it feel like everyone was genuinely excited to be in class. It also makes me really realize how lucky I am and how the least I can do is be prepared for class and contribute what I can. 

So I guess to sum it up, I'm really really looking forward to my course this year. I think I'm going to learn in ways and about subjects that I can't even imagine AND I couldn't be any more grateful for how lucky I am to get to spend a year reading, writing, making new friends and growing up.

Cheers,
 Chelsea