Going To School For One Day A Week, Cork City, Ireland 1966

Hundreds of young people under the age of 16, the state prescribed age for leaving school, are employed in a variety of jobs, but to fulfill Department of Education requirements, they must attend a vocational school for one day per week.
This one day system was pioneered in Cork in the 1930s and Chief Executive Officer of the City of Cork Vocational Educational Committee Paddy Parfrey outlines the educational benefits of the scheme.
The one day a week gives the students an ordered disciplined routine for at least one day out of the seven...whatever literacy they had when they came to us...at least they maintain that amount and add to it.
The cost of the scheme is about £20 per student annually and he considers the benefits for the students far outweigh the costs.
Headmaster Padraig O’Dalaigh’s school includes an employment bureau and social work element. The boys in his school receive a practical education and are often trained according to their employment. Many of the boys have poor standards of writing, spelling and speech and all of these are worked on at their own pace.
The system is different for girls who receive education based around homemaking and are trained in dressmaking, cookery, laundry, religious instruction and some Irish and English. Headmistress Eileen Quinlan says
The attendance at school for one day in the week helps to bridge a rather difficult gap in the life of these girls, when they’ve left full-time school at 14 and before they become full time workers at 16.
A ‘Newsbeat’ report broadcast on 27 September 1966. The reporter is Bill O’Herlihy.

[@EverGreen1888]

A young Bill O'Herlihy looking well!

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

Going to school every day was too much for me, For most of my school life, each day I went to school I felt like I was in prison, my family came from the wrong part of the world and lived in a council house in a part of west Ireland where almost no council houses existed, the head teacher did not like my family, we were not taught anything, we were mostly dismissed or made to feel worthless, some of the bully boys were allowed to attach us at playtime with the teacher looking out the window at what was happening in the playground. For that last year of my schooling, I went to a different school a miles away, it was Heaven, I was shocked at how much I liked going to this new school and how much I learned, in this very short time even becoming one of the best pupils at a few subjects, all because of a kindly and caring teacher. Plus the remainder of my family was treated as normal people at this new school and in this new area. Goodness, kindness and receiving good advice is the best and works its magic, is far more useful than abuse and nastiness as they have no values at all

[@maryfox7440]

The teachers were monsters in those days!

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

​@@maryfox7440 Some were, most did not have the skills of how to teach, Over 100 children attended our school, headteacher and younger teacher, the head teacher looked after his relatives and friends who attended the school very well,but to the great pleasure of telling my brothers and I that we would amount to nothing, we emigrated after leaving school, some years later my eldest brother became a missionary priest to the poorest and forgotten people of Tanzania. Just after my brother was ordained he returned back to Ireland and visited our old home place a council cottage that our parents bought and keep, the following day after his arrival he said mass in our old home and people came from all around, after the mass was over and older man came up to my brothers and said you man not remember me, i am your old teacher, his asked for forgiven for what he had done to us, my brother said yes I forgive but I can never forget what was done to us, to this very day my brother the priest tells us it is because of the very hard times that some people gave to us as a young family is one of the reasons why he has also worked with the poorest people to give them a chance to do better in their lifes

[@chocolatecake6588]

It's so stupid how much emphasis is put on school. Some people just don't have the mentality for it and have no interest. They should be allowed alternative platforms to education or work

[@TheShillChannel]

​@@chocolatecake6588 It's deliberate. School is compulsory not because it's beneficial but because it's harmful. The whole point of school is to crush us, bore us, and waste our time.

[@pomerau]

Thanks for the story, genuinely. I left a Cork school of Christian brothers and lay teachers in 1974 at 15. Can't knock them as much, but my class was taught every subject in Gaeilge creating long school nights and I gave up on everything. I'm sorry for your earlier experiences and treatment, and hope it mostly worked out well for you from the new school. Cheers from a miserable London which I now hate after 37 years, but I wouldn't go back "home" despite You Tube pushing more Cork videos on me 🙃

[@pomerau]

I never knew this was a thing - one day a week. Seems very hard on the kids. I was seven then and possibly starting Primary school at the North Mon. Haven't been to Cork since 1977. Left school after Inter Cert at barely 15 in 1974 to work with my father (bad idea). They forced us quiet kids to learn all subjects through Gaeilge / Irish. Fat lot that did me as I would study too long in the evenings, quit, later left home and couldn't get back to education in Dublin some years on. (terrible Something Adviser) Hats off to that boy though. I didn't watch it all the way thru' but I hope he did well. Thank you You Tube - ish for putting more Cork videos up after looking at Cork Airport. Thank you to CR's V V. (I remember the name O'Herlihy mentioned here but wouldn't recognise him. )

[@moos5221]

I wouldn't mind working as a teacher in that school...1 day a week.

[@richiehoyt8487]

"Everything a girl should know..." I could see the presenter thinking "Right, so you're going to make me drag it out of you!" (and he did, fair play to him.) Without wishing to libel the actual chaplain concerned, I'll bet I can't be the only person watching this today to note the potential for unsavoury "Fr. Jack" - type "shenanigans" inherent in a scenario where it would be specifically part of a priest's remit to "help" teenage girls with their "little" (relationship/sexual) "problems"?

[@macker33]

typical. thats a complete upsidedown view. People are more respectable than you think.

[@michaelmoran6671]

Agree - even if there were no "shenanigans", it should never have been considered appropriate for a priest to "help" children or young adults with their "problems"

[@ciaran5588]

Wasn't it because we realised we were totally wasting our time trying to teach them anything? They were "special" people. The average Cork kids hand /eye coordination only developers around 8. Made picking their nose a bleedin' nightmare. One eyed kids all over Cork today.

[@fergal2424]

good ole productive intelligent comment.

[@TheRose087]

Wtf you even on about you absolute Muppet sit down

[@fukhall6710]

Okie doke

[@oconnorkieran5837]

i worked full time at 15.. couldn't hack school.. being left handed drove teachers mad and i was physically punished for it in primary school. they tried but failed to force me to write with my right hand..

[@declantwomey7525]

Class keep up the great work

[@georgel74]

Bet he loved that 😮