Liberty teens get real-life education in Ireland

COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND — For high school students across New York State, this is Regents week, the time when examinations assess how much one has learned in recently completed courses.

Needless to say, high school students these days often undergo a demanding course of study at school, but there is also much to learn outside of the parameters of the classroom setting.

To that end, two Liberty High School juniors, Amarynth Sichel and Miranda Hardy, set off for Ireland to experience two weeks of real-life learning in a country with which both have an ardent fascination. During their tenure there, they visited ancient churches and castles, engaged in conversation with age-mates about music, language and lifestyles and learned about Ireland’s educational system.

The students departed for Ireland on January 1 and returned two weeks later brimming with stories, impressions and the desire to return. This was Miranda’s third trip to Ireland and Amarynth’s first. Hardy met up with her older siblings, Malcolm and Morgan, there. Journeys to Ireland have been a family tradition for many years.

Excerpts from Miranda’s journal account of the trip follow. For a full version, visit www.riverreporter.com and click on the “Arts” section.

Miranda’s journal

My friend Amarynth and I caught a plane to Ireland and celebrated New Year’s in the Gaelic-speaking town of Baile Fheirtearagih. Here students are sent to hone and master their Irish Gaelic..

From walking along the edge of a cliff, to buying foreign candy bars, everything was absolutely amazing. Every day was an adventure, as the difference in culture, landscape, and lifestyle was entrancing. This was my third time going, and it never gets old. We left armed with our school assignments and learned just as much and more as we would have sitting in a classroom.

We hung out with some teenagers from a nearby school in Dingle. Their whole grade system is different, as “first class” isn’t first grade; it’s probably about 7th grade. Listening to them trying to explain how it worked just gave me a headache, so we moved on in the conversation. It sounded as if they were almost fascinated by our society, as we were theirs. One girl, who attended a private boarding school, said (rolling her eyes) that if they spoke English instead of Irish they would get detention. It seems that most grown-ups are trying to bring their children up in an Irish society, untouched by American culture, but the children aren’t so enthusiastic about it. One girl we know of signed out to go to mass, and ended up at the pub.

We talked for hours about random things… from different card games that we played, what kind of music we listened to, from all the places we’ve traveled, to if they think in the Irish or English language. (They responded mostly English…but it still amazes me about how being bilingual is like a normal characteristic there, when I’m having enough trouble trying to learn a bit of French…)

When we think of an old building here we often are referring to buildings constructed in Jefferson’s day, but in Ireland, old inns and monuments are far older. Gallarus Oratory is a religious structure built from stones without mortar from roughly the eighth century, and it’s a mere hike from Baile Fheirtearagih where we lived. It’s located in a beautiful field behind a low stone wall. If “Gallarus Oratory” were in America, it would be announced by billboards for miles around and boarded by gates or chains. Most likely there would be an admission charge and popcorn stands. Unlike this approach, we merely walked up to the ancient structure and freely roamed its walls inside and out. Walking up to Fheirtéaraigh’s castle wouldn’t be the same without climbing over stone walls and dodging cliff edges to get there. Everything there seems far more natural.

Religion is a big part of Irish society. Everyone you talk to is hard-core catholic. (We were reluctant to sing a Jewish song in an Irish pub just in case…) We attended Mass on one Sunday, and sat there trying to follow along in Irish Gaelic.

At Cork University there was a church on the campus that was supposed to have beautiful stained glass windows, so we decided to scope it out while there. After looking around for a while, we noticed something peculiar about the floor by the entrance of the church. The tiling had detailed astrological pictures on it. Usually astrology and religion don’t mix, so we were puzzled. This is just one more thing to marvel about different countries and beliefs.

The weather there can be a bit iffy… the winds get kind of harsh, and you can’t walk too close to a cliff’s edge if you’d like to hang on to more than the rim of the cliff. Rain is not even close to rare, taking up half of the types of weather Ireland experiences. It can get a bit chilly, when the cool rain splashes your face, but the landscape never loses its beauty, and the rain shower may very well be complimented with a rainbow or two. I saw possibly the brightest rainbow ever, appearing as it would from a storybook. It’s no wonder where they got the leprechauns’ pot of gold under the rainbow idea. But some days, the sun is out, the ocean gleaming, and the outside air never smelled so fresh.

Walking along the beach we realized how many of our class subjects were being played out in real life terms. Playing fiddle in the pubs was like orchestra, trying to figure out if an item was cheap or not because of the currency difference involved math, walking every day became our health class, learning about the government and reading Irish newspapers was our social studies and language… you get the idea. The whole cultural experience was a subject all it’s own. Even though American habits may be spreading about the world, there are still things that you would never expect to see in American society, like the free access to major historical artifacts.

Stunning cliffs, two-mile tall mountains right next to the ocean, green rolling hills, and fascinating towns… what more could you ask for? Some people believe that the culture of Ireland is slipping into America’s fate, but I don’t believe it can. The trip was wonderful while it lasted, but we are happy to be home… We did miss the trash covered cities and rude loud people to some extent, we wouldn’t give it up for Ireland… but it certainly was an enthralling learning experience that I would repeat any day.