Thoughts on Learning, Teaching and Life
by Leo Casey
Thoughts about life in Ireland, cycling and what I’ve learned along the way
I have been in Cambodia for three weeks, mostly working with SeeBeyondBorders, an NGO working to develop teaching capability in early grade primary schools. Cambodia is a country of contrasts. The people here are among the most friendly you will ever meet and yet they were subjected to a terrible genocide in the last decades…
Our ancestors realised that we cannot explain everything. We see only part of the world and there is more beyond our reach. Long ago young people had much to learn, dangers to be avoided, knowledge and skills to be acquired and lessons on how to survive and succeed. Wisdom resided in the old people but there were no schools of colleges. Stories were the backbone of learning and an important means of preserving culture and tradition.
Next Friday 28th of March I will take part in the Galway Cycle. This involves a cycle from Maynooth to Galway in one day. This will be by far and a way the longest and most challenging cycle I have done. I have trained and prepared well but admit to being nervous and apprehensive. I…
Some people are natural teachers. I don’t mean ‘teachers’ in the everyday sense as in those who work in schools or colleges. I mean people who show us things and who we learn from in all manner of ways. Richard Hannaford was such a person. I noticed this many years ago when I first met…
The Concept of the Common Good I have argued elsewhere that the current debate on Ireland’s crisis needs to move away from economist dominated reasoning and be replaced by something more fundamental–a deeper and altogether more important consideration of the basic principles that we should use to organise our society. This week saw the publication…
Why School Students Should Manage the Election and the Counting of Votes In Ireland voting in the general election takes place this Friday and this means a weekend of ballot boxes, exit polls, tally men and counting. We use a system of proportional representation (PR) that is very fair but very complex. When you vote…
It works like a book club but with a twist…. I have been working with some friends here in Maynooth to establish The Two Hour Club. I think this is something that could catch on. It’s a simple idea the goal is to provide a format for groups to get together frequently to discuss meaningful…
If you’ve been to Rome as I have many times you begin to look beyond the usual tourist haunts for places of interest. Of course there is no shortage of these–the city has layer upon layer of stories to tell. One such place of interest is the English Graveyard, or more precisely the graveyard for…
My sister Betty died this year. At the time I could not bring myself to write about it but today, the 23rd of December, is Betty Casey’s birthday and I feel the need to comment. Betty was the eldest of six children, I came in the middle, number three in line. There was something magic…