Sir - Kevin Myers is right (An Irishman's Diary, November 12th) to say we should be grateful to the Catholic Church for providing us with an education which served most of us well. (Incidentally, don't forget that the Church benefited by having a young, impressionable audience for its "one true Church" message.)
Speaking as one of those Swahili-advocating parents privileged enough to have my children educated in a multi-denominational school, I would like to point out two things.
First, the waiting lists for such schools are bursting at the seams with children who are, by and large, the product of parents educated by the Catholic Church. Second, the Department of Education sets the core curriculum to which all schools have to adhere. That is why the Department employs school inspectors. The only difference is that each school can choose how to teach this curriculum - and that is where the disparity between the uni and multi-denominational sectors becomes evident.
In my experience of both sectors, the multi-denominational schools do this by encouraging the child to want to learn, thereby nurturing a eagerness for knowledge which stands them in good stead in future years. Catholic schools still teach subjects. - Yours, etc.,
From Joan HeelanColiemore Road, Dalkey.