Sir, - In response to Gearoid Kilgallen's letter (August 22nd) I too would like to register my surprise at so much media coverage of the exam results. Having children sitting the Leaving Certificate in this country must be hell, I agree. I'm not so much thinking of the examinees but of the parents, to whom this must be like judgement day brought forward. Did you father such a poor point-winning monster? Did you really feed, clothe and love such a "B-child" (like there are B-movies and second-class hotels) only capable of reaping Bs and not many at that?" Worse, there is the "C-child", but we cannot decently go into this here. Instead of The Irish Times helpline - which in itself is a sign that this is all a very distressing affair - there should be priests dealing with the calls, ready to receive confession from broken parents and to cheer them up with tales of slow-witted, simple-minded people gaining access to the kingdom of God, if not to the Trinity quadrangle.
The idea that there should be a "points race" is a detestable one, and that it should be endorsed by The Irish Times on pages one, two, three and four of its daily issue, equally detestable. That a repeat (fee-paying) college should take advantage of the results of one of its pupils to advertise itself is detestable too, not to mention all the other ads ("Parents? Should your son or daughter change school?") found in this paper and all reeking of Tory propaganda.
Excellence should be sought, all right, and education is perhaps the most important thing in life. That's not the question. The results and the university entrance business that everybody is fretting about at the moment is not about excellence or even education. It is about succeeding in the jungle - hence the "points race" - i.e. life at large, the world as it is today, where the advances of the mind have reduced man to an animal again. Pupils with a pocketful of As can be called survivors. Others, poor runts, can fall by the wayside and be crushed by the more vigorous ones. Determinism is strong in every society, and certainly France, where I come from, distinguishes between the students who can enter classes preparatoires (la creme de la creme) and the poor beggars who end up in university (much less prestigious in France) with their wings half-clipped already. But it just rankles to see it so crudely at work here with the assent, it seems, of everybody. - Yours, etc.,
Veronique Alexandre,
Carrigskeewaun, Co. Mayo.