From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

Looking Back, Moving Forward 185
This comment echoes remarks in Chapter Two where many middle-class
and high-aspiring students had come to adopt a very instrumental view
of education, one in which obtaining high grades was the main objective.
However, students then discussed how these schools were not really like
‘school’ and lacked the social aspect that they had in Fig Lane:
[Name of grind school] is a totally different thing like though, it’s
not like school, well it is school but it’s kind of.
... I’d rather go here than [name of grind school] because of like the
whole kind of social aspect of here. (Fig Lane, coed school, middleclass
intake)
Some of these students were still in touch with some friends who had left
Fig Lane to attend a grind school and felt that the focus on the Leaving
Certificate exam there was excessive:
... It’s just exam, exam, exam, like you can’t miss a day or else your
gone, you’re so like lost the next day and it’s just crazy, they don’t
have any like extra-curricular things, they’re in school every Saturday
like, no break. (Fig Lane, coed school, middle-class intake)
6.2.3 Preparation for Adult Life
Other students spoke about more general life skills that they had built up
during their time in school such as a positive work ethic, punctuality, and
being able to take orders:
In school kind of does the whole, you know, you have to be in on
time and being punctual and stuff, which is important. (Belmore
Street, girls’ school, mixed intake)
I suppose you just learn to obey rules, like not coming in late and get
yourself prepared for a job. (Park Street, boys’ school, mixed intake)
Some students felt that some subjects such as Home Economics prepared
them more than others for their life after school:
In certain subjects probably, like they tell you what to expect like if
you are raising a child or having to pay bills what it’s going to be
like, all the finances and that … how to socialise and how to speak in
public. (Barrack Street, girls’ school, working-class intake)