CTYI makes the papers!

Raphael

Damn, cant find it on Unison.ie

Dont suppose anyone has the date of the article?

PurpleFistMixer

2nd of July, if I can remember correctly... either that or the 1st.

Raphael

The whiz kids in a class of their own

They are young, exceptionally gifted and their brains have a thirst for knowledge which normal education curriculums can't always quench. Three high-achievers talk to Martha Kearns about their academic goals and the summer school that caters for them

The summer ritual of packing the school uniform away, pushing the maths and Irish books to the back of the press and waving goodbye to teachers before getting as far away from school as possible is the highlight of most teenagers' academic year. Summer for them means hanging out with friends, staying up late, watching extra TV, playing sport and generally lazing around the place.

But for others, the smell of fresh-cut grass and summer sunshine signals the beginning of a broader type of learning and a chance to expand their mind further than exams and a strict syllabus ever could. These are the whiz kids who are not challenged by normal school work and seem to sail through exams effortlessly.

Dublin City University provides an outlet for students who are above normal academically to relieve the boredom they can often face in school by taking them out of their comfort zone and studying subjects such as Japanese, archaeology, astronomy, physics, journalism and Chinese at university level. The Irish Centre for Talented Youth has just taken in its first batch of students, aged between 13 and 16, for the year. The younger students, aged from six to 12, will begin attending now that primary schools have closed for the summer.

One student who has started at DCU is Kathryn Lambe. Although barely a teenager and just finished her second year in post-primary school, she already speaks with the intelligence of a college graduate and has a thirst for knowledge that is palpable. An avid reader, the 14-year-old from Dundalk, Co Louth, is long past reading the teenage pulp fiction of her contemporaries. Currently on her bedside locker is Paul Burrell's autobiography and she has just completed a biography of Saddam Hussein, which is beyond the interest of many of the country's adults let alone teenagers.

Kathryn, who attends St Vincent's Secondary School in Dundalk, says: "It was really fascinating to read about his upbringing and the factors that made him who he is. But it was also interesting to read about all the good things he did for Iraq."

With such a high level of interest in current affairs, Kathryn tends to talk about these topics to her parents rather than her friends. "I would have debated the Iraq war a lot with my parents but they probably got fed up with me talking about it all the time! There are some of my friends that you can have a decent conversation with but most are generally not interested in the same things as me. It doesn't bother me really as my friends are great and we have fun talking about other stuff."

Writing is Kathryn's main passion and she is taking the screen-writing course at DCU this year as a follow-up to the creative writing course she attended last year.

"The creative writing course was exceptional. It was very enlightening and completely changed my writing. I learned to draw inspiration from a lot of places that I had not considered before and it was also good to be in the presence of other writers," she says.

As well as writing fiction, Kathryn also pens poems, mainly based on war situations and her favourite poet is the American Edgar Allen Poe. "It's great this year to be learning another discipline and one that is so much more restrictive than creative writing," says Kathryn who wants to be a fiction writer but hopes to study either journalism or psychology at college.

Moving from the creative to the logical, Jennifer Flood (16) from Blackrock, Co Dublin, is taking the legal studies course and has studied college-level maths, astronomy and psychology among other subjects since she was 10. "I am considering doing law at college and this is excellent preparation for that because it allows us to have a lot of discussion and opportunities to offer opinions," says the Institute of Education student.

Last year, Jennifer, who got an A in higher-level maths in the Junior Cert, studied maths, which is generally not a favourite with most students. "Even some people who come to the course here think it's a little odd to like maths. It's really a personal decision - you either like maths or you don't. But it's not like I am going to say 'Oh, I can't go out tonight because I have to study maths!' The things we were covering were more advanced that the Leaving Cert syllabus but it did help to get into the mind-frame for the maths we will be covering for the Leaving Cert."

At 13, she studied astronomy and at 14, psychology. "It opens your perspective more and allows you more choice when picking what you want to do at college and for your future career. By studying such diverse subjects, it gives you a broader idea rather than just following on with something that you were good at in school," says Jennifer, who is avid reader of works by classic authors such as Dickens, Hardy, Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley and the Bronte sisters.

She adds: "I found psychology fascinating as the topics we were dealing with gave us a great insight into people's minds and how they work. We used to play experiments on the other students like changing our body language and seeing if they noticed."

Centre director Sheila Gilhenney says that while the children at the centre are gifted, they can feel very isolated at times as well as under severe pressure. They can feel isolated because being academically gifted is not always something that is held in high esteem with peers. Sporting talents are more accepted. This can cause some gifted young people to deliberately underachieve as they downplay their ability as a way to conform.

"We would like to get the positive message out there that it is very acceptable to be an individual and stand out. If people stand out because of their talents in football and music, they are revered but if they have a talent for maths, it is not so acceptable because it is hard for most people to understand how people can get a kick out of maths."

Sheila explains that because the students perform well, they are always expected to do as well and can put themselves under tremendous pressure.

She says: "It's a wonderful thing to be have a talent but there are upsides and downsides to it. One of the characteristics they tend to have is that they are perfectionists. While this can help them succeed and challenge themselves, it can also be crippling as nothing is ever good enough. The family don't put them under pressure and it is unusual to have pushy parents. It is usually the child that does all the pushing."

So even for the gifted, exams still have an element of dread. "I hate exams," says Kathryn. "Coming up to exams, I can get really uptight but I do know that I find them much easier than other people. People in the class can be competitive but at the end of the day, we just want to do the best we possibly can. Results do matter to me, whether they should or not. I am aiming for all As in my Junior Cert next year."

Jennifer also feels under pressure coming up to exams, not from her teachers or parents but from herself. "I'm my own worst enemy. I have no problem from my parents telling me to study. I tend to expect a lot from myself and would always be striving to do better. I would be hoping for all As in the Leaving Cert," she says.

John O'Rourke (16) from Ballsbridge in Dublin has been coming to the centre for eight years and has studied, among other things, university-level art classics, Irish writers, science and this year is taking on screen-writing. The Clongowes Wood student is also looking for top marks in his Leaving Cert next year but feels he will not have to study as hard as most of his classmates. "Unless I am really het up about something I don't really study. I tend to listen in class and it all goes in. I have a good attention span," says John whose current reading material is Jack Kerouac's On the Road, normally a coming-of-age book for college students.

Despite being obviously talented, the students don't want to stand out from the crowd as could be seen from the 'ordinary' way they chatted and socialised in the college canteen this week.

Jennifer says: "I don't feel superior to other people but sometimes I feel like I have to be conscious about what vocabulary I use and about bringing certain topics up in conversation in which some of my friends wouldn't be interested.

"But it's not like I don't talk about other things and spend all my time studying and never watch TV. We are still normal people and like normal things."

PurpleFistMixer

That's the one. And there was a picture of Kathryn Lambe, John O Rourke and Jennifer Flood to go along with it, all looking very pompous and "talented".

Zounds

The Irish Independent wrote:

<bullshít article>

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, they (the journalist) clearly weren't even taking it seriously and the students were probably taking it a bit too seriously (no offence meant if you are they I'm just making an observation)

PurpleFistMixer

The Irish Times did an article? *raises eyebrow inquisitively*

skanger666

it's still better than having the whole course lumped into one "precocious" catagory....

Zounds

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

The Irish Times did an article? *raises eyebrow inquisitively*

my mistake, sorry

PurpleFistMixer

Ah, nearly had me about to attack my beloved Irish Times.

Piste

Oh.......My.......God.......How bad did that make us look? I can't believe She actually wrote 'ordinary'. Cringetastic

Sunstorm

Well, one of our better brushes with the media, and a lot better than the Indo. Kathryn, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING????

Rainbow Girl

Yeah, seriously, every other article on us I've read has made us sound so nerdy (in the bad way, cos i know most of us are nerds, really), and like we loooove school, this one almost seemed fair. Nicely done to Oisín Ais and Owen, ye did pretty damned well.

Oisín Collins

thank you, sentiment is very much appreciated. If im talking to owen or ais ill pass it on. go rainbow girl!!!

Oisín Collins

thank you rainbow girl, the sentiment is much appreciated

Piste

Gummybearz!!! wrote:

Oh.......My.......God.......How bad did that make us look? I can't believe She actually wrote 'ordinary'. Cringetastic

Yeah you did really well. That quote was about the Indo article. How......ugh.....did some people sound?

Aoibheann

well done guys, it must have been prertty damn scary/humiliating/etc to do that. I'm so proud of you all. if only i could find my fathers damned copy of yesterdays herald..........not that i'll bring it to the reunion to embarrass you all or anything...........

mr. scanger

People are getting way too caught up on these articles.Last year it was a laugh coz the documentary thing was so bad, but it's not like CTYI newspaper articles are any huge deal.They're just for publicity.

Oisín Collins

believe it or not liam, people actually read newspapers so such articles dramatically impact how CTYI is seen by people in ireland. so you can play the "oh it doesnt really matter" card all you like but the truth is it does and to deny that is pure ignorance.

CTYI's public image matters cos thats how people become aware of it and choose to go there. would you have gone if it had been splashed accross the papers as "NERD CAMP"?

mr. scanger

Yes I would have actually because I knew about it from my sister, who found out about it from a small advertisement in either a newspaper or magazine.Ads are grand, then people can make up their own minds, the articles try to be way too influencial.It's only an article oisin, no need to write a speech over it

Aoibheann

guys guys guys enough please. its really sad.
mr. scanger, you may not find the article important, but it may introduce people to the idea of CTYI. more people could find out about it.
oisin, fair enough, i agree with what you're saying, but dont get so worked up about it.
and god i sound really pathetic myself and i'd rather not get involved in this so thats it.

Funkeyhatzrock!

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Although I hate to remember, I'll bring it up anyway, but we were in the paper during session1. And.. damn, I can't remember the name of the paper. But it was awful, this one is immensely better.
There was also a thing about us on the Six o clock news couple weeks back, if anyone from sess1 remembers the cameras around the place. I actually have the tape and may put it up at some point for people to see... It was pretty messed up though, they kept talking about the babyCTYI and showing shots of us... and spitalians, for who knows what reason.

You will do no such ****ing thing i had enough ridicule for that thank you very much!!!!!

PurpleFistMixer

Funkeyhatzrock! wrote:

You will do no such ****ing thing i had enough ridicule for that thank you very much!!!!!

Hehehe. Ah come on you're not that bad in it.

Funkeyhatzrock!

Did you see it!?!?! Did you hear what i said !?!?!?! and seemingly they used even more of what i'd said on the radio . i saw you in it!

PurpleFistMixer

Yeah, my dad works for RTE so he got the tape off the newspeople. I didn't know there was a radio thing. Ah damn...
I was in it? *blinks*

mentalimplosion

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Yeah, my dad works for RTE so he got the tape off the newspeople. I didn't know there was a radio thing. Ah damn...
I was in it? *blinks*

hey.. my mam also works for rté.... *attempts to get copy off newspeople*

vikki

ok we were portrayed as nerds but who cares? all of us know that we are normal people and that CTYI is a fantastic thing! I don't care what anyone thinks when they read the article, I know that CTYI is not a nerd camp, i know that its the best thing I have ever been part of. Why should we care what anybody thinks? Let us all be happy that we have had the opportunity to go there!

Oisín Collins

we should care what people think because if no people go to CTYI then guess what....................IT STOPS HAPPENING!!!

it's not a difficult concept to comprehend!

Funkeyhatzrock!

Ois&#237 wrote: »

we should care what people think because if no people go to CTYI then guess what....................IT STOPS HAPPENING!!!

it's not a difficult concept to comprehend!

I don't think we need worry, ctyi will always be there. i mean we go out into the world meet little 'uns who have the same really weird,wacky.strange, wonderful conversations/sense of humour we all have and we all say oh my god you should so go etc....and it will be like some fairy tale where all the 'cool' kids go! like a way better version of peter pan! ya! and all the bad people in peter pan could be like dermo, and the whole team sodemy thing could be what dermos crew sings, the canteen food, sile about our artificial holidays, etc
Ya you were in it Stephanie you were like sitting across from jess in the street, well at least i think you were. no i'm pretty sure your head appears!

article6

Funkeyhatzrock! wrote:

I don't think we need worry, ctyi will always be there. i mean we go out into the world meet little 'uns who have the same really weird,wacky.strange, wonderful conversations/sense of humour we all have and we all say oh my god you should so go etc....

And what if they don't pass the entrance exam or they can't raise the money? Not everyone with a bubbly personality is a well-off English/maths wizard. And some of the aforementioned wizards are nowhere near as ebullient as that. *points at self*

vikki

thanks for sticking up for me anne... i agree with your point entirely! three of my friends are going to CTYI next year because i told them how great it was... if every CTYIer did that the numbers could potentially triple

that isnt too complicated of a theory is it?