Well the day has finally arrived and when I asked Kade this morning if he was nervous about receiving his Junior Cert results his pragmatic response was ‘why would I be nervous now, I did the exams in June’.
I really wanted him to do well, but not for me, for himself. He had worked so hard and I knew in order to feel confident heading into 5th year next year he would need to see good results for the effort he put in.
He surpassed all my expectations. B in higher level English and B in Maths were the highlights on the cert. Mostly he received C’s, all higher level papers. He took ordinary level in Italian and Irish, being Dyslexic foreign languages are not his strong point. He passed Italian but failed Irish, but really that was expected and we had decided that his study time was better spent on the subjects that he would receive good grades in.
Certainly having a reader and answering all questions into a tape recorder was the difference in Kade performing to his true potential as opposed to being hindered by the complexities of Dyslexia.
I am very proud of Kade but much more importantly Kade is proud of himself.
On a different note, when did it become legal for 15 year olds to drink alcohol? Every radio news report I have heard today has been promoting ‘safe drinking’ for Junior Cert recipients out celebrating tonight. Does this mean we give up encouraging teens to abstain until they are of legal drinking age (which I think is 18 but perhaps I am wrong). I know many young teens will drink alcohol but do we just accept this as a matter of fact. Has the battle been won by the teens or have parents got lazy? Or worse are parents trying to be ‘friends’ with their children.
15 is too young to handle alcohol, and yes I know by 17 my own son was regularly taking a drink, but there is a huge difference in maturity and body mass, between a 15 and a 17 year old.
We as adults seriously need to step up and take responsibility. There are teens who recieved their results today who are not going out to celebrate tonight. Why? Because they feel that they would be pressured to drink alcohol.
