Sir, - As a current Leaving Certificate student, your article (Exam Times, June 7th), was of particular interest. I was amazed by some of the comments - in particular by a certain ASTI member, who, it seems, regards the theme of questioning your national identity as "navel gazing". Students, he said, are considered to be "less insular" and more "outward looking".
Surely these factors shouldn't be a hindrance to providing us with ample ability to assess the role of "Irishness" in Europe or even on a global scale. Does this individual assume that a multicultural knowledge somehow detracts from our appreciation of our very own heritage? It seems ridiculous to me that somebody would call this role of a national identity as being "not really relevant" to young people today. It is this very sector of the population who are supposed to be voting, for the first time, on subjects such as the Nice Treaty. What would the ASTI member have preferred as the theme of paper one - perhaps the role of bribery in modern Ireland? Maybe including an anecdotal short story on some exam students who were held to ransom by the "baddie" Mr Lennon with a wicked cackle and a demand for a 30 per cent pay increase. - Yours, etc.,
Ciara Deeley, Wolfe Tone Street, Limerick.