Transition Year students can win a week's work placement in The Irish Times. Send us your thoughts (200 words maximum) on a media-related topic - if your submission is published, the placement is yours.
Anne McCarvill, St Louis Secondary School, Monaghan Town
On January 1st, Ireland joined the European Monetary Union. The Irish people now have three years to adjust to the new currency. The coins and notes will not come into circulation until 2001, so we have nothing substantial to look at or think about. The euro is in danger of slipping out of the focus and could cause a shock when it is introduced.
We depend greatly on British current-affairs programmes, soaps and chat shows for awareness of current issues. These programmes don't need to make the euro an issue and won't do it just for our benefit. The Irish media must start now to acclimatise us - one advertisement telling us that the "magic number" is one euro equals IR£0.7875464 is not enough.
We don't need costly introduction projects, just the steady infiltration of the euro into our lives through everyday things. I'm glad to see The Irish Times has the idea. Putting its price in euros is a step some papers and magazines have yet to take. It is the sort of ad the euro needs - simple, effective and cheap.
Claire Murray, Colaiste an Phiarsaigh, Glanmire, Co Cork
As a 16-year-old student I am totally against corporal punishment. Considering my track record I think it would be safe to assume that with the re-introduction of corporal punishment I would now be the unhappy possessor of many extremely sore body parts. However, with the recent case of school principal Laurence Begley, who was fined £50 for assaulting a pupil, many people have re-emerged from the woodwork to espouse the value of corporal punishment.
Teachers say classroom discipline is almost a thing of the past. Many of them reflect on the days when a slap was enough to silence any complaints and students sat in terrified silence in the classroom from hell.
Physical abuse of this nature has a profound effect on its victims. It results in the loss of confidence in students and considerably restricts their learning. Thankfully my own schooling has been a painless experience and I hope to emerge with my confidence intact - provided the violent disciplinarians can be held off for a further two years.
Write to media scope by posting your comments to Newspaper in the Classroom, The Irish Times, 11-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, or faxing them to (01) 679 2789. Be sure to include your name, address and school, plus phone numbers for home and school.
Or you can use the Internet and email us at mediapage@irish-times.ie.
media scope is a weekly media studies page for use in schools. Group rates and a special worksheet service are available: FREEPHONE 1-800-798884 (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
media scope is edited by Harry Browne.
