So many gifts remain from my first little school in Mallow, recalls Ruth Curtis

Most people hate their school days, but I have to be honest - I enjoyed mine

Most people hate their school days, but I have to be honest - I enjoyed mine. I was only three when I started school and I couldn't wait to get there. I grew up in Mallow, Co Cork and started off at a local school. Miss Kepple's Private School was quite an unusual establishment. It was interdenominational and co-educational.

Miss Kepple was an English woman who taught 30 of us, aged between three to 12 years, all in one room. She was quite an extraordinary teacher - I've never met anyone like her in my life.

As well as the regular subjects, we learned French, Latin, Shakespeare and Dickens from an early age. Miss Kepple was inspirational - she had a marvellous way of communicating and was able to bring Shakespeare home to six and seven year olds. A great love of literature and reading remain with everyone who attended that school. We were all fluent and diverse readers from an early age.

When I was 11, I went to Ring College, Dungarvan, Co Waterford, for a year. That was a huge shock to my system. For the first time in my life I came in contact with corporal punishment. It was an interesting school, though, with some good teachers and I acclimatised.

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After Ring I went to Dublin to board at St Mary's Dominican Convent, Cabra. I liked it immediately and the friends I made there are still my friends. In boarding school there's no escape. You have to mix - live, eat and sleep with a great variety of people. I think it was then that I began to develop my interest in human behaviour.

Over the years I've grown to appreciate the opportunities for reflection that were imposed upon us. Silence was expected in the corridors and in the dormitories - I may have felt resentful at the time, but it did give me discipline and an appreciation of the importance of reflection when you're wrestling with important issues. I now go to the Burren for that kind of thing.

At school I was good in spots. I was lazy at times and was often told to push myself. I loved English and history which were taught by Miss Kelleher from Cork.

I suppose I was ambitious at school. I knew I would go to university - which was not a popular choice for women at that time. My father, though, was keen on women getting into third-level education. I went to UCC and took my first degree in psychology. I then studied psychotherapy in London before coming to UCG to do a master's and then a PhD in psychology. I got my first post as an assistant lecturer here in 1977.

Psychology is a good basis for lots of things you might do in life. The type of insights you gain into human behaviour stand you in good stead. Late in my career I moved into university administration. I feel I've been fortunate. All my educational experiences have been good and I'm anxious that others people can say the same.

Dr Ruth Curtis is vice president for development and external affairs at NUI Galway and a member of both the Council of State and the Senate of the NUI. She was in conversation with Yvonne Healy.