Work, rest and play: a teacher's holiday

If you are a teacher and have not yet made plans for the summer, how about a busman's (sorry, teacher's) holiday for three weeks in the States? You can stay at a college in Pennsylvania, learn about television and video film-making, see how the Internet is used in American schools and study how to deal with stress in the classroom.

If all this sounds a bit like too much hard work there's a more proper "holiday" element as well, which includes a four-day visit to Washington visiting the museums of the Smithsonian Institute, the White House, House of Representatives and the US Senate. In the past, teachers have met an array of presidents - if Bill Clinton wants to join the participants on the first day he can take part in the "icebreaker", when the Irish teachers spend the day at the pool getting to know each other, their American teacher hosts and their families. There's also a trip to New York and another to Philadelphia, where participants can take part in an historical banquet with the Friendly Sons of St Patrick. Later they can visit the Amish country. The trip, loosely termed a "seminar", is organised by Irish Teacher Projects, an organisation which set off on the first such three-week seminar in 1959. Since then, more than 2,000 teachers from all levels of the profession have taken part in similar programmes in New York, Delaware, Philadelphia, South Bend (Indiana - home of Notre Dame University), Colorado, California, Hawaii and at Lublin in Poland. "We attracted the young ambitious teacher who was eager to see what was happening abroad. Some of those young teachers are now leaders in education at university level and are activists in the teacher unions," founder Stephen Daly recalls. As a young teacher in Drogheda, Co Louth, in the 1940s, Daly started to spend his summers in Europe working in international student camps. In 1957, even to contemplate to visit America was quite outside the reach of most teachers. "The Russians had sent their Sputnik into space, so America took a hard look at its own system of education and decided to encourage teachers from all around the world to visit them. Courses were set up on history, government, American education, sociology and the arts. "They were initially funded by the US State Department, and the funding continues today in the form of educational foundations.

"Initially, Irish Teachers Project concentrated on the east coast of America, but in 1968 a programme was initiated with the University of California in Chico - and teacher exchanges between St Patrick's College (in Drumcondra, Dublin) and Chico began and continue to this day," Daly explains. The Ulster Teachers Union became interested in the teacher exchanges and its members have been active participants for many years.

Stephen Daly's involvement with Northern Ireland goes further. In 1974 he came into contact with a group of Americans who were anxious to help young children of the "Troubles". They offered $25,000 to enable children from the North's "murder triangle" to visit America for a holiday. That year the first group went to Delaware; the trip was widely publicised in the US media and went on to become a regular event - one which Daly handed over to another committee.

The project has never been afraid to tackle controversial issues. More than 10 years ago, teachers from Northern Ireland and the Republic went to Delaware and teased out ideas in cross-Border understanding. Of course for a venture to be so obviously successful, there must be co-ordination and organisation on the American side. This comes largely in the person of John McKeown, who becomes the teachers' mentor on their arrival at Kings College, the Pennsylvania base. He has been involved with Irish Teachers Project for over 20 years.

By the way, the cost of the seminar this year - covering flights, accommodation and meals - is £1,003. Contact the ITP (tel: (01) 497 0384; fax: (01) 496 6517).