I agree. So why then is it OK for some teacher (not in Irish class) to change it or if you prefer "translate" it ? It is not fair to expect to be called by your given name ?Originally Posted by Míshásta
It is in-fact the entire point of this discussion.
We're getting into semantics here, 'translating', 'changing', 'using the Irish version'. I don't know the school in question or whether it has a policy of using Irish names as a way of trying to create an Irish ethos. Obviously if parents object to this policy it cannot be enforced. I just can't see why people get so uptight about it. There's a long history of using English and Irish versions of names on this island and valid historical reasons for this practise.
Perhaps if parents who are sensitive on this issue just cleared up the matter when enrolling their kids in school, it wouldn't be a problem.
Just to repeat you post above.
I still say that it is the entire point of the discussion.
If a person attending a school or anything else for that matter they fill out a form giving their name. To my mind it is only common decency (and only natural to expect) that the name given on the form would be the name used.
I personally (and nor do I think anyone else) would have an issue with an Irish version of the name being used in Irish class but on this occasion it was used in a register and in a document sent home that had nothing to do with Irish class.
Its not something I would particularly loose sleep over but I would be annoyed and ensue to have a quite word with the school.
Having been in primary school a little more recently than many of the posters here (I assume!), I can say that, in my school at least, the Irish version of names were not used all day or every day. They were translated/transliterated/Gaelicised for a purpose (in second class in my school, when we could understand) - to inform us of the Irish version of our names, which is used in oral exams for Junior cert and Leaving cert as far as I can remember. For the life of me, I cannot understand what the problem is with that. As a child of parents who were Irish (though I didn't have an Irish surname) I was intrigued and excited to discover the Irish version of my name and can say wholeheartedly that if my teacher hadn't gone to the bother of putting a little more effort into my atypical surname, I would have felt disappointed and left out. While Irish is being taught as a subject, then this is entirely relevant to learning. After all, in secondary school, many people were introduced to the French, German, Italian or Spanish versions of their names too. Do you all have a problem with that too???
Sarahj
If you had read the post you would have realised that no one has any issues with the situation you have outlined above.
However that is not what happened. The child's name was translated/transliterated/Gaelicised for roll call and attendance records NOT for Irish class. Indeed a document was sent home outlining the child's attendance but using the translated/transliterated/Gaelicised version of the Child's name not the name given on the enrollment form and not the child's given name.
That's is the crux of the issue.
The right of the child (and the parent) to have their given name used in school documents and to be known by their given name.
I repeat none has an issue (or if they have they have not let be known) with the name being translated/transliterated/Gaelicised for the purposes of Irish language education in an Irish class.
I have a very obvious Scots Presbyterian surname, and it was Gaelicised but rather obviously, you would know it was the same. Saying that I was in an all Irish primary school so no leg to stand on here!!
If your child is not in an all Irish school, give em both barrels.
"......... we must sometimes listen to those who, consumed with zeal, have scant judgment or balance. To such ones the modern world is nothing but betrayal and ruin.........We feel bound to disagree with these prophets of doom who are forever forecasting calamity -- as though the world's end were imminent."
Agreed.
Your name is your name. It appears on your birth certificate, it is the only version that may appear on your passport.
The whole concept of translating a name, any name, is muddle headed.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote