Bill Linnane: I fought my teenage son tooth and nail when he begged us to move school - here's why I was wrong

"I was immediately identified as some class of quarehawk and spent most of the two years on my own"

"When I was in national school, I changed schools for fifth and sixth class. My sister and I were both in the same tiny rural national school, but given that she was going into secondary school in town, it was decided for purely logistic reasons that I should also change. So I was plucked from my bucolic Cider With Rosie-esque country school with two classrooms and outdoor toilets to a large CBS, where I was a lamb to the townie slaughter."

A child changed schools for fifth and sixth class for logistical reasons tied to a sibling's secondary school placement. The child left a tiny rural national school with two classrooms and outdoor toilets and transferred to a large CBS in town. Upon arrival, the child was immediately identified as some class of quarehawk and spent most of the following two years on their own. The transition removed the child from a bucolic, close-knit environment and placed them in an unfamiliar, hostile social setting where they felt like a lamb to the townie slaughter.

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