DylanopposesLeavingCert decision viapoeticmedium
STUDENT RELEASES SPOKEN WORD VIDEO TO EXPRESS VIEWS ON POSTPONEMENT OF STATE EXAMS, WRITES
DYLAN McKenna O’Toole from Heatherwood on Bray’s Boghall Road has eloquently described the tension being felt by a large number of Leaving Cert Students during uncertain times.
Dylan has written a spoken word piece, which has garnered more than 3,000 views online, speaking about his opinion that the decision to postpone the Leaving Cert is unfair, and how concerned he and his fellow students are.
This follows the government decision to defer the exams until late July or August, with around two weeks of classroom time prior to that. Dylan started performing in 2017. ‘I asked my music teacher Ms O’Sullivan could I start hosting the ‘Lunchtime to Shine’ concerts in my school, St Kilian’s,’ he said.
‘I announced the acts on to the stage, spoke to the students watching and occasionally hosted my own game shows involving the students and teachers.’
He loved performing, and asked himself where he could go from there.
‘I’m an active member of my local youth project, Connect BNYP, and I went to see one of Adam Burke’s comedy shows “The Big Happy Head On Ya” in June 2018.
‘I really enjoyed it and I love the idea of making people laugh. Growing up, I had many people tell me I was funny and I’m a great craic to be around so I said why don’t I give this a shot?’
He spoke to comedian and youth worker Adam about how to go about performing for the first time and Adam offered him a slot in the Hardy Har Comedy Club.
‘ There was just one problem – most of the comedy venues are in pubs and it was over 18s. I wasn’t letting this go, I just had to put it on hold for a while.’
Knowing that Dylan had a passion for performance and experience of public speaking, Adam asked the student to perform in a spoken word piece he had written about the issues affecting young people. The work was called ‘ Through Other Walls’.
‘It talked about how in certain spaces young people are heard and valued and in other spaces they are treated in almost a cliché way, assumptions are made about them, they are not listened to or necessarily valued and they are portrayed to be a particular type of person and behave in a particular type of way,’ said Dylan.
‘It put the message across that in a youth work space, young people are recognised for who they are and what they are and that’s a positive asset to society.’
Dylan went on to work on a spoken word project about mental health.
‘I teamed up with my other youth worker Paul Tracey as well as local videographer Mark Curran and Kevin O’Neill who starred in the video. Mark and I wrote the script along with help from Paul. This one was called “Deep Breaths”. It captures the story of a young man who struggles with his mental health daily and grows stronger throughout the days realising he needs help. He goes to counselling and speaks up. At the end of the video he meets someone who has walked the same road as him and with whom he can openly talk about his feelings. The message behind “Deep Breaths” was that speaking up and talking could make your life with a mental illness that bit easier. We released the video on World Mental Health Day 2019.’
Last October, Dylan turned 18 and had his comedy debut on November 28 at the Hardy Har.
‘I finally got my material written and I was practising performing it in the week leading up to the show. I didn’t get it fully right in any practice run but what I had in my head and what I told Adam was “It will go right on the night”. Thankfully, it did. I had a great gig, the support was fantastic and I was on cloud nine weeks afterwards.’
He went on to perform in open mic nights in town such as Battle of the
Axe and Best New Act 2020. He went through to the final by public vote and performed in the final at Bray Comedy Festival, coming second.
‘Myself and Bray-based comedian Sean Begley started running an open mic night every second Wednesday of the month with the help of Adam,’ said Dylan. ‘Myself and Sean went on to roast each other at Bray Comedy Festival as part of the Roast Battle. Adam has given me so many opportunities and so much guidance, for which I’m very grateful.’
His latest spoken word offering, ‘Change Your Decision’, gave Dylan the opportunity to express his feelings about the decision to delay this year’s Leaving Cert.
‘Myself and students around the country are very angry and upset,’ he said. ‘I think times are very tough at the moment for everyone, especially those with state exams ahead.
‘I feel that we the students were not listen to by our government, which is disgraceful, because how can they make decisions on something that they are not going through or never have gone through? They told us that we will we treated like every other year but every other year didn’t have a pandemic. The class of 2020 are going to miss the last term of the most important school year and most likely not graduate when they were meant to. How can they expect us to do school at home? Emails don’t teach. As much as I appreciate all of the effort teachers are putting in, its not the same.’
He said that if it was that easy to learn via emails and digital notes, there would be no point in actually going to school.
‘We’re expected to keep focused and keep studying throughout the summer with all of this going on,’ said Dylan. ‘I can guarantee that the number of students going to third level will drop. Unfortunately there is no perfect solution and the most popular option among students was to cancel the exams, which is understandable. I really think they picked the worst option. It just drags the stress and the struggles on for longer.’
Dylan said that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar ‘can’t ignore this’.
‘I have received so much positive feeback from students, teachers and the general public. I have many students thanking me for being the voice. Some students feel lost and powerless right now and I’m doing this for them and all the other students who have sent emails, letters and have been ignored. Leo Varadkar and [Minister] Joe McHugh need to listen to the students. It’s not their future it’s our’s.’