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Jarlath Regan: How can I lecture my kids on school behaviour when I was a half-assed smart-alec?

My style of educational application won’t cut it in today’s system of continual assessment, monitoring and always-on WhatsApp groups

‘Here I am spouting off to a boy who reads for fun, a boy who gets excited at the idea of knowing every possible answer to every possible question that might come up on his midterm’

“What’s the least amount of work we can do to get through this?” was something I thought of all the time in 1993. It was the number one question in my mind for most of my years at secondary school. And yet here I sit, waxing lyrical about work ethic, attitude and perspective to my son as he prepares to make his leap into the final frontier of compulsory education.

I’m sure he’s rolling his ...