Ms Gráinne Faller, Irish Times Journalist

I chose Froebel mainly because a number of teachers told me that it provided the best teacher training in the country. I'd agree. The classroom was a breeze when compared with teaching practice! Froebel's philosophy of child centred education is accepted as best practice now. He was a man ahead of his time and Froebel is a college ahead of its time, at least in an educational sense. I was in a class of 30. There was a lot of talent in that room. That's the way with primary school teachers, they're always smart and generally have some other talent - music, art, sport - some other string to the bow. We had the craic but we worked incredibly hard. It definitely wasn't a college course in the vein of what my friends were doing where there were hours free to linger over coffee but it was practical and interesting. Best of all, we graduated and were ready to work if we so wished. 
I got a job in a Dublin school in which I had previously done teaching practice. I was 20 years old, in charge of 36 boys and girls in first class. I adored it, and I loved those children. It's the best feeling when you send them home happy and they're all smiles coming into you the following morning. I spent a year teaching in the Tanzanian countryside after that, and in the following year I began an MA in journalism. I taught right throughout the MA and during my first years as a journalist. Now I'm a full-time journalist, mainly writing about education for The Irish Times but I'd go back to teaching in a heartbeat. It's a fantastic, important job.