Rural Ireland hasn’t changed much, people are moving back instead of moving away and people still stop for a chat at the local shop and coop hardware shop. Community development associations have played a pivotal role in retaining the glue that keeps communities together. The Church and the GAA may have lost some of its influence but communities still work together to get Creches up and running, hill walks developed etc.

Our social/public systems of health and education are superior to what one may find in the US. When you have small children you suddenly realise the benefit of after hours doctor service such as shannon doc and the work that nurses do in the intensive care sections of maternity wings of your local hospitals. Things could be better, hospital services could be better but what we take for granted is pretty significant.

I don’t think I will ever understand how SAT scores work and what they indicate. The classical approach of studying subjects and discussing them using meaningful mechanisms such as essays etc seem more practical and realistic.

With you on the education though. That was the main plus of coming here. Ever compared the leaving cert to the GED/SAT/ACT? I started university in the US as a junior just based on having the IB (EU equivalent to the leaving cert.) SCARY! I guess I’d rather them be brow beaten with Catholicism than enter university not knowing how to write an essay!

I think suburban USA is a bit of a crack pipe dream, though. The cost of health insurance for a family of four will kill you (unless you are fortunate enough to have a tremendous company health plan, which isn’t out of the question but is something people native to Europe tend to overlook when assessing job offers, for example.) There is, as much as we reel in horror at rising crime rates here, far more violence in your average Anytown USA than in Ballymcnowhere, Ireland. Education can be dicey (although I wretch at the education “choices” here, too) and the economy is about to tank, big time. I would far, far rather be unemployed here than there, that’s for damn sure. And I’ll take Bertie over the the Shrub any day, too.