Pressure is what makes politics and sport entertaining to spectators. Rory McIlroy's management of a difficult second day at his first Augusta Masters suggests he has the temperament for the big time. Education minister Batt O'Keeffe, a government novice despite his years, managed a difficult week visiting the conferences of the main teacher unions in exemplary fashion.

Over the past 20 years we have continually extolled the quality of our education system. It has been one of the foundation stones of the new Ireland and our graduates have been critical to the country's great economic success. Success can bring its own challenges. One of them is to sustain it and another is, to quote Seamus Heaney on the tributes paid to him to mark his 70th birthday, to keep your feet firmly on the ground.

Few people experience success throughout their working lives. We all have to deal with disappointment, whether as a result of our own errors, those of others or because of the difficulties posed by circumstances completely outside our control.

It is some time since I had children in primary school, but I always regarded it as the bedrock of our whole educational system. I mean that in a more profound way than simply that it is the first phase of the system. As a parent, what I experienced of the national school system was inspiring and a cause for great optimism. Teachers were engaged, open and hard-working. The school environment was positive, and as the children advanced through the years, they gained real-life experience from wise and positive influences who taught them as much about general behaviour as about particular subjects.

Last week the Irish National Teacher's Organisation (INTO) held its annual conference. Easter has always been the occasion for annual meetings of all the teachers' unions, with the education minister going from one to the other to be lauded or scolded depending on the circumstances. It's pretty basic stuff. Last week, Batt O'Keeffe started his pilgrimage at the INTO event in Letterkenny. The accounts of what happened when he addressed the hundreds of delegates should be cause for concern.

O'Keeffe was introduced by INTO president Declan Kelleher. There was no applause – in effect no welcome. When he started his address, about 50 delegates left the room in protest while others waved posters protesting over education cuts and the impact of the budgetary measures on teachers' salaries. This may not have been the most edifying way for those in the teaching profession to behave but, given the strength of feeling, it was to be expected.

What was alarming, however, were reports that the minister's speech was "listened to in total silence punctuated by loud moans and derisive laughter at times", according to RTE.

O'Keeffe had appealed to the delegates for co-operation as the government attempted to balance competing interests during the economic crisis. It may well be that teachers believe their interests and those of their schools and pupils are the only interests that should be protected. Or it may just be that, in common with most of those who enjoy the security of the public service comfort blanket, national school teachers believe they should be the first among equals.

What is certain is that those who guffawed and moaned during the speech by the minister should not be allowed near any child for fear of contaminating them with their ignorance. The National Parents Association should demand some explanation from Kelleher.

Children, particularly young children, face challenges and meet disappointment almost every day. What sort of leadership would we offering them if, as we explained to them the difficulties of balancing the household, they were to get up and walk out, sigh, moan or mock us with derisive laughter?

The failure of the INTO to conduct its affairs appropriately should worry all right-thinking people and it should worry those of us in business who have long benefited from the quality of our education system. Our youngest students are the most impressionable. In the wrong hands the impressions made can be destructive of a personality which, by the time it reaches secondary school, is largely formed.

It is not too late for Kelleher to apologise for the lack of respect shown to the minister. Teachers tell young students about the merits of self-control. They expect it of their young charges so they should be able to point to their own behaviour as a model to be followed. Kelleher could provide that leadership by apologising to the minister and – however belatedly – publicly taking some of his members to task for their loutish behaviour. Ireland would be a better place if he did so.

Failing that, parents should request that, at the first assembly after Easter, the school principal uses the Letterkenny experience as an example of how adults should not behave.