Sir, – I identify with much of what was reported in the recent Sex Talk series (Peter McGuire, Education, February 4th).
The only formal sex education I received in the late 1990s was a single science class on the reproduction system in Junior Cert year. In my Leaving Cert year, during a religion class, the priest showed us a grainy film of an abortion, along with some very biased interviews promoting a particular ideology. The school had a Catholic ethos and was headed by a priest, reporting to the bishop, who in turn reported to Rome – not Dublin. Relationships and Sexuality Education was not on the curriculum.
The school I attended condoned institutional bullying, homophobia, racism, sexism and corporal punishment, though happily the latter was weeded out during my stay. The lessons of the abuse scandals go unheeded; who really knows what goes on behind closed classroom doors? The Minister for Education and their civil servants certainly don’t. However, they have achieved one success in sex education – previous generations were dispatched from the school system ignorant, whereas now they exit ill-informed. I guess that is some progress. – Yours, etc,
Dr JARLATH MOLLOY,
Saffron Central Square,
Croydon,
England.