Since the furore around the hugely controversial depiction of a traditional Irish family as being bigoted, narrow-minded and nasty because they weren’t diverse, a significant number of parents and teachers have been in touch with us here at Gript with concerns around other SPHE schoolbooks.
Many of the concerns are in regard to what they say are “unscientific” lessons on gender ideology – and serious concerns around material that both parents and teachers believe are too sexualised for young teens, such as an 8-page lesson on masturbation which says “even” babies and young infants enjoy touching their genitals in an early understanding of sexual pleasure.
In addition to the SPHE book from Edco – with its “anti-Irish” depiction of a family that embraced Irish culture – which caused such an outcry, questions have been raised about a schoolbook from educate.ie which included lessons on gender ideology that asked 12-13 year olds to respond to a girl who described her body being “stupid” with “stupid breasts”. One SPHE teacher described that class exercise as “an anti-woman, anti-female thing to include”, adding: “Its not helping girls – or boys – to appreciate and love their gender, to be happy and comfortable in their own bodies.”
Now, the contents of another schoolbook book is causing further controversy.
(It’s worth noting that, although Edco has now said the offending lesson is being withdrawn, Minister Norma Foley has been almost entirely silent on the whole controversy, mostly refusing to comment on the public anger and disquiet, and failing to commit to any kind of an investigation as to how such “degrading and insulting” material made its way through the publishing and sign-off process and into Irish schools. She said this week that – almost two weeks after the furore first arose – that she hadn’t seen the book. That seems very strange indeed.)
Is it the case, as Eoin O’Malley, Associate Professor in political science at the School of Law and Government in DCU commented last week, that “the whole [SPHE] curriculum is ideologically-driven drivel”? Certainly many TDs and Senators believe the entire SPHE course needs to be fully reviewed.
Parents who have checked SPHE schoolbooks since the ‘Family A’ outrage tell us they have been shocked to find what else is contained in classroom material they note is purporting to improve a school student’s health and wellbeing.
One parent who contacted Gript said that she was taken aback to find an extended lesson on masturbation in a book for second years, which, she said, seemed designed to make children who were not masturbating feel abnormal.
The book, ‘My Wellbeing Journey 2’, is published by Gill Education and written by Edel O’Brien, Eoghan Cleary, and Pam O’Leary. Eoghan Cleary, a teacher in Temple Carrig School in Greystones, has written that he feels it is important for school students to be what he describes as “porn literate”.
He told an RTÉ Upfront programme that it was “not about judging [students] or stigmatising. It’s about giving them the tools to critically reflect on what they want out of the sexual experience, not what they have been told they have to provide”. Another teacher on the programme insisted that it was not about telling students not to use porn. Mr Cleary says he is chiefly concerned that students are being exposed to violent porn from a young age.
(On the same programme, porn researcher Kate Dawson, expressed the view that school kids as young as 13 should be taught about pornography in schools, and the message should not be that porn is a bad thing, because it is actually an important tool which did the majority “no harm”. She also said that consensual aggression such as “rough sex” was fine in porn, and should not be conflated with “illegal behaviour” – and added that porn helped to reassure people that “their sexual interests were normal”.)
‘My Wellbeing Journey 2’, in a lesson on masturbation that spans 8 pages, tells young teenagers that “even babies and young children know it feels good to touch their own genitals” – and that “it’s a biological reward system built into a human’s body before we even start to develop sexually”.
Masturbation is “an essential part of being human” the students are told, and they are warned that their parents may have grown up being taught “very different things about masturbation”. The book says that masturbation is used to “relieve sexual tension”, and is a form of “self-care”.
My Wellbeing Journey 2, page 118
SPHE teacher, Mary Creedon, told Gript that the lesson seemed to be based on a “holistic” approach to sex education where the focus was not on morality or values in relation to sexuality, but instead relying solely on consent as a guiding principle. She said she understood how the parent who contacted Gript felt that the lesson might lead a 13-14 year old child who wasn’t masturbating to feel they were the odd one out.
My Wellbeing Journey 2, page 116
Ms Creedon said she felt that parents would prefer to have these conversations with their children themselves within their own value system and in a safer environment than a classroom. “This lesson has the potential to cause embarrassment and upset in the class,” she said. “The focus on masturbation seems completely over the top.”
She also said that many teachers were unhappy with what is now in the SPHE course. Several teachers who contacted Gript have said that they did not want to teach revised course.
Last month, the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland said that SPHE and RSE programmes in schools include “sensitive issues” and that “teachers should only teach material they feel they are comfortable and competent to teach”.
A book in the same series from Gill Education, ‘My Wellbeing Journey 1’, contains what another mother described as “an extremely worrying chapter on gender identity ideology”.
She said it was “very worrying that this ideology is being broadly taught, to every single Irish student, as fact rather than a belief system or limited to a few” – adding that it was being taught to young, impressionable minds, with absolutely no discussion or critical thinking involved.
In her view, the book is pushing compelled speech – forcing teachers and students to refer to others as ‘they’, for example – and, in common with several other parents she notes the inclusion of what they describe as an incorrect statement: the assertion that “sex is assigned at birth”.
Parents who contacted Gript expressed the same objection repeatedly, asserting that “Sex is not assigned. It is observed”. They say that schoolbook also “incorrectly” claimed there are more than two sexes”.
My Wellbeing Journey 1, Page 128-129
Most parents who spoke to Gript said that they understood that a “very small” number of children experience genuine gender dysphoria, but say that the SPHE books, instead of “simply acknowledging this, try to impose gender ideology, which ignores biological reality, on all school children.”
They point to the Cass report in Britain which warns against enabling “social transition” – where schools allow students to change their names, pronouns, clothing and bathroom use. The review found that “those who had socially transitioned at an earlier age and/or prior to being seen in clinic were more likely to proceed to a medical pathway”. Other studies found that the vast majority of children who experienced gender confusion eventually grew out of it.
Several parents said they have written to the Education Minister with these and other concerns, including the provision of contact details for Belong To in the schoolbook, an organisation which, Gript previously revealed, produced a handbook for teachers and youth workers which specifically instructed those professionals to lie to parents/guardians about their children.
Parents have also objected to the referrals made in the ‘My Wellbeing Journey 1’ book to You Tube videos about the use of preferred pronouns, which they say shows no regard for the belief system of students or their families – with one parent saying the exercise was teaching children to police pronouns.
They also said that the omission of any discussion around gender ideology seemed deliberate, such as the impact on women’s sports or the highly-controversial decision to place biologically male prisoners in female prisons.
Campaigner Jana Lunden said this week that “growing numbers of parents are now discovering what has been published in schoolbooks, despite parents objection to the new Curriculum, and many of them are horrified”.
The Natural Woman’s Council founder said that “no-one objects to factual information being taught” but that “the problem a lot of parents have that the content is highly sexualised, especially for that age group – and often wholly unscientific especially in relation to gender ideology.”
She said that parents were now aware after the Cass report that teaching gender ideology, especially in regard to transgenderism and gender fluidity, could be harmful to school children.
She pointed to the inclusion of books from authors like Juno Dawson in recommended reading lists for schools which included extensive and graphic sex tutorials about bringing men to sexual climax, as well as guides on the mechanics of how to perform anal and oral sex, as a previous examples of “completely inappropriate materials being made available to schoolchildren.”
Ms Lunden noted that the NCCA had eventually pulled back on including lessons on white privilege and other contentious areas, but said that parents needed to be aware that many of the areas still causing concerns remained.