A Fianna Fáil TD has called on his party colleague and Minister for Education, Norma Foley, to ensure that material being taught for SPHE – which he described as a “total disgrace” and “explicit” – was “immediately” withdrawn.
Deputy Seán Fleming said that “many people” had been in touch with him regarding the SPHE curriculum, and that he “shared their outrage and concerns”.
The new SPHE curriculum has been plagued with controversy, with parents claiming that their views had been ignored, and a series of controversies erupting around both the contents of newly-published SPHE schoolbooks, and graphic and sexualized material used in workshops presented in a DCU course for SPHE teachers – with teachers saying the material was clearly intended for classroom use.
A “whistleblower” video of the experience of SPHE teacher, Mary Creedon who attended the DCU course – and was shocked to find it included an animated video of a woman masturbating and an exercise featuring the terms “fisting” and “rimming” – was uploaded by the Natural Woman’s Council and has been watched an estimated 700,000 times on social media.
A Gript investigation into an academic brought by DCU as a “guest speaker and “workshop lead” for its course for SPHE teachers, found that she has written young children “do sexuality” – and believes “heteronormative” assumptions of “children’s presumed sexual innocence” should be challenged through sex education policy. Prof EJ Renold of Cardiff University has also written that presumptions of innocence in children were used to legitimate “whiteness”, “the family” and “hetronormativity” – and that thinking of childhood as being antithetical to sexuality was a “white, middle-class” concept.
The professor has stated that her research and writing has been designed to “encourage what could be described as a ‘queering’ of childhood” – and recently argued that children aged 0-5 years express sexuality through sexual behaviours. She has argued that parents must not have the right to remove their children from RSE/SPHE lessons – a recommendation accepted by the Welsh government.
Addressing Mary Creedon’s video, Deputy Fleming said “I personally viewed the video myself. I am totally against and appalled by the inclusion of some of the material contained in the teachers’ training course as part of the SPHE curriculum.”
“I have spoken directly with the Minister for Education, Norma Foley on this matter and I’ve asked her to withdraw all such material immediately,” he said.
“It’s a total disgrace and no material of this explicit nature should ever be shown or discussed in schools with young boys and girls. It is totally over the top and should never be considered as part of the SPH curriculum many people have been in touch with me about this matter and I shared their outrage and concerns”.
Other TDs and Senators have also spoken out on the revelations around the SPHE course in recent days – with some referring to the outrage which previously arose regarding the inclusion of ‘Family A’ in an Edco SPHE classbook, in which a GAA-loving, Irish-dancing, Fleadh-going family were portrayed as narrow-minded bigots.
Laois Offaly TD Carol Nolan said that it was now “absolutely certain that what I would term extremist voices are exerting a powerful sphere of influence on our children’s school curriculum.”
“This appears to be taking place within a de facto atmosphere of political approval at the Departmental level. From what is emerging it is terrifyingly clear that our schools are being approached as some kind of squalid ideological petri dish for a social engineering agenda that is abhorrent to the instincts and experiences of parents and educators alike,” she said.
In regard to the idea of challenging “children’s presumed sexual innocence”, the Independent TD also said that “very many parents” who contact her would “not accept this poison as the new normal”.
“Quite frankly the professional obsession with destroying the so called ‘myth’ of presumed childhood innocence runs contrary to every child safeguarding ethos of any value. What is driving this relentless determination to sexualise children or to prompt them toward the exploration of what, until 5 minutes ago, were adult only themes? That is the question we need to pursue through a forensic investigation into the pedagogical assumptions that are operating behind a veneer of an attitude which says, ‘this is how things are now, so get over it.’ Well I for one and the very many parents who contact me will not simply accept this poison as the new normal,” she said.
Leader of Aontú, Peadar Tóibín welcomed Seán Fleming’s comments and said that Aontú “has been the only party that has raised its head above the parapet on this issue and had the guts to challenge the material on this curriculum”.
“It is clearly not suitable and totally age inappropriate. One of the most disturbing aspects of this entire situation has been the apparent encouragement of pupils not to disclose to their parents what goes on in this curriculum, that to me is simply unconscionable and goes against everything young people are taught,” he said.
“Obviously children and young people need to be taught about sex education, they need to be taught about consent, they need to be taught about safety, but this material coupled with the videos was over-sexualized in the extreme. I’m glad that Deputy Fleming has seen fit to share our concerns in Aontú and come out and condemn it,” he said.
Tipperary Deputy Mattie McGrath said that parents had been “increasingly shocked and horrified” at the revelations around SPHE for schools – and added that Minister Norma Foley needed to answer questions about “how this situation had been allowed to arise.”
“The buck stops with the Minister,” he said, “there’s no escaping that. How did she allow SPHE to be taken over in this way. She needs to apologise and take action.”
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