TDs and Senators have slammed a SPHE schoolbook being used in schools which featured an “anti-Irish” classroom exercise depicting Irish families who played GAA, enjoyed Irish music and dancing, and owned a family business, as “bigoted” and “racist”.
Gript spoke to parents, teachers, and politicians who called for the “immediate withdrawal” of the schoolbook and an investigation into how it was approved for classroom use. They also called for publishers, Edco, and for the Minister for Education to apologise.
The revelation that the classroom exercise unfavourably compared an Irish family (Family A) with another family (Family B) – characterising the GAA-loving, Irish dancing, Fleadh-going, Family A as bigoted and small-minded – and asked schoolchildren to chose which family they would prefer to belong to, has led to widespread criticism and “significant backlash” from parents, according to TDs and teachers who spoke to Gript.
The book, Health and Wellbeing SPHE 1, published by Edco, is for use in first year of secondary school when students are typically aged between 12-13. It portrays what might be described as traditional Irish families as being bigoted – refusing to allow their children to mix with people of a different religion – and narrow-minded – with a ban on all non-Irish sports and music.
Independent TD for Laois Offaly, Carol Nolan, said today that she had written to the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NCCA) and the Minister for Education, Norma Foley, following what she said was “a significant backlash” from parents against what she described as an “absurdly misconceived and discriminatory depiction of an Irish family”.
Deputy Nolan, who is also a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, said a constituent first raised the issue with her last week, and since then dozens of families have asked her to have the offending material immediately removed from classrooms until such time as a more appropriate exercise can be devised:
“At first, I thought this was some kind of parody but astonishingly this is not the case. These images and texts are being presented to our children with a grim and disgusting seriousness that is bewildering to me and many, many, others,” said Deputy Nolan.
“Anyone with an ounce of objectivity looking at these descriptions involving an ‘Irish family’ will immediately grasp the utterly absurd, hateful and sneering attitude that has been adopted,” said Deputy Nolan.
“The typical traditional ‘Irish family’ is lampooned as insular, angry, petty and let’s be honest here, xenophobic and racist while the contrasting family in the presentation is apparently filled with outward looking insight, tolerance, and intelligence. It is almost inconceivable how this trash made its way into a junior cycle textbook,” she said. “This depiction is entirely wrong-headed and must be removed.”
“The (not-so-subtle) messaging here is that any preference for your own culture’s music and sport, for example, is now being depicted a marker for racism. This is extremely dangerous territory.”
“A family can love traditional music, the GAA and indeed the kind of Irish food many of us do love without this involving some kind of brain-dead insularity that prevents an assessment or even an embrace of the good things inherent in other cultures.”
“I am seeking answers on how this material made its way into the textbooks; material I might add, that is about as disconnected from the reality of what parents want their children to be taught as it is possible to get,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
Independent Senator Sharon Keogan called for “an immediate review into the manner in which curricula and text books are set in the education system”, adding that she believed that: “This ideological indoctrination is nothing new from the Department of Education” and that “this is a recurring pattern”.
Meath West TD, Peadar Tóibín, said that when he first saw the pages from the schoolbook he “honestly thought it was a hoax”.
“The crazy thing is, Ireland has a rich and vibrant cultural heritage that is loved across the world. Irish culture is unique. Its as key part of the diversity of the world. Its something to be confident in and celebrated,” he said.
“Family A, the “Irish Culture” family is presented as closed-minded, dull, strict, limited and inward looking. Family B, the “Global Culture” family is presented as open, curious, engaged, generous and happy. Not only is it really poorly written, these are tropes would not be out of place in the anti-Irish Punch magazines of the British Empire. You can’t help feeling that there is a self-loathing element at play,” he said.
He added: “I have submitted a Parliamentary Question to the Minister for Education who is responsible for the content. I asked her was the text approved by the Dept of Education? Will the Minister ensure that texts books used in Irish schools do not negatively stereotype Irish people or Irish culture? And what steps will the Minister undertake to ensure that this does not happen again?”
Several teachers who spoke to Gript regarding the schoolbook said that the lesson was “insulting” to Irish families who played Gaelic games and enjoyed Irish culture. One said that the exercise directly contradicted the lesson on identity-based bullying in the same book. Parents who contacted this writer regarding the SPHE book also said it should immediately be withdrawn from use in schools, with one saying it was “racist against Irish people.”
Tipperary TD, Mattie McGrath also called for the SPHE schoolbook to be “immediately withdrawn”. Deputy McGrath said that what was in the book amounted to an “anti-Irish” message to schoolchildren, and that the Irish family were presented as being “bigoted and hateful”. He said that most parents were “completely unaware” that their families were being portrayed in such a “negative and harmful way in the classroom”.
He said the “sneering” reference to the Fleadh Cheoil, one of the biggest music festivals in the country was “absolutely offensive and actually inexplicable” in the context of painting a picture of “a narrow-minded family who were closed to all other cultures.”
“600,000 people attended the Fleadh,” he said. “It’s a huge festival, and showcases the finest aspect of our culture, with huge talent on stages, at street sessions, and in every nook and cranny of whatever town is hosting, and delighted to host, such a prestigious, cultured, family-friendly event.”
“Yet the family in the book who love the Fleadh are portrayed as the bigots, the people who hate all other music – and people of other faiths to boot. It’s appalling, its completely unacceptable, and Edco, the publishers should apologise and withdraw the book.”
“It needs to be immediately withdrawn and the Minister should step up now and do the decent thing and apologise too,” he said. “Every GAA family, and traditional music family, and family with a small business, deserves that at least.”
The Independent TD added that it was “utterly wrong” that the exercise in the SPHE book “seemed to sneer at people who holidayed in Ireland”, which he said “could be taken as a disparagement of families who might not be in a position to take a holiday abroad.”
Senator Rónán Mullen said that the push for diversity had become like a religion, whose “high priests”, he said, wanted to manipulate the curriculum.
“What strikes me most is the brass neck of these curriculum manipulators and textbook writers who are obsessed with filling children with certain ideas about what kind of life and attitudes their families should have, instead of letting people find their way naturally through their family, school and community, parish environment etc. It’s a diversity religion and its high priests clearly don’t have much faith in parents’ ability to bring their children up as generous, thinking and sociable people,” he said.