Schools relationship video must catch up with modern world
Dear Sir,
I wish to express my outrage and disbelief whilst attending a recent information evening for 6th class parents of children attending many schools in the Drogheda area, who will be receiving Relationships and Sexuality Education classes with ACCORD.
This is part of the primary SPHE curriculum.
We were presented with videos that were at least 30 years old. They showed a slim white boy and girl going through puberty and white heterosexual couples.
The girls were in ballet costumes. What I didn’t see were a mix of cultures, children of different sizes, children with additional needs or the LGBT+ community.
As the heading of the course is Relationships and Sexuality Education, I expected the facilitators to discuss what was being offered from a 21st Century perspective not a Catholic mandate from the 20th Century.
Nowhere was sexuality discussed apart from how to make a baby. Nowhere did it reflect the referendum on same sex marriage, how loving relationships can be found in same sex couples.
I think local Boards of Management need to seriously consider the relevance of continuing this programme.
Educate Together schools offer an alternative RSE plan so there is no excuse for complacency. Diversity and inclusion should be at the heart of the SPHE curriculum and it’s obviously not the case here.