What age were you when you learnt about birth control?

freshpopcorn

I heard a little bit of the news earlier and there was a woman(sounded young) from the UCC feminists society talking about them wanting to introduce mandatory consent classes for first years. I was like yes fair enough but most people I knew back then had a fair idea what consent was.
However she then went onto say she went to a catholic secondary school and she left not knowing what a condom or the pill was. I knew from an early age about condoms were to do with sex but I had a fair idea before we did sex education at the end of primary school. We also briefly covered it in secondary school.
Have schools stopped teaching this stuff?
Would it be possible you'd get to the age of eighteen and not know what a condom was?

DEFTLEFTHAND

She's lying.

pjohnson

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I heard a little bit of the news earlier and there was a woman(sounded young) from the UCC feminists society talking about them wanting to introduce mandatory consent classes for first years. I was like yes fair enough but most people I knew back then had a fair idea what consent was.
However she then went onto say she went to a catholic secondary school and she left not knowing what a condom or the pill was. I knew from an early age about condoms were to do with sex but I had a fair idea before we did sex education at the end of primary school. We also briefly covered it in secondary school.
Have schools stopped teaching this stuff?
Would it be possible you'd get to the age of eighteen and not know what a condom was?

Unless you are Amish I highly doubt it.

January

She may not be lying. Catholic ethos schools teach abstinence, they don't give info about contraceptives.

Noveight

freshpopcorn wrote: »

However she then went onto say she went to a catholic secondary school and she left not knowing what a condom or the pill was.

I'd call bullshít on that. Sounds like she's constructing her own experience so it'll help strengthen her argument.

If a girl gets to 18 without knowing about condoms or the pill then it's her parents that need to up their game, not necessarily their school.

Franz Von Peppercorn

January wrote: »

She may not be lying. Catholic ethos schools teach abstinence, they don't give info about contraceptives.

I’m pretty sure that they do mention condons as part of any sex education classes. Certainly did in my day.

eviltwin

Noveight wrote: »

I'd call bullshít on that. Sounds like she's constructing her own experience so it'll help strengthen her argument.

If a girl gets to 18 without knowing about condoms or the pill then it's her parents that need to up their game, not necessarily their school.

Why should a child be left vulnerable because they have **** parents.

Every child should have access to sexual education in school from primary level.

freshpopcorn

My mother just heard her on the news now and said she really must have being living in a cupboard!

TheDavester

45, after my 10th kid

boardsuser1

Didn’t know until I was 15.

Never used it though.

sbsquarepants

I'm sure it's possible it was never mentioned in her school, but it's not like that's the only place you could ever learn anything.
I'd find it totally implausible that in this day and age anyone could reach 18 having never heard of the pill or condoms, from a friend, the telly, on the internet - somewhere!

MagicIRL

Had a sex ed thing in 6th class. That was the first formal introduction. Catholic school, too.

Had another sex thing in 4th or 5th year in secondary school.

Tbh it should be a core part of SPHE in school - along with Mental Health, Healthy Eating, basic exercise, financial planning/budgeting and road theory.

vicwatson

“Mandatory”? You can ban that straight away

Odelay

January wrote: »

She may not be lying. Catholic ethos schools teach abstinence, they don't give info about contraceptives.

Both you and ye wan on the radio must be fair old because catholic schools were teaching contraception 25 years ago. They didn't like doing it but they had to do it.

jimgoose

She's full of crap. I'm 46, and by the time I was doing the Inter-Cert I knew bloody well what condoms and the contraceptive pill were.

wakka12

I went to a strongly catholic irish speaking primary school and was taught at 12 the basics and most important things a 12 year old needs to know about sex education,
I also went to a religious secondary school and we had many informative and thorough sex ed classes.I don't see how yer wan could have not been taught throughout all of primary and secondary school.
SPHE is taught in majority of schools I assume? Until LC? Sex ed is a major component of the course

January

Odelay wrote: »

Both you and ye wan on the radio must be fair old because catholic schools were teaching contraception 25 years ago. They didn't like doing it but they had to do it.

I'm 30. I went to an all-girls convent school. I can honestly say I cannot remember learning about contraception from the teachers there, then again they were the type to bring in Youth Defence and their little teeny tiny fetus foot badges.

I did learn about contraception when I was about 12-13 though, from my parents.

Grayson

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I heard a little bit of the news earlier and there was a woman(sounded young) from the UCC feminists society talking about them wanting to introduce mandatory consent classes for first years. I was like yes fair enough but most people I knew back then had a fair idea what consent was.
However she then went onto say she went to a catholic secondary school and she left not knowing what a condom or the pill was. I knew from an early age about condoms were to do with sex but I had a fair idea before we did sex education at the end of primary school. We also briefly covered it in secondary school.
Have schools stopped teaching this stuff?
Would it be possible you'd get to the age of eighteen and not know what a condom was?

My mother was a midwife so I was taught those things. Besides that there was late night channel 4.
In school there was absolutely nothing at all. We had "retreats" where we were told about how god was part of a relationship. We were told that contraception was against God's law (the same as homosexuality) and that sex should not occur outside marriage. Consent never came into it since it was assumed we wouldn't be having sex until we got married at which point it would become irrelevant.

We should have clases in sex education, consent etc. Don't assume that everyone is on the same page or gets the same education from their parents or school.

I think in one of the nordic countries they start at a very early age using hugging as an example of consent. There's no reason why we couldn't have something similar here. Age appropriate classes one sex, relationships and sexual health.

Editing to add: I went to an all boys school. I'm pretty certain next to none of the guys I went to school knew anything about women's reproductive health. I think the majority of what we knew came from tampon adverts.

eviltwin

I'm 40 and went to Catholic school. I had two lectures in 3rd year where we learned about periods and pregnancy. No mention of contraception, std's or consent. My daughter, who is 21, also went to a Catholic school and had a similar talk. Sex education should be about more than how babies are made.

Bredabe

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I'm sure it's possible it was never mentioned in her school, but it's not like that's the only place you could ever learn anything.
I'd find it totally implausible that in this day and age anyone could reach 18 having never heard of the pill or condoms, from a friend, the telly, on the internet - somewhere!

When I was in school there wouldn't have been any mention of "artificial means of contraception". When I went to a new school a teacher who was returning from maternity leave was tricked into explaining the "rhythm method" to us in LC, there were ructions.
But those were the days when girls with genuine cycle issues were refused the pill(standard treatments) as there "could not be so many women having cycle issues"(usual excuse for asking dr for the pill for contraception)

As for being 18 and not knowing what a condom was, I recently had a 21-year-old sexually active young woman ask me which "area" was her Virgina. Others in my experience don't look things up on the internet, they seem to get lost in the toddlers and tiaras section, I think they assume a "grown-up" will sort it out for them. As for the ones who haven't hear of EC or think once they use a condom or pill they are 100% safe. Don't get me started on "I didn't read the instructions on my pill" or "I didn't know antibiotics can interfere with the pill"!!!!

I have come to the conclusion that someone/thing is keeping this info from the most vulnerable/uninformed.

Will I Am Not

I often wonder if I’m living in the same Ireland as everyone else.

freshpopcorn

Grayson wrote: »

My mother was a midwife so I was taught those things. Besides that there was late night channel 4.
In school there was absolutely nothing at all. We had "retreats" where we were told about how god was part of a relationship. We were told that contraception was against God's law (the same as homosexuality) and that sex should not occur outside marriage. Consent never came into it since it was assumed we wouldn't be having sex until we got married at which point it would become irrelevant.

We should have clases in sex education, consent etc. Don't assume that everyone is on the same page or gets the same education from their parents or school.

I think in one of the nordic countries they start at a very early age using hugging as an example of consent. There's no reason why we couldn't have something similar here. Age appropriate classes one sex, relationships and sexual health.

Editing to add: I went to an all boys school. I'm pretty certain next to none of the guys I went to school knew anything about women's reproductive health. I think the majority of what we knew came from tampon adverts.

Just out of interest what age are you?
Most people I know in there twenties/thirties had some form of sex education.
One guy I went to school with denies we ever did it tough or that we did SPHE!

Malari

eviltwin wrote: »

I'm 40 and went to Catholic school. I had two lectures in 3rd year where we learned about periods and pregnancy. No mention of contraception, std's or consent. My daughter, who is 21, also went to a Catholic school and had a similar talk. Sex education should be about more than how babies are made.

Similar here, although there's no way I wouldn't have left school without knowing about sex and contraception. I don't remember how exactly I picked things up but if it was virtually unavoidable back then, it certainly is impossible to believe now that an 18 year old wouldn't be educated on that kind of thing.

I do remember the GP suggesting the pill when I was a very young teen for acne, and my mom thinking it wasn't suitable. I remember thinking "THE pill"...what pill? She explained it to me. :pac:

The Backwards Man

We knew in primary school you had to go to the barber to get something done about it. What exactly that entailed was the subject of manys a terrifying walk home from school.

Grayson

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Just out of interest what age are you?
Most people I know in there twenties/thirties had some form of sex education.
One guy I went to school with denies we ever did it tough or that we did SPHE!

I left school in the mid 90's. I also went to what may be the most catholic school in the country. My sister went to a convent school and she got some sex ed, we got none.

We had a three hour retreat one night that ran from 6-9. It involved a married couple, who were incredibly religious, telling us about how relationships are sacred and we need to maintain a place for god in the relationship.

In another retreat we had a catholic priest tell us that if we had problems or issues with people of the opposite sex, people of our own sex, or with animals we could tell him in confession. I burst out laughing when he said that because i didn't think he was allowed mention sex with animals in front of 15 year olds. (I just googled that priest to see if he'd ever done anything dodgy and can't find a single reference to him).

but to get back to the OP's post. Yep, we need standardised classes in consent, sexuality, sexual health, the works.

freshpopcorn

Grayson wrote: »

I left school in the mid 90's. I also went to what may be the most catholic school in the country. My sister went to a convent school and she got some sex ed, we got none.

We had a three hour retreat one night that ran from 6-9. It involved a married couple, who were incredibly religious, telling us about how relationships are sacred and we need to maintain a place for god in the relationship.

In another retreat we had a catholic priest tell us that if we had problems or issues with people of the opposite sex, people of our own sex, or with animals we could tell him in confession. I burst out laughing when he said that because i didn't think he was allowed mention sex with animals in front of 15 year olds. (I just googled that priest to see if he'd ever done anything dodgy and can't find a single reference to him).

but to get back to the OP's post. Yep, we need standardised classes in consent, sexuality, sexual health, the works.

She also said that she didn't receive any basic sex education in this day and age. Which isn't true in my opinion. Saying stuff like this doesn't do her any favors in my opinion!

Triceratops Ballet

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I heard a little bit of the news earlier and there was a woman(sounded young) from the UCC feminists society talking about them wanting to introduce mandatory consent classes for first years. I was like yes fair enough but most people I knew back then had a fair idea what consent was.
However she then went onto say she went to a catholic secondary school and she left not knowing what a condom or the pill was. I knew from an early age about condoms were to do with sex but I had a fair idea before we did sex education at the end of primary school. We also briefly covered it in secondary school.
Have schools stopped teaching this stuff?
Would it be possible you'd get to the age of eighteen and not know what a condom was?

What we were taught was limited enough, I learned what condoms and the pill were from my mother.
We had an hour of sex ed in 6th class, which actually focused mostly on periods because we were all at that age, and a little on the basics of sex, but I remember not fully comprehending how it worked until we learned the reproductive system in biology in secondary school, and that was purely on a science basis, so there was no condom talk then.
I remember being made to watch an ultrasound of an abortion in 3rd or 4th year too and having the abstinence brigade to come in and do the most condescending "interactive" lecture on abstinence on 5th year.
I don't recall being educated about condoms or their use or even about STI's in school in a specific class.

I was of the impression that things had improved though, but I would support the idea that sex ed should become a structured course, that prepares all young people fully for what to expect, good and bad, consent included

topper75

January wrote: »

She may not be lying. Catholic ethos schools teach abstinence, they don't give info about contraceptives.

These schools don't promote them and don't condone their use.

Quite different to pretending that they don't exist.

So yes, she is lying.

Source - first hand. Went to a Catholic school.

Triceratops Ballet

topper75 wrote: »

These schools don't promote them and don't condone their use.

Quite different to pretending that they don't exist.

So yes, she is lying.

Source - first hand. Went to a Catholic school.

TBF there's a fair whack of us who went to catholic school, and because there is no sex ed syllabus, it's impossible to know she's definitely lying (unless of course you went to school with her and witnessed her being told)

BattleCorp

Triceratops Ballet wrote: »

TBF there's a fair whack of us who went to catholic school, and because there is no sex ed syllabus, it's impossible to know she's definitely lying (unless of course you went to school with her and witnessed her being told)

Just because she mightn't have learned that stuff in school doesn't mean that she didn't hear of that stuff elsewhere.

Did she go home and hide under a rock after school? Did she never talk to her friends and parents about this kind of stuff?

I started to learn about this kind of stuff when I was 8 from other kids my own age. Fair enough, a lot of stuff we thought we knew wasn't 100% accurate, but we weren't dummies either.

I find it very hard to believe that she didn't hear about condoms etc. before she was 18.

By the way, there's something seriously wrong with society if we need to send people to 'consent classes'. Is there no 'personal responsibility' any more? Do people seriously not know right from wrong? I can see the excuse being rolled out in the near future "It's not my fault I raped her, I didn't have a consent class". Bullsh1t.

kylith

My Catholic secondary school didn't even teach us names for body parts. We were told to wash our 'front bottoms'.

I had to check with my mum if 'front bottom' meant vagina cos I had no idea what the teacher was on about. Front bottom, ffs.