Let's Talk About Sex

freshpopcorn

Richie Sadlier new program discussing sex with Tranisition Year students airs tonight.

I'm fairly sure there's a new sex education program being introduced in schools soon. Honestly I know very little about it about from stuff I'd see on social media. Which rarely is balanced.

I do think sex education needs to updated in schools and there's no point of shying away from it. Obituary everything is done age appropriate.

My sex education was in the final days of sixth class. Firstly a Garda gave us a talk about drugs and then a woman discussed a bit about sex and babies. It was sort of a bit like biology. We could ask questions tough.

I don't think anybody paid attention really.

It took place at about 19:30 and our parents were in the back of the room. I'd say about one third of the class didn't attend.

Then there was the general stuff in secondary school.

What was your experience with sex education at school?

HalloweenJack

We had a doctor come in and give us the talk from a scientific/biological stance in sixth class. Then whatever we covered in Junior Cert science and Leaving Cert biology. All this took place in the 2000s.

I imagine nowadays there's a lot more info on the emotional and legal aspects which can only be a good thing.

valoren

Our science book in secondary gaelscoil had the following definition.

Sainmhínigh Gnèas. "Cuirtear an péineas isteach i bhfaigean na mná agus scaoiltear amach na millúin de speirm". It was pretty much self explanatory.

riffmongous

We had a 30 minute sphe class that was mostly on disease and pregnancy I think.. it wasn't very informative plus the usual idiots (most of whom ended up with kids very young) made sure anyone who looked like they were paying attention got some smart remarks

donaghs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058312667/lets-talk-about-sex

Its always going to be a "touchy" subject. In the past it was important to prevent unwanted teen pregnancies, and the spread of disease.

What do you propose it should be like?

Oscar_Madison

Back on the 80s little or nothing in early teenage years - Biology class really, no formal sex education “class” per se.

We did have some organised discussions in 5th year around “girls” from the perspective of respect etc and some discussions around the difference between male and female orgasm and how the female was like an electric cooker and the male was like a gas hob 🤪

But in fairness, compared to other schools that was actually quite forward thinking for its time and way ahead of many other schools from what I heard. A trained counsellor was facilitating and it was actually a very good “mature” discussion

Gregor Samsa

Richie Sadlier new program discussing sex with Tranisition Year students airs tonight.

I assume not from recent experience.

growleaves

From any non-Irish people reading this, Transition Year is where you take a year out from school in order to transition from one gender to another.

Floppybits

I remember when I finished in 6ht class the school organised some sex ed for those that wanted to go. It was a morning for 5 days. They went through the usual how a man works, how a woman works and all that stuff. Then in secondary school our class was split in 2 girls went to one class and boys to another. The school chaplin was running the boys one and he went through the usual stuff as well and at the end there was a question and answer session on anything related to sex but instead of everyone sticking their hands up to ask the question we had to right them down on a piece of paper and they were then sent up and the Chaplan/priest picked them out to answer them. As you can imagine all sorts of questions were getting sent up.

I only think they did because there had been a few pregnancies in the school.

Boggles

Will they actually be taking about sex or will Richie just be leathering consent into them?

Overheal

St Flannans sat us down for a few hours of anti-abortion propaganda complete with graphic images of the procedure and the discarded fetal tissue.

Never got the impression there was a formal curriculum. If it were I would have frankly expected if I'm being seen those kind of images we should be getting taught how to graphically identify various STDs etc. but the woman was just very focused on us not aborting Gods babies.

NIMAN

Football expert and sex expert.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081684#Comment_121081684

god is clearly a very horny fcuker!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121080405#Comment_121080405

..

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081793#Comment_121081793

...they must be russian or something, ive no idea what that language is...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081800#Comment_121081800

I'm actually amazed after all these years I managed to decipher it without google translate.

The only word that I hadn't seen before is, "scaoiltear".

But given the context, one could quite accurately infer it's meaning.

There's almost a sense of onomatopoeia about it; funny how it works like that even across different languages.

It's reminiscent of "tears out with reckless abandon", formally known in English as "ejaculate".

But we collectively got just about zero sex education in school, which I largely blame for me being the original one-pump-chump in my early days.

Really the overarching focus should be however, NOT to get knocked up early and with zero provision for the well being off offspring.

If that was ever present in the education curriculum, you certainly wouldn't think it.

valoren

It's Irish. Gaelscoil was the clue.

Gatling

Ours was given by a priest who recorded it on on a dictaphone,

Seriously creepy at the the time

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081721#Comment_121081721

Jack of all trades and master of none.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121080797#Comment_121080797

What length is your dick, Father?? :)

iamstop

On a dare I asked our science teacher, who was doing the sex ed lesson in trans year, "Do girls like it up the pooper?"

She very frankly answered that girls like it about as much as guys do.

Wasn't the shock response the darer was looking for.

Amused at the touching belief that education and providing information have more power than culture.

Education: Getting drunk and having unprotected sex is not a good idea and can lead to unwanted pregnancy or an STD. Actual behavior goes out and gets drunk and has unprotected sex as they are young people.

The next day they are not thinking if only they had been told in a sex education class it wasn't a good idea they wouldn't have done it!!!

757TFFIU

Sex education in the secondary school I went to was dealt with in 6th year. It involved reading a book together in religion, which ended with: "And as for masturbation, is it a sin? That's a conversation you'll have to have with God". And a lad got put out of the class for asking how to use a condom. (It was a very odd school looking back on it!)

tesla_newbie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058312667/lets-talk-about-sex

I used to like Ritchie when he was a soccer pundit , pity he developed into such a monotonous woke bore but sure that’s where the money is

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082590#Comment_121082590

He’s on tv tonight being a soccer pundit as usual.

Not a mention of sex.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082586#Comment_121082586

If you talk to God its praying, if God talks to you its mental illness.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082217#Comment_121082217

In fairness he was a very good footballer until injury ended his career.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121080866#Comment_121080866

He spoke about it on a podcast years ago back at the time of the Paddy Jackson trial. Back then, consent came up in one of the 6 sessions. Or as you call it "lathering consent into them".

We actually had a decebt twist on sex education in school. We got the standard biology stuff but an old bloke came into talk about relationships. He talked about the importance of sex in a relationship how important it was to make sure both partners enjoyed themselves.

I can't remember much from it but I remember him telling us stuff like preriods and how a woman's breasts can become sensitive during her period. She might or might not be interested in sex but might still want affection. I remember that being really good info for a teenager.

El_Duderino 09

They really miss the point of sex education when they don't even mention the physical or emotional enjoyment of sex. Every school child knows sex feels good, but they generally don't even talk about it in sex ed. And they don't tend to talk about the emotional side now sex either. So they teach the biology and how to get pregnant, and let the teenagers figure out all the rest of sex by themselves.

They leave it a mystery instead of taking someone the mystique out of it by discussing it. Hopefully the modern approach will be more real to life and might actually arm them with the info they need.

My “sex education” was in the early 1970s in a private convent girls school, a class delivered in first year senior cycle by one of the lay teachers who was a mother of 9 and the school’s main religion teacher, and very good at her job. She was a lovely teacher, a kindly, motherly type of woman, and gave us the biological facts as well as giving us quite a bit of sensible personal advice as to how we didn’t have to feel pressured to do anything we were uncomfortable with until we felt ready. We were told that sex can be very pleasurable, it wasn’t treated as a biology only topic. Though an RC school we were never morally lectured unlike experiences I’ve heard reported by people attending other schools.

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082217#Comment_121082217

Let's use the full quote if you're going to try to undermine someone who's paid to be on TV.

archfi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082656#Comment_121082656

Thanks for the excuse to post this gem

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083071#Comment_121083071

And your point is ?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082959#Comment_121082959

That's great.

Was watching The Way We Were last night and there was a bit about how ads for tampons and sanitary pads only started airing here in 1991! Letter of complaint to Mailbag from a mother. Crikey, my mother isn't exactly super liberal but she never shied away from the matter. It's only a bodily function.

And of course condom availability was so limited until I think even after that (Reeling in the Years also '91 featured the controversy over condoms being given out in the Virgin - yes, ironic - Megastore, as well as the scandal of The Lovers' Guide writer guesting on the Late Late).

Hilarious stuff. Ireland has moved very very far beyond that.

We got our sex ed later in the '90s via a crackly film of a nun talking to an audience somewhere in very rural Ireland. In fairness the nun was a nice lady - and very confident, not awkward or embarrassed. But it was still funny - and we were in hysterics. Didn't tell me anything I didn't know, as my mother, a nurse, kept me informed. But I know that wasn't the case for many.

Marital rape wasn't a thing until 1990 here though, homosexuality decriminalised '93. That was the decade of change - a long time coming.

As regards education on pregnancy my mother made cuddly toys to demonstrate pregnancy, a teddy bear with a zip opening in the belly with a mini bear inside and famously a snake stuffed with baby snakes, that was when I was 2 or less, back 1963. My mother’s aunt was a bit horrified but same aunt had entered a marriage without any knowledge of sexuality whatsoever and tan out of the guest house or wherever it was when her husband made a move in bed. She thought he was mentally ill. My mother, born 1920, was given no sex education by anyone but knew “there were things to be known” where my father gave her the full detail. She was adamant I was going to be told as much as possible, age appropriate, as early as possible, and I was made aware, but not in any way paranoid about the existence of predators.

The cleaner where I worked told us that when she got married they stayed in a relative’s farmhouse in Wicklow as their honeymoon, but that neither of them had a clue about what was supposed to be done or not done in the wedding night. He literally sat in a chair all night as she slept on the lumpy hay mattress. She said that throughout their married lives she never actually saw him naked once or her her. They had three children. Lights always off! That was not untypical of that generation.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084628#Comment_121084628

That's so sad that they were never told about such an important part of life and relationships. People will figure it out on their own eventually but it doesn't need to be a big mystery with any shame or anxiety attached.

Fair play to your mother for taking a proactive approach. I presume she was thinking for herself back then. But even now you see opposition to comprehensive sex education, so I presume it's just something some people are afraid to talk to their children about.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058312667/lets-talk-about-sex

We have yearly retreats with priests who would lecture us about sex and then we have an incredibly religious couple come in and give us a talk about marriage and relationships. I remember the couple saying that there's three people in any relationship, the man, the woman and God.

As far as actual sex is concerned, there were two pages about human reproduction in our intercert science books. We skipped them.

sekond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082909#Comment_121082909

Similar experience here in the mid 90s in a similar school. We had a nun for RE that year, but she was sensibly replaced by one of the other teachers for that particular topic. We covered the topic in science class also, maybe in 2nd year. As we moved through senior cycle there were quite a few different "talks" organised by the school, covering STDs, pregnancy, birth control etc. While the general direction of the speakers might have been quite conservative, the discussions afterwards were fairly open, and our own teachers were great at allowing a really broad discussion. One thing I don't remember hearing was discussion of same-sex relationships etc, but looking back, I'm surprised at how modern and open the whole approach was.

El_Duderino 09

When does Richie Sadlier the show air?

I think it's interesting that so many people have such terrible experiences of sex education, and Sadlier is somehow an azzhole for trying to offer improved sex education.

I haven't seen what exactly he's offering but when I heard him talk about it a few years ago, it seemed pretty sensible and badly needed. I'd like to know what the students who get the course think about it afterwards.

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084991#Comment_121084991

Was on last night from what I gather. Also was on Matt Cooper earlier in week about it. It's pretty predictable the kinds of people annoyed by it.

Mister Vain

My sex education involved a video showing pictures of penises for about 20 minutes, and then it showed a picture of a vagina for a split second at end. All the lads felt a bit cheated. It was a weird angle too, kind of an upskirt shot.

Manc-Red_

Like a lot of people my education came from VHS tapes initially then 6th class had a proper and real class about more realistic techniques

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081721#Comment_121081721

Typical bleedin man 🤣

Sadlier is a psychotherapist, concerned about the effects of porn on kids - and of course the usual jobless wonders on Twitter are calling him a "grewmer". It's the in thing now.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121087071#Comment_121087071

How is it the people who do nothing are the first to criticise a person who does something useful.

I hadn't heard him being called a grewmer, but if its true them shame on them.

Galwayguy35

Principal of the school I went to was a nun so sex Ed was never going to be part of the programme.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121085323#Comment_121085323

Bet the gay lads felt chuffed 🤣

BaywatchHQ

I didn't do sex education and I left school 12 years ago. I am an incel so it is meaningless to me anyway. I have little interest in sex as a lot of baggage comes with it, you have to spend time with the woman, etc.

NewbridgeIR

I started secondary school on 3 September 1984. During Religion class that morning, the teacher (a priest) gave us notes to take down. The topic - Why is masturbation a sin.

Great days.