What age were you when you learnt about birth control?

Grayson

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I am not against it being taught but most people I know knows what it is already and know if their pushing somebody into something. So having a few classes on the matter wouldn't have had much of a difference!

But, as I mentioned earlier, don't assume that everyone has the same level of knowledge as you or your friends.
That's why we should have classes on this. It's not something that should be 4 times a week for two years. 😊A few hours a year is no harm.

Corkgirl18

Just finished teaching Human Reproduction to my 2nd years last week. Male and female reproductive organs, intercourse, implantation, birth, breastfeeding, various methods of mechanical/chemical/natural contraceptives and IVF were all covered and are part of the course.

Students usually have a sex talk in 6th class. SPHE covers sex education, contraception, STI's etc and the topic is usually done in 2nd or 3rd year.

I went to a convent school and we had a talk in 6th class, covered more in SPHE in 2nd and 3rd year and had a sex ed talk in TY focusing majorly on contraception and STIs.

kylith

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I am not against it being taught but most people I know knows what it is already and know if their pushing somebody into something. So having a few classes on the matter wouldn't have had much of a difference!

And some people don't know it, so having a few classes on the subject won't do any harm.

An tUasal C

Corkgirl18 wrote: »

Just finished teaching Human Reproduction to my 2nd years last week. Male and female reproductive organs, intercourse, implantation, birth, breastfeeding, various methods of mechanical/chemical/natural contraceptives and IVF were all covered and are part of the course.

Students usually have a sex talk in 6th class. SPHE covers sex education, contraception, STI's etc and the topic is usually done in 2nd or 3rd year.

This was not part of my junior cert science education last year. Whether or not it’s on the course - it wasn’t taught.

Never happened in my primary. May technically cover it but no aspect of sex was ever covered during my junior cycle.

Also, I rarely if ever am absent from school.

Just saying for a lot of students this isn’t the case and it is 100% possible for a student to leave 6th year without an iota what an STI is because I was never told.

Definitely need a dedicated sex course that all students need to cover during the course of their education.

CastielJ

it was 18but most of my classmates still don't know about condoms

seamus

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I am not against it being taught but most people I know knows what it is already and know if their pushing somebody into something. So having a few classes on the matter wouldn't have had much of a difference!

I think you're probably projecting your own personal ideals and knowledge onto others. No matter how close a friend may be, you probably don't know how they will act in the more niche scenarios.

I could say with absolute certainty that I have no friends who would forcibly rape a woman, or take a clearly semi-conscious/wasted one home in the knowledge that she couldn't resist.

I couldn't, however, say for certain how they would act in the grey areas. When everyone's really drunk. When they're trying to seduce a person into sex. When they're "making their moves". Filling up her glass of wine (and their own) in the hope that it makes them more open to sex.

And not all of these are specifically consent issues. But that's the whole point; trying to draw the line between the scenarios where consent is not an issue, and consent may be an issue.

It generally stems back to the social ideas we teach that men always want sex and women don't. Thus it men's duty to "encourage" women to have sex, and women's duty to resist. Which makes it really hard for men to know when "no" actually means "no" and really hard for women to figure out how to say "no" in a way that isn't construed as playing games.
It also creates a reverse problem - the assumption that men can't be raped because they're always up for it.

It's getting better, it's getting way better, but there will continue to be idiots who raise their children with these ideas. And consent classes are a good start to realign the thinking of both sexes to understand that sex should always be a two-way interaction, and not a game of chasing.

lawred2

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?

Yeah she's lying

lawred2

January wrote: »

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

and her parents & friends?

seamus

seamus wrote: »

It generally stems back to the social ideas we teach that men always want sex and women don't. Thus it men's duty to "encourage" women to have sex, and women's duty to resist. Which makes it really hard for men to know when "no" actually means "no" and really hard for women to figure out how to say "no" in a way that isn't construed as playing games.

It's not just a social idea.

freshpopcorn

Just to note I am not against classes on consent but I don't think they should be in third level.
They should be done at second level where more students can access them because when I was on college nights out you'd bump into loads of people who weren't at third level.
I also think they should just be part of a program of dealing with alcohol/drugs/drunken friends/etc.
So basically a more up to date SPHE classes.

Lia_lia

I knew since primary school because my parents told me. I even knew what a diaphragm was before I started secondary school because I asked my Mother what her one was for!

I went to an all girls convent school and did my leaving in 2007. We got a “talk” from a public health nurse in 1st year. It was grand but was mostly about periods. I’d say 70% of the girls in the class had already got their period. We also got a free goody bag with pads in it. In the goody bag we also got a letter that we needed to have signed by our parents if we wanted free tampons :rolleyes: .

We did get a much better talk from the same nurse in 3rd year where she talked about sex, contraception, sds, women’s health issues etc. This time we got the tampons in the goody bag, ha! It was a good talk but we could have got it in first year instead of third year. I can’t remeber if we were told anything about consent. I doubt it. Was more like “don’t get pregnant”.

And then in religion class in 5th/6th year we watched anti-abortion propaganda videos mainly created by religious orginisations. Look up The Silent Scream...that was one of them. Was mental! I’d love to know if they still make students watch these videos.

freshpopcorn

Lia_lia wrote: »

And then in religion class in 5th/6th year we watched anti-abortion propaganda videos mainly created by religious orginisations. Look up The Silent Scream...that was one of them. Was mental! I’d love to know if they still make students watch these videos.

I was in school from the 1990's-2000's and the word abortion was never really mentioned to be honest!

Triceratops Ballet

Lia_lia wrote: »

I knew since primary school because my parents told me. I even knew what a diaphragm was before I started secondary school because I asked my Mother what her one was for!

I went to an all girls convent school and did my leaving in 2007. We got a “talk” from a public health nurse in 1st year. It was grand but was mostly about periods. I’d say 70% of the girls in the class had already got their period. We also got a free goody bag with pads in it. In the goody bag we also got a letter that we needed to have signed by our parents if we wanted free tampons :rolleyes: .

We did get a much better talk from the same nurse in 3rd year where she talked about sex, contraception, sds, women’s health issues etc. This time we got the tampons in the goody bag, ha! It was a good talk but we could have got it in first year instead of third year. I can’t remeber if we were told anything about consent. I doubt it. Was more like “don’t get pregnant”.

And then in religion class in 5th/6th year we watched anti-abortion propaganda videos mainly created by religious orginisations. Look up The Silent Scream...that was one of them. Was mental! I’d love to know if they still make students watch these videos.

the silent scream, that's the one, we were made to watch it too!

robman60

Yeah she's lying. Went to Christian Brother's primary and secondary, all the stuff was taught. Not to mention hearing from friends and a small amount from family, but they were more abstinence oriented I suppose.

It's just a blatant lie to push an agenda, nothing else to see here.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I think she's lying to some extent.

However, I left school in 2008 without having learned about contraception in any class.

Grayson

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I was in school from the 1990's-2000's and the word abortion was never really mentioned to be honest!

It was mentioned a lot in my schools. But it was during the time of the abortion referendums. Youth defense came to the school and gave a talk to my entire year.