By Irish Society for Christian Civilisation
From Junior Infants until 6th Year, students are taught a course called Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE). It claims to provide “particular opportunities to foster the personal development, health and well-being of the individual child, to help him/her to create and maintain supportive relationships and become an active and responsible citizen in society.”[1]
The subject itself is not immoral. Many aspects of its curriculum are commendable. However, the present form of the SPHE curriculum includes extremely sexualised and communistic content.
Education, especially Catholic education, should aim at an ideal. Education without the moral dimension is at best a one-sided education. The current SPHE programme is a deformation of education and a serious danger to the innocence of the child. We should keep in mind the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ when he said:
“But he that shall scandalise one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.” [2]
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Here are seven reasons you should oppose the SPHE curriculum in its present form:
1. It Destroys a Child’s Innocence
All children are born with innocence by which they naturally seek God[3] and all that is good, true and beautiful. The baptised child is especially attracted by grace and Divine goodness. The current SPHE curriculum will destroy this innocence.
For example, one resource for teachers of children as young as six includes “class appropriate” definitions for homosexuality, lesbianism and transgenderism. Why do six year olds need to learn this?[4]
The Busy Bodies resource, a booklet that includes crude imagery, is listed as a resource for teachers of children as young as eight.[5]
All of this tramples on the child’s right to maintain his innocence. Children at that age shouldn’t be taught perversity but rather Faith and morals.
2 It Promotes Sexual Activity for Pleasure – Not for Procreation
In Relationships and Sexuality Education 1[6], there is a section that says “[s]exual intercourse should be pleasurable for both people”, while describing conception as a potential “risk”[7]. This completely inverts the primary purpose of the marital act; the procreation of children. One recommended website[8] provides a guide to obtaining free contraception as well providing a link to the HSE where a student can find out ways of obtaining an abortion.
Youth today need to be taught the importance and the beauty of chastity and fidelity to one’s spouse in marriage, not libertine pleasure. Why does the SPHE curriculum say little to nothing about chastity, fidelity, sacrifice for another, and purity?
3 It Attacks the Family
“A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family.”[9] Human society is founded and flourishes upon the family. The SPHE curriculum waters down the family and erodes this bedrock of society. In one resource, the family is defined as “[a]t best, a family is a group of people who support each other, take care of each other, love each other and often, but do not always, live together.” This vague definition leaves room to include “families” led by “same-sex parents” and “cohabiting parents” and even “transgender parents”[10]. Of course, there are legitimate exceptions but our goal should be the traditional family of father, mother, children, grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.
4. It Attacks Marriage
In three connected resources[11] produced by the HSE, “marriage” is mentioned only five times. On the other hand, “contraception” is mentioned over ninety times, “LGBT” is mentioned nine times, and “gender identity” is mentioned thirty-seven times.
Instead of teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman and that children are the natural outcome and purpose of sexual intimacy, one worksheet[12] lets students decide which “top nine factors help make a couple’s first sexual experience a good one.” One option being whether they have talked about unplanned pregnancy and contraception.
5. It Undermines Parental Authority
SPHE undermines the authority and duties of parents by teaching “relationships and sexuality”[13]. Matters regarding the procreation of children and the family are the sole prerogative of the father and mother. This God-given responsibility of teaching is also recognised in the Irish Constitution[14]. Parents should preserve, foster and protect their children’s innocence. A child with innocence seeks perfection and sees the world with a clear untarnished vision of wonder and excellence. With God’s grace, he can successfully combat temptation and sin.
In Divini Illius Magistri, Pope Pius XI writes, “Far too common is the error of those who with dangerous assurance and under an ugly term propagate a so-called sex-education, falsely imagining they can forearm youths against the dangers of sensuality by means purely natural, such as a foolhardy initiation and precautionary instruction for all indiscriminately, even in public; and, worse still, by exposing them at an early age to the occasions, in order to accustom them, so it is argued, and as it were to harden them against such dangers.”[15]
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6. It Denies Truth & Reason
A fundamental part of logic and reason is the idea that things have a purpose. The purpose of our eyes, for example, is to provide us with sight. The wings of a bald eagle exist to provide it with flight. Our lungs exist in order for us to breathe and absorb oxygen, and our ears exist in order to hear. Likewise, the primary purpose of human sexuality is procreation. However, the SPHE programme denies this by promoting perverse ideas like transgenderism and homosexuality.
7. It Pushes Marxist Ideas
One seemingly innocuous aspect of the SPHE curriculum is the reference to “critical” pedagogies.[16] Critical pedagogy is a Communist-inspired viewpoint of education which was first pioneered by Paolo Freire[17],[18],[19]. Freire’s use of oppressor and oppressed[20] as well as “praxis” are also a Marxist concepts.
One document made by the NCCA called ‘SPHE Teaching Approaches’[21] alludes to Freire’s ideas in describing learning in SPHE as praxis.[22] Using phrases such as “socio-cultural critical lens” is also an indication that education in Ireland is becoming increasingly influenced by Marxist ideas. All of the above is shocking but it should not be a surprise. After all, destroying the institution of the family is a prized goal of Communism.[23]
Instead of pushing revolutionary agendas, schools should teach students about maintaining harmony in society, which can only be achieved by keeping The Ten Commandments. Society should be a mirror of Heaven, not a communistic hell!
A Call to Purity
What then should be taught to Irish youth today? The answer is simple. Purity, chastity, fidelity in marriage, abstaining from sexual acts outside of marriage – all these should be taught but sadly are not.
True education prepares a person not only for life but also after life. A well-rounded education also forms the soul and prepares the person to practice virtue in today’s society. The SPHE curriculum in its present form contradicts the very essence of authentic education and destroys the innocence of children.
Taking a Principled not a Personal Stand
In writing this statement, we have no intention to defame or disparage anyone. We are not moved by personal hatred against any individual. In intellectually opposing individuals or organisations promoting the homosexual or transgender movement, our only intent is the defence of traditional marriage, the family, and the precious remnants of Christian civilisation. As practising Catholics, we are filled with compassion and pray for those who struggle against unrelenting and violent temptation to homosexual sin or any sin. We pray for those who fall into homosexual sin out of human weakness, that God may assist them with His grace. We are conscious of the enormous difference between these individuals who struggle with their weakness and strive to overcome it and others who transform their sin into a reason for pride and try to impose their lifestyle on society as a whole, in flagrant opposition to traditional Christian morality and natural law. However, we pray for these too. We pray also for the judges, legislators and government officials who in one way or another take steps that favour homosexuality and same-sex “marriage” and the transgender movement. We do not judge their intentions, interior dispositions, or personal motivations. We reject and condemn any violence. We simply exercise our liberty as children of God (Rom. 8:21) and our rights to free speech and the candid, unapologetic and unashamed public display of our Catholic faith. We oppose arguments with arguments. To the arguments in favour of the immoral aspects of the SPHE, we respond with arguments based on right reason, natural law and Divine Revelation. In a polemical statement like this, it is possible that one or another formulation may be perceived as excessive or ironic. Such is not our intention.
[1] [Primary] Social, Personal and Health Education Curriculum , pg. 8
[2] Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 18
[3] Catechism of The Catholic Church, paragraph 27; “The desire for God is written in the human heart”
[4] https://www.curriculumonline.ie/primary/curriculum-areas/social-personal-and-health-education/first-and-second-class/ Different Families Same Love
[5]https://www.curriculumonline.ie/primary/curriculum-areas/social-personal-and-health-education/third-and-fourth-class/
[6] This resource is one of three resources for Junior Cycle teachers made by the HSE called Relationships and Sexuality Education 1, Relationships and Sexuality Education 2 and Relationships and Sexuality Education Year 3
[7] Relationships and Sexuality Education 1 pg. 50
[8] curriculumonline.ie Resources for teaching and learning in SPHE, Strand 3: Relationships and Sexuality, 3.11, sexualwellbeing.ie
[9] Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 2202
[10] Relationships and Sexuality Education 1 Unit of Learning, 2023, pg. 25 from curriculumonline.ie
[11] See footnote 6
[12] Relationships and Sexuality Education 3, pg. 75
[13] An example of this can be found in Relationships and Sexuality Education 1 Unit of Learning, 2023, pg. 50
[14] Article 42 of the Constitution of Ireland
[15] Divini Illius Magistri, paragraph 65
[16] In the ‘Rationale of the 2023 Junior Cycle Specification’ we find this excerpt:
“Through the use of critical and participative pedagogies, SPHE can provide a safe, supportive and non-judgemental space where students’ self-awareness and awareness of others can grow, and where they engage in reflection and dialogue, and identify actions they can take to protect and promote their own wellbeing and that of others.” (emphasis added)
[17] https://guides.library.harvard.edu/criticalpedagogy
[18] https://jacobin.com/2021/09/paulo-freires-ideas-are-just-as-powerful-today-as-ever
[19] He described his “pedagogy of the oppressed” as “a pedagogy which must be forged with, not for, the oppressed… in the incessant struggle to regain their humanity. This pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation. And in the struggle this pedagogy will be made and remade.” From Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire, Chapter 1
[20] “The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”- Manifesto of The Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, from the English edition of 1888, edited by Friedrich Engels.
[21]https://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/338ca85f-b741-438d-85fd-3ca44bbc7ec8/SPHE-teaching-approches-Effective-pedagogical-approaches-in-SPHE_july-23.pdf
[22] The definition given in the resource of praxis is “an ongoing process of critical reflection and action, nurtured by dialogue with others.” Freire’s definition is nearly identical; “[f]unctionally, oppression is domesticating. To no longer be prey to its force, one must emerge from it and turn upon it. This can be done only by means of the praxis: reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.”
[23] Engels wrote that “[t]he first class opposition that appears in history coincides with the development of the antagonism between man and woman in monogamous marriage, and the first class oppression coincides with that of the female sex by the male.”- https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/origin_family.pdf
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