Sir, – The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has opened consultations on the proposed new senior cycle social, personal and health education (SPHE) curriculum, which seeks to build “reflective thinking and critical questioning” skills in students.
On studying the proposal, I can’t see how these skills can be acquired without the curriculum pulling back the curtain on many of the topics discussed, particularly pornography.
Rather than limiting learning outcomes to investigating the influence of pornography on attitudes (Strand 2.7), I believe there would be real value in students understanding who makes money from pornography, the trafficking and abuse involved and how the porn industry is engineered for profit and addiction – information that could empower teenagers to question if it’s something they want in their lives.
The public consultation period ends on October 18th, 2023. – Yours, etc,
Ann Ingle: Deliberately going out of my way to move for no particular reason has never appealed to me
Gerry Thornley: How about an alternative look at Ireland’s Six Nations win over England?
Is Ireland anti-Semitic, an outlier of tolerance or in the middle ground?
How risky is it to buy a second-hand EV?
ELIZABETH DOYLE,
Dublin 14.
