Irish Teacher: The Flourish Programme is denying children their bodily autonomy

I'm not anti-religion but the Flourish Programme is indoctrinating our children against our Constitution, writes Jennifer Horgan 

Jennifer Horgan. Picture: Larry Cummins

‘You better stop giving out about religion then.’

A comment levelled at me last weekend, when I mentioned a local secondary school my three children might like to attend.

Initially, I was annoyed. Then I copped on. It’s important for me to know how I’m heard and read, that I’m perceived as anti-religion when I ask for objective sex education or suggest children should feel included in Irish classrooms.

I’m not anti-religion. I grew up in a religious house. My parents watch Mass online every day. My mother exercises by walking around the house, muttering the Angelus under her breath. But their faith is personal; it makes no judgement on other people’s choices or identities. They don’t complain when myself, my husband, and my children don’t join them.

So no, I’m not anti-religion. If 97% of our schools weren’t faith schools, I’d have a lot less to say about them. It’s the lack of choice, the lack of respect for choice that bothers me.

Because a lack of choice, a curriculum children can’t practically avoid, is indoctrination.

I’m anti-indoctrination.

On behalf of time-poor parents, I spent a few hours last weekend combing through the Flourish resources for relationship and sex education in Catholic schools.

To be fair, I encountered an indisputable effort to reflect a modern, inclusive Ireland in the material. For example, Flourish asks children to draw pictures of other families and reminds them that ‘love is at the heart of all families.’ There’s certainly a tone of acceptance if not one of equality.

But there’s a central tear in the material. Remember, the Catholic church still considers homosexual sex to be sinful. In 2016 Pope Francis described gender theory as being part of a ‘global war’ on marriage. The church also considers abortion to be sinful. These values are at direct odds with what we’ve voted for as a constitutional democracy.

And these values are central to the programme.

Flourish denies children their bodily autonomy. They’re taught to believe that their bodies develop in line with God’s ‘plan.’ There’s no space for a child who questions their biological sex or gender assignation.

Girls’ periods are their bodies’ way of ‘Preparing for motherhood.’

I know women without children. I know women who cannot have children. These women are absent from the text.

Children are taught to see abortion in Catholic terms.

‘From the time they are tiny cells in their mother’s womb they need to be minded and they are born completely helpless. They need trusted adults to make sure they grow into strong, healthy children and, eventually, strong adults.’

The resources make the Church’s judgement on human relationships clear. The ideal, that is sex within a committed heterosexual marriage, is elevated and comes first.

‘In order to bring a wonderful child into the world a couple need to be committed to staying together and doing the very best for their child. A married couple, as part of their wedding vows, promise to welcome children into their lives. They receive God’s blessing on their commitment to each other. Amen.’

There is no specific blessing of single parents, the separated and divorced parents or the parents who were never together to begin with. How many children might this affect in an average Irish classroom?

The lauded example of a child born in a committed relationship is followed by exceptions to that rule.

‘Be mindful that children may bring up that babies can come into families by adoption, surrogacy, fostering and to same-sex couples. Emphasise that babies are a gift from God in all circumstances and that God is at the centre of love in all families.’

The same shift in tone. Acceptance but not equality. These children are separated out, presented as different and arguably, not ideal. Teachers are instructed to be ‘mindful’ of these situations. We are asked to be compassionate, to remember that they are still a ‘gift from God in all circumstances.’

There’s no mention of children who don’t believe themselves to be children of God – the children who have no choice but to be there, who even when they opt out, cannot avoid this narrative establishing a hierarchy of human identity.

Parents in Lacken National school Co Wicklow have intervened and had the programme removed from their school. 1,600 parents have signed a petition against Flourish on Change.org.

Where’s everybody else? Busy hanging rainbow flags in schools and outside government buildings? Busy boasting about their progressive country?

Do Irish parents care? Or do they simply hear someone complaining about religion again?