We learnt all about sex but not at what cost?
We were told this was necessary because we were likely soon to be sexually active, and we needed to make ‘responsible’ choices. As it says in the Simpsons cartoon: “Now that you know what to do, don’t do it.”
Deirdre Seery hits the nail on the head when she says (Irish Examiner letters, July 6), “it is difficult for... young people to feel normal in a world which constantly talks about teenage sex.”
Maybe the real obsession with teenage sex is not among teenagers but among adults. Certainly, the impression I got from sex education at school was that this behaviour was somehow expected of me, and that anything else was abnormal.
No one gave us classes in what to do if condoms and pills failed and we found ourselves with a baby.
For that matter, I don’t remember a single class about the cost of nappies, rent, electricity or gas, what is involved in getting a mortgage, or how to run a home. Are they not all aspects of becoming an adult, too?
Or does our education system believe that, geography and maths aside, the only thing we need to know as adults is how to have sex? If reports from certain quarters are to be believed, it seems that despite 30 years of sex education, we have more unwanted pregnancies and more trips to Britain than ever.
Is there a correlation here somewhere? Is the emphasis on sex alone in our preparation of young people for life sending out the wrong message?
Nick Folley
36 Ardcarrig
Carrigaline
Co Cork
