Sir, - Helen Teevan Carmody (August 8th) says she is horrified at Fr Ingoldsby's condemnation of sex education in schools. She does not believe that these programmes have proved disastrous elsewhere, but both here and in the UK teenage pregnancies have soared since sex education was first introduced. In 1965 there were 439 teenage pregnancies here and in 1996 there were 3,325.
She allows that parents at home should guide their children in sexual matters, but that is not enough, apparently. Is sex such a complicated matter that it takes the whole 13 years of school life to impart it? She claims that the group setting of school is ideal for reinforcing standards and utilising peer support. But who could credit that even adults discussing such intimate and private matters in a group setting would not feel embarrassments or shame? Then why should we expect young people at their most vulnerable not to be affected by it? Children at school are taught to read, to write, and to spell and to practise these skills. So it would follow that for them sex education is also for now, not for the future.
However, she unwittingly reveals the reality behind public classroom sex education when she says: "I want my daughters to know what sex is about, how to say `No' firmly, and how to prevent pregnancy." Perhaps she might tell us why they would need to know how to prevent pregnancy if they have been saying "No" firmly.
Like many people today she ignores the weakness of human nature which disposes us to evil due to original sin. What children need most is to be brought up in virtue and right living, knowing what is right and what is wrong, and this they will know if they are instructed in modesty, obedience, diligence, piety and chastity. - Yours, etc., Mary Kennedy, The Irish Family League, Dublin 8.