Catholic Education Tasmania head takes issue with mandatory consent education

www.abc.net.au 'Amoral': Catholic education head takes issue with national sexual consent curriculum

Strengthened sexual consent education is now part of the Australian curriculum for all schools, and while non-government schools have some discretion in its implementation, the head of Catholic Education Tasmania has criticised the way consent is included in the national curriculum.

Is anyone shocked Catholics wouldn’t want to teach consent.

Australian News @aussie.zone

www.abc.net.au /news/2023-12-04/catholic-education-gerard-gaskin-consent-education/103175500

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13 comments

Seems like a ridiculous take to me. Of course consent isn't the only standard, it's just the bare minimum standard that everyone should be taught across our society regardless of religion. If you want to add the views of your particular faith on top of that, as far as I understand there's nothing stopping you, so what's the problem here exactly?
- The additional views of their faith are secrecy and shame, which aren't really compatible with a frank discussion.
- Sex Ed in religious schools is an odd thing in general. It can be seen as a passive encouragement to have sex before marriage. As far as the more conservative are concerned, the Bible has taught all that needs to be taught outside of family and that's "worked" for all this time, so don't change it.
  
  And thats why countries and regions with strong catholic sentiment tend to have the highest rates of teen pregnancy
- Eh, I personally dont want additional standards being taught in publically funded class rooms. If the church wants to shame its members, they can do that in their own buildings on their own time.
  I went to a christian school, but I went for an education, not an indoctrination. If I or my parents wanted the latter we would have to church.
  On the upside, from my experience/anecdotal data point, my school did a fantastic job of taking in fairly faithful students and beating that out of them :D
  
  Yeah I agree with you and I think there's a lot to be said about if and what role publicly funded religious schools should play in society.
  I think the priveliged position of these schools right now makes the original complaint here even more ridiculous.

When the most powerful person in your organisation in this country gets convicted for paedophilia (never mind that he got off because the High Court decided the separation between triers of fact and triers of law is irrelevant), of course you wouldn't want young people to know what consent means.
Oh, and also, leave it to Catholics to not know the difference between amoral and immoral. They keep saying it's amoral as though that's a bad thing. Amoral merely means it doesn't interact with morals at all. It is completely neutral on the question of morality. It's by definition not a bad thing, even if you subscribe to Catholic morals.
Also while we're at it, how about you learn your own sources?
It is the long-held teaching of Christ that sexual activity is only legitimately expressed within the loving relationship between husband and wife
When? When did Jesus Christ say that? There are many passages you could point to in the bible that could be interpreted to forbid sex outside of marriage. But please, Mr Gaskin, show me when Jesus himself said it, if that's what you're going to be claiming.

"Yet, the federal and state governments appear to have decided that such highly sensitive, amoral and potentially harmful information must now be provided by teachers and that it must start in the first years of schooling.
Oh no, someone is protecting children from sexual predators! That will put Australian priests at a disadvantage in the catholic kiddy fiddler of the year challenge, how could they?!

I research sexual violence. All I can say is that anyone who takes issue with consent education = red flag central.

it's not really the concept of 'consent' that he has a problem with.... it's that if you teach sex ed and consent to teenagers, you might be implying it's 'ok' to have sex outside of wedlock so long as those involved say 'yes'. he probably wants a total abstinence-before-marriage, and only that, 'sex ed' curriculum.

@Marsupial
Absolutely ridiculous response from the Christians.
They should stay in their lane and keep their bullshit religious morals and hypocrisy out of schools.
So sick of this American culture war crap making its way over here to Aus

This is the best summary I could come up with:
In a recently published article on the Archdiocese of Hobart's website, Gerard Gaskin took issue with mandatory consent education programs.
"Consent is proposed as the only standard we should use to judge whether a sexual act is right or wrong, legal or illegal," Dr Gaskin wrote.
Dr Gaskin wrote that "age appropriate or not … according to Federal curriculum requirements, children are to be taught that any form of sexual activity is OK provided both persons give consent".
"Yet, the federal and state governments appear to have decided that such highly sensitive, amoral and potentially harmful information must now be provided by teachers and that it must start in the first years of schooling.
After more than 200 people responded with "yes" in just 24 hours, Ms Contos launched an online petition calling for more holistic and earlier consent education in Australia.
The Queensland government announced in October last year that it had revamped the way respectful relationships and sexual consent is taught in schools.
The original article contains 641 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 74%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

I would rather consent be taught to children and teenagers in schools than for this to be included in university curriculums as is the current trend.
I am an adult who decided to improve upon some of my qualifications recently. In order to get my results I am forced to complete and pay for a 'how not to rape people' class. All the fucks given to anyone who thinks it's appropriate to tell a grown adult who has committed no crime how to go about not raping someone.

13 comments