Bananas, Condoms and Consent: What Your Kids Are Really Learning in Health Class

Talks on Tuesdays is a live event series bringing big ideas, real experts, and curious minds together - at your favourite local venues. Think thought-provoking lectures, audience questions, and post-talk mingling over drinks and dinner.

This isn’t a uni lecture. It’s a social, intelligent night out.Come alone or with friends, leave with something to talk about.

Event Schedule:

6.30pm Arrival & Doors Open

7pm Lecture Starts

7.45pm Q&A

8pm Talk Concludes

8.30pm Event Closes.

*Please arrive close to 6.30pm

A La Carte menu and full bar available throughout the night - pay as you go.

Your Topic:

Bananas, Condoms and Consent: What Your Kids Are Really Learning in Health Class

Think back to school health education. A condom on a banana, a laminated poster about the food pyramid, and a teacher who very obviously wanted to be somewhere else.

Now your kids are in that classroom, and the syllabus has changed. Consent. Pornography. Gender. Vaping. The topics are harder, and the conversations are live: thirty teenagers with opinions, and a teacher deciding in real time what can be said out loud.

For my doctorate I interviewed Western Australian teachers as they put a new health curriculum into practice. Their biggest concern was working out what they were supposed to say, and how much of themselves to bring into the room when the topic was contested.

This talk explores discussability, what a class feels able to talk about, and pedagogical emotional intelligence, a teacher's ability to read and respond to the emotional dynamics of a group. Why are some topics easier to discuss than others? And how prepared are teachers for the emotional complexity of these conversations?

I'll share what teachers told me, why these conversations matter, and what this means for the health education your kids experience, and the conversations they bring home.

Your Speaker:

Dr Emily Lockhart

Dr Emily Lockhart is a Lecturer in the School of Education at Curtin University, where she prepares future Health and Physical Education teachers. Her doctoral research, completed in 2022, examined how Western Australian teachers make decisions when teaching contested health topics. Her current work explores how teachers handle the emotional side of classroom discussion, and why some conversations open up while others shut down.

Event venue & nearby stays

The Guildford Hotel, 159 James Street, Guildford, Australia

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