When Doug Ford’s Conservative government chose to repeal the 2015 sexual education curriculum and replace it “in the meantime” with the 1998 version, they made the statement that anything beyond what the 1998 version covers would be up to the parents to teach to children.
This, perhaps, is one of the most frightening statements made about this repeal.
Think about parents for a moment. Parents grew up in a different time than their children – it doesn’t matter what decade it is, times have changed by the time someone becomes a parent and has a child who is old enough to attend school and become educated.
Now, consider the speed at which technology has been developing over the last 20 years.
Social media did not exist in 1998 – there was no Facebook, no Instagram, no Snapchat. Within only a few years of 1998, children were frequenting chat rooms with adults who ignored boundaries, so the curriculum was outdated rather quickly.
In 2018, chat rooms are “out,” and social media is “in.” If the parent does not have a social media account — or one on all of the social media platforms that their children use — then how will they be able to teach about safety on social media?
The fact is, parents grew up in another time, and their knowledge on modern sexuality is just as outdated as the 1998 curriculum.
Let’s talk consent. Many parents do not even understand consent. Having not been taught about it themselves in schools, they are not aware when they are not receiving or giving consent.
Children are often given the wrong notions about consent — such as girls “asking for sex” by their manner of dress — if any at all. Many will say that people need to protect themselves against sexual assault (wrongly placing the blame on the victim). Well, give children the chance with consent education.
What about sexual orientation and gender identity? Sexual orientation was not included in the 1998 curriculum, despite that protection from discrimination against homosexuality was added to the Canadian Human Rights Code in 1997. Although same-sex marriage was not legalized in Canada until 2005 – 13 years ago! – it was considered a basic human right to be treated equally and without discrimination for being homosexual.
Similar human rights were provided on the grounds of gender identity and gender expression in Ontario in 2012, and in Canada nationally in 2017. If anything, let’s at least teach children about their human rights.
Most parents are not teachers. Parents rely on teachers to provide their children with knowledge that they perhaps cannot. How would you feel if the government suggested that math and English were up to the parents to teach to their children? Wouldn’t you rather someone qualified teach them about those subjects?
Well, why is health and sexual education any different? Don’t replace important information with outdated content and attempt to fill in the gaps with more outdated content — or should we go back to teaching that the Earth is flat?
Ryan Wildgoose,
Ph.D. student at Laurentian University