{"id":665,"date":"2015-05-15T23:14:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T03:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/?p=665"},"modified":"2015-05-15T23:14:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-16T03:14:24","slug":"sex-ed-in-ontario-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/?p=665","title":{"rendered":"Sex ed in Ontario, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my previous post, I tried to keep\u00a0my cool as I\u00a0explained why I support the curriculum updates<\/a>. Trying to catch anti-curriculum-changers with honey, rather than vinegar, as it were. To be honest though, my initial reactions upon hearing\u00a0the reasoning\u00a0coming from those against the curriculum update were decidedly more vinegary. \u201cIncredulous\u201d would be a better word, and what I wrote below is\u00a0actually what I wrote first in a fury. I know pieces like this<\/a> and this<\/a> have done a great job at countering\u00a0many of the concerns that have been raised against it, but I just needed to vent!<\/p>\n

But now it’s more than a week later and I still haven’t gotten this finished and polished up enough to my standards. Instead of letting it languish in “draft” purgatory and eventually dying a forgotten death, I’m just going to publish it as it is, so I can have a record of the frustration I feel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Campaigning based on fact or heresay?<\/h4>\n

I wonder if they\u2019ve actually read the curriculum, because just the Grade 1-8 curriculum guide<\/a> is\u00a0244 pages of goodness, about many\u00a0aspects of physical and mental health. That can be a daunting amount of text to read through, especially if English is not your first language. It\u2019s daunting enough for me that I admit I haven\u2019t made it through the Grade 9-12 curriculum yet<\/a>. I suspect a lot of misinformation is being spread in the non-English media through poorly or incorrectly translated interpretations, either deliberately or not.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But ok, if you want to get to the sex parts that gives people the rub, I\u2019m guessing these would be the highlights by grade.<\/p>\n

[table id=1 \/]<\/p>\n

\u201cParents should be the ones to teach sex ed to their children”<\/h4>\n

Absolutely, parents should ideally be the ones to teach their children about sex. But so many of these parents do not\u00a0teach anything\u00a0beyond the message \u201cDon\u2019t have sex before marriage”, or teach incomplete information, perhaps because they themselves are not educated enough with the\u00a0vocabulary\u00a0to be able to tailor the lesson to the age. Or they have an as-needed \u201cI\u2019ll answer any questions they have\u201d philosophy, but avoid the topic otherwise. In all these cases I think it\u00a0creates an environment where the topic of sex is taboo or extremely uncomfortable for kids to talk to parents, and so these kids try to get their information elsewhere. Would it not be better for this information to be accurate and sensitively delivered in a school, instead of via schoolyard discussions\/internet\/TV? Or are you\u00a0saying you\u00a0agree to let\u00a0kids have an uneven playing field of knowledge when it comes to their bodies and keeping themselves safe?<\/p>\n

\u201cTopics are introduced too early, it is not age appropriate”<\/h4>\n

\u201cLet kids be kids\u201d.\u00a0Again, if you actually read the curriculum I think you’d find it quite reasonable, especially when you consider than it is not rare anymore for girls to start puberty at ages 9 and 10. Now obviously there is\u00a0the need to temper the language and detailed specifics so that the child’s vocabulary is built slowly, brick by brick, but the message should still be there. \u00a0Otherwise I feel your aim is to lock your children away in Rapunzel’s tower, trying to shield\u00a0them from the ravages of the world, with no tools or vocabulary to protect themselves when an unplanned intruder breaks into the tower. Even if no intruder breaks in before your decided timeline, how will you then start to introduce these topics to your Rapunzels? If you’ve been avoiding discussing sex education for 18 years, my guess is you won’t be so well versed on their 18th birthday to have a meaningful discussion that builds rapport and trust in this matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo sex is the safest sex\u201d and \u201cThere is no need to teach about anal sex”<\/h4>\n

True, no sex is the safest, in terms of preventing pregnancy and spread of sexually transmitted diseases. But without including mention of all types of sexual activity, you risk having\u00a0some children not understanding that oral and anal sex is still sex. These kids might then engage in that activity thinking they are not having sex. That is the context in how anal intercourse\u00a0is mentioned\u00a0in the curriculum, mentioned as an example of sexual activity; it is not a graphic instructional lesson by any means.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not enough emphasis on love in sex<\/h4>\n

And I am all for parents to further the discussion on this at home to provide their opinions and convey their morals to their children. I certainly will be stressing that I believe sex is best done in love. Provide them with further points of view and arguments, and encourage them to use their own critical thinking skills to come to the right decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cMath, not masturbation”<\/h4>\n

This bugs me because it\u2019s not like the curriculum is planning to\u00a0replace class time in school devoted to math, science, and English. It\u2019s part of the health and social studies lesson time, where kids are taught things like how to brush their teeth properly, or what foods are good for their bodies, what bullying is, how to dribble a basketball or how to be good citizen in your community. All of these things would be removed from the curriculum if the same logic applies to everything outside the \u201ccore\u201d subjects. Our children would be poorer for not having education towards being well-rounded individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cKathleen Wynne has an agenda”<\/h4>\n

Yes, her agenda is to have children that are educated in the safe conduct of their bodies, enable them with the knowledge to identify risky situations and tools to deal with them, and to build a society where we are of inclusive and tolerant of everyone\u2019s differences. Oh wait, you think her agenda is gay recruitment to make more kids\u00a0choose a gay lifestyle? Then you and I have a fundamental disagreement in whether being LGBT\u00a0is a choice, and we won\u2019t be able to\u00a0get past that.<\/p>\n

~Jen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my previous post, I tried to keep\u00a0my cool as I\u00a0explained why I support the curriculum updates. Trying to catch anti-curriculum-changers with honey, rather than vinegar, as it were. To be honest though, my initial reactions upon hearing\u00a0the reasoning\u00a0coming from those against the curriculum update were decidedly more vinegary. \u201cIncredulous\u201d would be a better word, … Continue reading Sex ed in Ontario, Part 2<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,6],"tags":[259,315],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parenting","category-rants-and-reflections","tag-opinion","tag-sex-ed"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/birds_and_bees-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeneralmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}