While Toronto residents quickly raised a protest against Ontario’s revamped sex-education curriculum, Centretown parents are showing support for the new guidelines about the birds and the bees.
Made public Feb. 23, the new curriculum will be implemented next September. Children in Grade 1 will learn about the proper names of body parts. In Grade 3, they’ll be taught about same-sex relationships. In Grade 4, they’ll discuss online safety and sharing sexual images, and in Grade 7, students will be informed about ideas of consent, gender identity and the risks of sexting.
A Forum Research survey has found that about half of Ontarians approve of the new curriculum, while one-third oppose it.
“To have open, fact-based conversations about body parts and how they work and what feelings accompany them is what children need,” says Lara Purvis, co-chair of the parent council at Cambridge Street Community Public School.
Both the Catholic and public school board trustees for Centretown told Centretown News that no parents have called with complaints about the new curriculum. The Ottawa Citizen, however, did report the day after its release that parents were already expressing concerns to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
Purvis, who has a 10-year-old son in Grade 4, says that the curriculum is long overdue and a great improvement to what is currently being taught.
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Last updated 17 years ago, Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum is the oldest in Canada.
Although Purvis is pleased to see sensitive topics being covered at younger ages, she says she would like to see many of the topics discussed even earlier.
“I believe that more inclusive conversations around gender and consent and identity should be a part of the everyday workings of kindergarten,” Purvis says. “We should be celebrating and learning about the diversity of all the different families from the first day of school.”
The outlined changes to the curriculum will bring it closer in line with other provinces, although certain ideas, such as the introduction of body parts, are still being taught earlier in provinces including British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba.
Tina Head, whose grandson is in Grade 1 at St. Anthony School, a Catholic school near the corner of Booth and Gladstone, says there will be nothing taught from Grade 1 to 3 in the new curriculum that her grandson will not already know.
Like Purvis, Head believes the introduction of same-sex relations and different types of family relations in Grade 3 is too late.
“Kids are aware. You can’t hide this stuff and you shouldn’t try,” Head says. “Children in our schools come from a wide variety of families, including same-sex parents. They all need to be able to proudly introduce their family member to their classmates and teachers.”
Head adds that introducing a new curriculum is not enough.
“Teachers will need to be provided with the training and resources to implement it with sensitivity and creativity,” says Head.
“I also hope that resources will be available for parents so they can understand what is being taught, how and why.”
The Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women is one group that has seen a lack of resources available for parents how to help them have conversations about sex with their kids.
The same day the new sex-ed curriculum was announced, the non-profit group released a free online guide called “kNOw More,” which discusses how parents can talk to children about sex, relationships and consent.
Kids are ready to be having these conversations, says Erin Leigh, executive director of the organization.
“With the new curriculum, we think that more kids are going to come home with questions,” Leigh says.
“And we do think that conversations about sex and consent are not something that should just happen at school, they should also happen at home.”
She adds that having many or several short conversations will help build trust between parents and their children. Talking with kids early on can provide a more organic flow in helping them understand issues and articulate them as they get older.
“Children live in the real world. They are going to be exposed to new ideas and experiences outside the home and classroom environment, whether we adults are ready to deal with them or not,” Head says.