Well I did it this time. I allowed a status to create havoc in a social media account. It was quite amusing to see what was happening…oh, what about you ask..the new Ontario Health Curriculum for grades 1-8.
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| Source: Ottawa Citizen, http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/reevely-conservatives-in-tizzy-over-ontarios-sex-ed-curriculum-but-miss-its-flaws |
It was years in the making…but 20 years in the waiting and was held up 5 years ago……I can’t believe it was that long ago; I also cannot believe it was revived. I thought these things died when veto’d, but I’m glad it wasn’t.
I think it is a step in the right direction if we are trying to build a country where respect and dignity is for as many as possible…not just the loudest as possible…it also permits allowing children to know their anatomy at an age where it is not just a game to them. They can actually learn how they function…and that the parts have real names that are as acceptable to say as nose or elbow….older than that is too late….they find it funny, and have already been tainted with the feeling that those parts are a dirty, bad word….or they have already been molested by someone that told them it was their secret pleasure toy…..the curriculum even has modern social media in mind…teaching about the risks of sending sexual message to people and the problems with meeting a new friend that you were talking to online…..
It is a lot to take on...but 20 years is too long of a wait for a new curriculum....they could have eased their way into it over 10 years, but that should have happened 10 years ago. It is the story of making parents responsible for sexuality and sexual health education...and everything was just not progressing....
Just about everyone I know was excited for the change… but that is because I surround myself with sex positive people and professionals that have been dealing with the negative offshoots of a lacking curriculum in sexual health and education.
The banter on the news and radio was explosive. Some crazy divides-one side was basically emotional and the other was filled with angered logic..... I watched and kept up on my status posts…then I posted this publicly:
So I mentioned how media can influence curriculum and brought up the sex ed example....my students didn't know there was an issue, could not understand why people would protest the change and laughed out loud when I said that it had been delayed previously.....laughed....it reminded me that the curriculum was not designed for parents, it was designed for the health and safety of the students...students who have been learning the wrong things in the wrong places for a long time and really desire the proper information.
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| The Sexuality Wheel. Source: http://www.gdhr.wa.gov.au/ |
Acquaintance: There are reasons they don't get to vote until they are 18, if you asked them if they would like beer in the cafeteria they would say hell yeah to that too.
That was ignorant and dismissive
of the intelligence of young people. An intentional insult in order to make
himself seem smarter….so I responded…
Me: On this topic I trust my students in highschool more than a ** something year old with no connection to education or their life experiences. You are welcome to provide me with an itemized explanation of why you think the curriculum should be altered (using actual points from the curriculum and the current research on sexual activity), but you don't deal with the questions kids ask and you haven't had to explain to a 12 year old what chlamydia is and why they got it from sucking some 19 yr olds dick....so get off your high horse and start thinking about the real picture
And
then the high horse became the crazy horse….there were a bunch of slams against
the curriculum and a push to support parents that do not want their kids to
know about anything until grade 9!!! I retaliated with my blunt ways and then other people joined (I stopped looking at one point). He
finally took the victim stance with:
Wow, all this because I was debating one single point of the curriculum, age appropriateness. The extrapolations are offensive. You've used ageism as an argument, sexism, homophobia and racist analogies and have now called me ignorant. If you expect tolerance, fairness and equity from society you better be prepared to give it.
I
gave up…I just could not take the senseless support of a system that has been
proven to not work. I could not take it anymore.I lashed out...angry and very offensive as well...
Honestly, you can call me what you want, say what you like and belittle my knowledge and the knowledge of the countless people that contributed to the curriculum (including religious representatives and parents) all you want. The big picture is the anti-new-sex-ed’ers had 5 years to prove that you can do a better job and failed. Review the reports on students that are of sexual and gender diversity (including the ones on coming out, suicide rates, bullying and safety issues plus the reasons why students do not ‘come out’ until after high school even though they know their orientation in elementary school) and if you still don’t understand why teaching different types of relationships starting early is an important start to a ripple effect then just watch the documentary Valentine Road and remember I associate this anti- same sex relationship teaching mentality with the people that supported what happened to Larry King and his teacher. Systemic homophobia. Like it or not…I don’t care.
BTW You clearly are
denying your obviously offensive part in all of this conversation and taking
the victim stance….That's ok, I expect it.
The whole situation was frustrating and got quite heated on both sides. He is an educated man and I am sure he is a good parent and grand parent...this was not supposed to go this way!!
The worst part is that over the course of the night, I received texts “He’s gonna have a world starr moment if he’s not careful…”, “he’s an attention seeker”. ..”is this guy really this stupid” …I received PMs on facebook wondering how I know someone that is so blatantly ignorant and what was up with him.
It was hilarious madness…that’s the best way to put it. I
responded from time to time with blunt honesty and supporting points…he doled
out the victim stance while continuing to insult countless others…I naturally dropped the H-bomb (homophobia) and then was hit with the ‘I
–have-gay-friends-so-I’m-not-a-homophobe stance’. I called him ignorant instead.
he is the one that said he wasn’t homophobic and I am pro-choice ;-)
You’d think he was the most intelligent person ever. Pointing out that the curriculum was made by people that did not know what is age appropriate…people that study child development, have kids, work with kids…know kids…apparently did not know what was age appropriate.…….
He simply could not admit that this argument is not about not knowing what is age appropriate.… .it was about parents losing their power to decide what “facts” their children knew about sexuality and relationships…they lost the last power they thought they had over their kids—sexual knowledge.
Yup….that happened in this millennium. It might still be going on. I can’t even look at my homepage right now. It is filled with an ironically funny sadness. I do accept my part in being less tactful, but I had to say something. It was painful and sad to hear.
I’m not taking the flack for this though….I had to allow this person to comment…I had to let him degrade intelligent people and insult hard work while defending archaic beliefs under the premise of protecting children……he had to happen…I needed my people see what was there….and this is what we are up against.
The collective We needs to remember that we had to fight….we had to fight for women to be considered humans that can make choices….we had to fight so that black people were not hung for looking at a white woman the wrong way….we had to fight to prevent people with disabilities and Indigenous status from being forcibly sterilized…we had to (and still have to fight) for proper access to mental and physical health services rural communities…..we will continue to fight for the rights of children including those from sexually and gender diverse backgrounds (their parents, them, others in their life).….the cause changes but the fight remains the same.
We have to fight for equitable human rights…sexual rights…..
This hierarchical thought process isn’t going away. There will always be people that think that the status quo is best and that others should just be subject their choices at all times (and those who disagree are insulting them and oppressing them). They have had the power and are now upset that they are losing it…..but we need to remember that they can build themselves up again and we might not be so lucky next time.
Some Resources:
- The 1998, 2010 Interim and 2015 Documents: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/health.html
- New sex-ed curriculum under fire: http://www.torontosun.com/2015/02/23/new-sex-ed-curriculum-under-fire
- Michael Coren: Why critics of Ontario’s new sex ed curriculum are wrong: http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/26/michael-coren-why-critics-of-ontarios-new-sex-ed-curriculum-are-wrong/
- Parents as First educators http://www.p-first.com/
- Protest Coverage Tues Feb 4: http://www.cp24.com/news/wynne-defends-revised-sex-ed-curriculum-amid-criticism-1.2251180
- 5 Myths And Facts About Ontario's Updated Sex Education Curriculum: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/karyn-pickles/ontario-sex-education-curriculum-update_b_6746012.html
- Law allows parents to opt out their children from controversial Ontario sex-education curriculum http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/23/law-allows-parents-to-opt-out-their-children-from-controversial-ontario-sex-education-curriculum/
- Valentine Road: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2577990/
- The Unslut Project: http://www.unslutproject.com/
- Buying into Sexy: http://curio.ca/en/buying-into-sexy-the-sexing-up-of-tweens/s/988/
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