Have your kids mentioned how empty their classes are this week? Or are you on the other side of the fence and working from home because you opted to pull your kids out of school to protest the new Ontario Sex Ed Curriculum? Either way, you’re probably sick of talking about it. Sick of trying to make your point understood. Well, I like to have the last word and I just have a little something to say.
I think my anger on the whole topic stems from one word. Choice.
The thing I’m confused about is, if parents have the choice to not have their kids attend sex-ed classes, then what is the issue? Why are they trying to make the program unavailable to my kid when it doesn’t need to effect their own?
This is exactly the same way I feel about two other big social issues. Abortion and same sex marriage. No one is forcing anyone to partake in any of these. But if you want to, why shouldn’t you have the choice? What right do you have to tell people not to do something, when it has zero effect on you?
Look, if legalizing same-sex marriage meant that you were going to be forced to marry someone you didn’t want to? I’ll stand on the street and picket with you. If legalizing abortion meant that every 17 year-old girl who got pregnant would be forced to have one? Okay, I’ll join in the protest. Obviously this isn’t the case. And when I see a 70 year-old man out protesting abortion, when it was never and will never be a choice he is forced to make, this enrages me. When I see a heterosexual woman trying to rally the government to block same-sex marriages from happening, I shake my head. How does this affect you in any way? Why do you care?
I find the whole sex education backlash to be along the same lines. You don’t like it? It doesn’t go along with how you want to raise your kids? I respect that. So take your kids out of school when it’s being taught. But do not think you can protest to have my choice taken away and expect me to be quiet about it. Because I won’t.
None of us should be.
I have a question: Will you as a parent, actually discuss everything
there is to know about sexual education with your children? I ask, only
because most parents don’t even know how to start this conversation, or even how to keep momentum.
Since society has changed so much, it is even more important to be in our schools. Because that is where our future as a society begins. If you trust that you’ve done a good job raising your kids to that
point, a little extra sexual education wouldn’t derail all you’ve done
as a parent. Keeping our children ignorant of what is around them because you as a parent believe they shouldn’t know about it, only hurts them in the long run. The end result is fear and uncertainty which in many cases spawn awful things. The more knowledge they have, the better choices they can make, and ultimately the happier they will be. Let change happen; we were meant to evolve.
If you choose not to allow your child partake in the updated curriculum that is up to you, but the update and changes needed to happen, it was time.
Sorry your your wrong. There is no choice and that is the point. I feel that the primary grades are way too young for any discussion of this nature but there is no choice to opt out and unfortunately they are trying to tell us how to raise your children even if you are against it. We should respect all peoples opinions and beliefs and that is not being done.
Hi Mom of two…but (and this is my own opinion) i believe choice is already out of the equation…kids are already talking about it amongst themselves in the playground so your choice of when to teach them is gone. I wanted the choice to teach them about santa claus but some kid spoiled that for me 🙂 so why not tell them names of body parts? why not give a name to the family with two mommies in your child’s class?
the only way one can successfully choose to not have one’s child sexually educated in school is not send them because the playground is where learning happens. it will happen with or without the formal curriculum so why not tell them the actual facts rather than, “this is what my 11 year old brother heard from his 14 year old babysitter”? that’s the reality.
Believe me, I’m all for this curriculum but scared to death of having “the talk” but it has to be done 🙂 it _is_ uncomfortable but it’s also worth it. all of our kids are worth it. I believe they have the right to know about their bodies and how to protect and take care of them.
I’m not disagreeing with you. I do believe we should have this in place for the very reasons who’s talked about. I have two children under 7 who aren’t ready or mature enough to fully understand this topic. I feel they should wait a little more to be taught . They are taking that choice away from us. I grew up in a different province where the choice to be taught was there. It’s a matter of maturity and not all kids are ready for this conversation. How can I expect them to understand when truly they are not mature enough to talk about sex.
ah, i understand….i believe my kids are old enough to talk about sex…it’s _me_ that’s not mature enough LOL I’d love to have the choice not to tell them at all but that’s because i’m scared to death 🙂
But situations come up and I’m concerned that if it does the parent who wants the choice will just say, “oh, we’ll talk about it later when you’re older” and the child will be left with more questions and mysteries about their own bodies.
Personally I had my own choice taken away from me at the Moncton Zoo when the lions decided to put on a sex-ed class of their own! Well, kids…I guess it’s time to learn how babies are made…in the zoo…in front of 15 other people! 🙂
I don’t typically get involved in theses type of conversations but I’m going to. I feel that grade one is far to early to be talking about any of this. I also feel that most of what they are going to be learning are things that I as a parent should be discussing with MY children! The older they get the more detail that is going into what is being learned and I for one feel this is a boundary that is being crossed. I don’t normally agree with the teachers but this time I do.
Hi Mom of Three – thanks for replying. I’m not sure the teachers are with you on this – some could be but they aren’t the ones on the picket lines over sex ed. Regardless – as I say – I respect that you don’t want your first grader learning this – I do. But can you respect that I want mine to learn it (he already has from me)? And if you do, then you wouldn’t want the curriculum changed, you would just choose to remove your child when those classes are being taught. And I could choose to keep my child in the class. Do you see what I mean?
Agree, I do believe that Sex Ed needs to be updated but I feel that Grade 1 & 2 is way too young to be implementing it in to the schools. We are not given a option or vote on this and it is being forced on parents/Children and I am only speaking about the young ones. If better parenting is needed then mandatory education for parents need to be given instead of making the School/Government parent our children. We all raise our children differently and unfortunately what is acceptable in some homes is not acceptable in my home. Sex is being through at us from every direction and children are not able to be children anymore. Instead of teaching the little ones this, why not have them start teaching them math and english earlier to focus more on better earlier education. In some other countries a child in Grade 1 knows how to start multiplying etc. We find that Ontario has very poor marks in these areas but still we focus on SEX. Am I missing something here. I truly believe that Sex ed needs to be updated in the grades it is currently starting in (I think that is grade 5, 6 or 7) this is truly outdated so I am agreeing there. My issue is the younger ones. Educate the Parents. Let children be children and respect their innocence. You can bet that even if parents have their children opt out of the sex ed class that the hot topic at recess will be body parts etc.
What is it exactly you think they’re going to be taught in grades 1 & 2? Grade 1 is about identifying body parts by their proper name (which was already part of the 1998 curriculum) and hygienic procedures (e.g. hand washing and germs). Grade 2 is about stages of human development and oral health. They’re not going to be teaching kids this age about sex, of any kind.
honestly, it’s not even choice in my opinion, it’s information! we teach kids about matches, strangers, cars, alcohol, cigarettes…and on and on… but then the one thing they can control and is entirely theirs is off limits? makes no sense at all why people are against this