Imagine how the kids in Ontario’s grade 6 & 7 classrooms will feel. Ontario’s new sex education curriculum introduces gender identity and same sex relationships to the grade 3s and anal intercourse, masturbation and vaginal lubrication to grades 6 & 7. By Grade 8, students are also expected to grasp the basic elements of
contraception, and to understand the subtle differences between
two-spirited, transgendered, transsexual, and intersex. Wtf? I obviously need to go back to grade 8 ’cause, really? Needless to say, the new curriculum guidelines have some parents feeling more than a bit uncomfortable and religious groups up in arms.
As Margaret Wente of the Globe and Mail says in a recent article:
In a way, I sympathize with the socially conservative crowd. “Our young
children … should not have to think about sex at such a delicate age,”
says Ekron Malcolm,director of the Institute for Canadian
Values. I, too, would like to roll back the clock to a time when boys
were respectful, girls were virgins, and they only dated each other.
Too bad those times never did exist. It’s also too bad that we live in
a sex-saturated culture where girls hit puberty at 9 and nearly every
kid, however delicate, has been exposed to Internet porn by the age of
10. But there you are.
But as Wente also points out, we live in a sex-centric culture and most parents are not doing a great job of sex education at home. The kids that need the information and preparation the most often come from homes where they are least likely to get it. I spent some time chatting with my friend Jennifer about this yesterday and we both agreed that we definitely want to discuss all of these things with our soon-to-be pubescent nearly 11-year-old boys before they get it in school. We have both bought books, talked about hygiene and had one or two semi-uncomfortable conversations about sex but, surprisingly (she oozes with sarcasm), “anal intercourse” and “intersex” have not really come up. Why would they at this point if we weren’t trying to beat the school to the punch?
However, I do agree that sex education has a place in schools. Every kid is not going to be comfortable asking every question of their mom or dad and some will only learn what they get from the schoolyard and it is amazing what a group of kids can concoct and buy in to. Plus, by the time they figure it out it can often be too late. On the flip side, I don’t know if they need detailed descriptions of sexual acts in the classroom. I would hope there would be more of a focus on responsibility, safety and self-respect. Just because some of these things are possible doesn’t mean you have to partake. What about the emotional aspect of sex? The social? The life altering (or ending) consequences?
I have been thinking about this quite a bit since learning that my guy has a “girlfriend”. Innocent enough, right? But after seeing them give a little hug in the schoolyard I realized that, soon enough, my son will be dealing with raging hormones and I want him to be prepared. I want to talk to him and prepare him before it happens so he can make responsible decisions while respecting himself and his partner. That I can do.
What about you? Do you plan on talking about sex at home with your children? What do you think about the new sex education curriculum? Share in the comments below.
Want to know how they approach sex ed in other provinces? Click here. Other countries? Click here.