Knowledge is power
The new sex-ed curriculum released by the Ontario government is awesome. Children will be learning, from grade one, the proper names for genitalia, and by grade three, they will have started a dialogue around what makes a person unique, including outer and inner factors. Outer factors include physical differences, such as skin colour, while inner factors include sexual orientation and gender identity. Puberty will be addressed in grade four, as well as the risks of the Internet. Perhaps one of the best additions to the curriculum is the mandatory discussion around consent in grades seven and eight – students will learn what it means to give consent, what it means to be in a healthy sexual relationship, and various forms of sex.
I couldn’t be any prouder of Ontario for implementing such a relevant change to our education system. With the rising awareness of sexuality and gender identity in our society, a heteronormative sex-ed curriculum is no longer useful. With an overwhelming digital presence in our lives, it is no longer relevant to use sex-ed textbooks from 1998. Knowledge is power – a simple exercise such as teaching five and six-year-olds the proper terms for male and female genitalia has the power to decrease ignorance, as well as encourage collective respect among all genders. Learning about sexual orientation, and gender identity, in grade three will help those who feel trapped in their identity at a young age, and will hopefully decrease the risk of depression and suicide in homosexual youth – a serious problem in our society that is the result of ignorance and a severe lack of knowledge and understanding of sexuality.
The most important thing the new sex-ed curriculum will do is open a discussion. It paves the way for open dialogue, and encourages young people to feel comfortable speaking out. In the long run, if future generations utilize this opportunity correctly – and I have no doubt that they will – I think this simple change in a curriculum will open the possibility for destabilizing the heteronormative values that are still so deeply rooted in our society.
However, I have one concern with the new curriculum: who will be teaching it? I attended Catholic school all the way until grade 12, and I can tell you, it was extremely confusing being taught about sex alongside of certain teacher’s belief systems. It was “these are the facts, but you should stay chaste until marriage,” and “we aren’t against homosexual individuals, but we do not agree with the act of homosexuality,” (a statement I have yet to understand). There were many cases where certain teachers would veto an entire lesson simply because they didn’t feel comfortable teaching it.
Keep in mind, I am not speaking for all teachers, but my own experience has led me to question how well this new curriculum will be implemented. How can you ask a teacher whose use of technology is limited to the occasional work email to teach a lesson on the risks of social media and “sexting?” Or when you have religious beliefs being intertwined in a lecture about gender identity and sexuality?
The whole point of the changes to the curriculum is that children and young adults are educated on all topics of sex, and don’t have to take to the internet to self-educate. Fortunately, my parents taught me things that I was not taught by my teachers, so I was already using words like “penis” and “vagina” when other students were still referring to these body parts as “peepee.” However, it wasn’t until university that I learned the difference between “sex” and “gender” – something that, until university, all I had to educate me on the topic was Google and Degrassi.
If this new curriculum is going to be done right – and it has a lot of potential to do so – the ones doing the teaching also need to be educated. They need to fully understand the topics that they are teaching. They need to understand the concept of victim blaming and shaming – I can just hear the voices of my past teachers echoing. They need to understand the Digital Age, as well as understand the sensitivity behind what they are teaching. Knowledge is power, and if done right, this new curriculum has a lot of potential for some much-needed change.