This has reached Canada too. There were vigorous protests against Premier Kathleen Wynn's revised sex-ed curriculum from this 'unholy alliance'.
One school, which has a high percentage of Muslim students, has bowed to parental pressure and is offering a sanitized version to Gr 1 students.
(Clicky for piccy!)An alternative to Ontario’s updated health curriculum is being offered by the Toronto elementary school that found itself at the centre of the sex-education controversy — with Grade 1 students having the option to learn about “private parts” instead of proper names for genitalia.
Thorncliffe Park Principal Jeff Crane said because a number of parents had concerns about their children being taught the words penis and vagina, the school decided to offer a class where teachers covered the key issue of inappropriate touching without being specific about body parts, a move meant to keep kids in school this week and at least learn some of the curriculum.
About 60 per cent of the 300 students in that grade were taught the proper curriculum, the remaining 40 per cent the sanitized version.
“We let parents know ahead of time when the health strands for human development were being taught and, for Grade 1, that there would be one lesson where there would be discussion of body parts … They were told if learning the names of genitalia was a concern, they could write me a letter requesting a religious accommodation,” said Crane, whose school is located in the riding represented by Premier Kathleen Wynne, who championed the updated health curriculum.
Parents were told “the lesson would be exactly the same, but instead of using proper terms like penis and vagina, we would use the term ‘private parts.’ The key learning in that expectation is that this is a part of your body always covered with clothes, nobody touches it and you don’t show anybody. We were able to maintain the integrity of the expectation with a very simple accommodation.”
Last September, Thorncliffe Park school was hit by protests — which saw hundreds of children pulled out of school because of the sex-ed curriculum — where parents set up their own classes in the adjacent park. Even weeks later, when that protest ended, enrolment remained lower than expected. But now, it has rebounded and sits at 1,310 students, down from the projected 1,350.
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However, veteran sexual health educator Lyba Spring noted the most common ages for sexual abuse is between 5 and 9 years old, and “parents should understand the importance of their children having dictionary words for their genitals . . . (the terms) are the building blocks for further sexual health education as they continue in their secular public school.”
She warned of the long-term implications of the alternative lessons in Grade 1. “They are already subverting the curriculum … what happens especially in Grades 5 and 6, when they are talking about sexual intercourse … because they are talking about the prevention of sexually transmitted infections? What happens as they are talking about consent? I can just see parents’ minds working, and at every step of the way, they will try and subvert and disrespect the curriculum.
“If schools ‘accommodate’ at this early stage in the game, they are setting themselves up for real battles later on, and the only ones who are going to suffer are the kids.”
Now that it’s time to start talking about sex, many schools across the province have been sending home letters to parents to give notice of upcoming lessons. Boards say overall they haven’t been overwhelmed with requests for kids to be removed from class or otherwise accommodated and credited that with outreach efforts.
That includes the province’s Catholic boards, where Grade 1s are taught the full human development curriculum, including references to genitalia.
Topic: The unholy alliance: Muslim countries join forces with America's religious right