While kids in Ontario are gearing up to head back to school, teachers are trying to figure out what sex-ed curriculum they are supposed to be teaching as part of the Health and Physical Education Curriculum (HPE).
In July, the provincial government announced that Ontario?s grade school teachers will be expected to revert to the 2014 curriculum?which was actually created back in 1998. The Toronto District School Board and Peel District School Board recently stated their high school students will continue to be taught the updated 2015 sex-ed curriculum. While the Toronto Catholic District School Board said they will continue teaching their ?Fully Alive? program, which is essentially the updated sex-ed curriculum with a Catholic lens.
Confused" So are we. And the confusion continued when on August 23, the Conservatives released the interim curriculum that’s to be used until the government consults with parents and experts and releases a new version, hopefully in 2019 or 2020. This interim curriculum makes references to cellphones, the internet and gender identity, but otherwise is much the same as the 1998 curriculum, which doesn’t talk about menstruation, consent or masturbation. As school boards continue to figure out what sex-ed curriculum they will be teaching come September and their responsibilities to ensure all students feel safe and included in school communities under the Ontario Human Rights Code, we asked experts their thoughts on the importance of...