The provincial court made a harmful decision when they dismissed the legal challenge presented by elementary teachers and a civil liberties group over Premier Doug Ford government’s decision to repeal the modernized, 2015 sex education curriculum.
This poor decision will impact all elementary students across Ontario.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said the Progressive Conservative government changes fail to be inclusive to all students and undermine teachers’ freedom of expression.
The courts, however, disagreed, stating there was nothing in the curriculum that prohibits a teacher from teaching beyond what is included in the required curriculum.
The three-judge panel said “nothing in the [interim] curriculum prohibits a teacher from teaching any of the topics in question.” However, Premier Ford previously issued a warning to teachers who said they would continue to use the new version of the curriculum.
But they shouldn’t have to.
Teachers should not have to take initiative and teach this content on their own. It isn’t our teachers’ responsibility to take the lead in modernizing the way we teach sex ed, it’s the governments’.
They are failing students and teachers alike. At the moment, schools are using an interim curriculum based on a version from 1998 — one that ignores all gender identities other than male and female; all sexual orientations other than heterosexual; and only addresses sex in terms of its reproductive function.
Consent, gender identity, cyber-bullying, sexting, sexual orientation: these are just some of the progressive concepts that would have been taught to elementary and high school students had the 2015 curriculum been upheld. They are issues that most, if not all teens face at one point or another, and Ontario’s youth deserve to be given the knowledge and tools to handle these situations safely.
Instead, kids and teenagers will be denied this essential education; education that my generation was also not fortunate enough to to be taught. Instead, we learned about these things on our own. Most of the time, we learned about them the hard way. We had confusing experiences that we didn’t understand, and we often didn’t know where to turn for help.
In response to the court’s decision, Green party leader Mike Schreiner told the Canadian Press that “it may be dismissed by the courts but the court of public opinion is still supportive of making sure every student in our schools, regardless of their gender identity, is supported.”
The truth is, times have changed, societal norms have changed, and with it, our education must change.
Some may strive to regress, to turn back time, but progress must prevail. There are all different kinds of people in this world, and they deserve to feel included and accepted by being represented in a fair, well-rounded curriculum that is up to date with the modern society that is Canada in 2019.