Sunday, March 1, 2015.
RE: Ontario’s New Sex Ed Curriculum
To The Editor,
As a mother of 8, I am disappointed, but not surprised at the new Sex Ed Curriculum recently announced. Sexual education is not something we shy away from in our culture. Rather, our children are being ‘educated’ all the time. The question is really, ‘Who will be the one to offer these children guidance on the “education” they are already receiving?’ The idea that it should be the government is grossly misguided by several faulty assumptions.
Firstly, there is an assumption that education for topics like Sex Ed actually works. We see several examples of failed educational approaches in things like smoking, alcohol and drug use. The lack of success of the D.A.R.E. program for drug use is one such example.
Secondly, there is an assumption that the government must step in because parents are not talking to their children about sex. I hear many people tossing this statement around as if it is fact. Who says?! Parents today talk to their children far more about sex than parents of yesterday. While there will always be parents who will avoid certain topics and other parents who will cover them to extreme, most parents are doing their best to be open and available to their children to guide them through challenging issues.
Thirdly, there is an assumption that the state can strip away this parental role with no repercussions. As the government continues to take over parenting, and parents continue to allow it, children do not attach to other adults, but rather become peer-oriented, looking to other children for the guidance and love they need. The results are devastating – we end up with a culture of children essentially parenting each other with consequences of bullying, suicide, self-harm, drug-use, gang-affiliation and many others.
We do not need the government to step in to take over our job as parents. What we need is full-support in the fact that each parent is utterly irreplaceable in the life of his or her own child.
Christine Gayfer,
Rockwood, Ontario.
Christine Gayfer