Trust teachers on sex ed

As we all get ready for back-to-school time, I’m reminded of the best teacher I ever had. Her name was Esther Boskey. She was my English teacher in both Grade 10 and Grade 11.

She was about 50 years old at the time, and one day, trying to encourage us to see women as equal to men in society, a notion not universally accepted, she told us the following story.

When she was in her late teens or early 20s, she pulled on a pair of slacks and went for a walk. She ran into an older woman who was scandalized by her attire.

“What do you think you’re doing, wearing pants?” asked the older woman. “Ladies wear dresses or skirts. What kind of mother would you ever be? How do you ever expect to have babies?” And my teacher told the woman, “When I want to have babies, I’ll take off the pants.”

I’ve remembered that story for about a half century. And I still chuckle when I think of it.

In today’s Ontario, a teacher telling a risqué story like that might have to worry about someone calling a government snitch line to report inappropriate behaviour. We are embroiled in a phoney controversy over the sex-education curriculum. I say phoney because there’s nothing in the curriculum that’s particularly offensive to the vast majority of parents. And if a parent does find something they don’t like, they can ask (with certain exceptions) that their child be excused from that lesson.

Yet the government has decided to turn back the clock and work on revising the curriculum. And it has told Ontarians that if there’s a teacher who insists on living in 2018, please let us know, and we’ll do something about that.

There are three sides to this battle. The government, the teachers’ unions and the teachers themselves. Who should we trust? The government says it’s standing up for parents who believe only they can decide when their children learn about some of life’s nitty-gritty. And that’s surely a parent’s right. But I suspect children have always been ahead of the parental curve. They usually know all about certain topics before mom or dad dares speak its name. And in the world of technology we live in today, many parents aren’t equipped to explain the dangers that lurk.

This is a government that has made it a priority to offer the population a bottle of beer for a dollar. I am hard pressed to think of anything any government could do that is less consequential. Are these the people you want to trust to educate your children? The teachers’ unions have promised to defend any teacher who gets into trouble because they wandered into territory not part of the 1998 sex-ed curriculum. Fine. That’s a union’s job. They look after teachers. They’d like to think that looking after teachers is the same thing as looking after students, but it’s not. So I wouldn’t put my trust in the unions, either.

I think we should trust teachers. The vast majority of them are dedicated to helping students navigate the real world. They have nothing personal to gain by teaching how babies are made, or about what consent means, or that not every family has one mother and one father.

Teachers don’t stand in front of a class and read facts from a book. They engage with their students as individuals. They can often see when a child is uncomfortable with a subject, or when a child is trying to figure out the implications of what they’re learning. A student may be more willing to approach a teacher with an “awkward” question than they are a parent.

A teacher may be with a child for more hours in the week than some parents. We already count on teachers to help our children learn to get along with others, to read and write and recommend books to them.

We let teachers immerse our children in history, geography, science, sports, music and so much more.

We should be thankful for what teachers do. We shouldn’t be putting them in a position where they have to choose between what’s right to preserve their job, and what’s right for their students.

I survived Mrs. Boskey’s story about her pants. As far as I know, none of my classmates turned into a sexual deviant because of that story, or went on to live a life of debauchery.

So exhale, everybody. Teachers care about our children. Trust them to do what’s right.