Ford says students will be taught old curriculum
After days of confusion at Queen’s Park, Premier Doug Ford says students will be taught an older version of the province’s sex education curriculum, which dates back to the era before social media and same-sex marriage, when they return to school this fall.
Ford said the current 239-page syllabus, which was updated in 2015, will be replaced with the 42-page curriculum that was taught between 1998 and 2014 and does not mention gender and LGBT issues, consent or online safety.
But he insisted teachers would have some “flexibility” when students return to class.
With embattled Education Minister Lisa Thompson sidelined, it was left to the premier to address the thorny subject.
“We take approach that the best teachers are the parents, not a special interest group,” said Ford, promising “the largest public consultation in Ontario history” with sessions in all of the province’s 124 ridings as the new government revamps the 2015 curriculum.
But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said his action is “about doing favours for social conservatives like Charles McVety and Tanya Granic Allen,” who helped him win the Tory leadership on March 10.
“The premier’s decision to scrap the updated sexual health curriculum and drag Ontario back to 1998 is not about doing what’s right for students or about listening to parents,” said Horwath, blasting him for listening to “radical extremists.”
“Why is the premier more focused on keeping social conservatives happy instead of keeping students, young people and queer youth safe?” she asked, adding that Ford is “being driven by whatever far-right social conservatives want him to do and ignoring his responsibility to all Ontario students.”
Ford countered by saying not enough people were consulted when the 2015 curriculum was revised.
“We know that the leader of the opposition doesn’t want to consult with parents,” he said, adding Horwath “actually believes in the nanny state.”
“They believe that the government knows best when it comes to our students, they know best when it comes to our children and they know best when it comes to our parents. We take a different approach.”
In the 1998 curriculum there is one mention of the internet — referred to as the “World Wide Web” — and elements of gender, same-sex relationships, cyber safety or consent are not addressed.
Speaking to reporters later, Ford emphasized his main issue with the current curriculum from 2015 was that not enough parents were consulted.
“We want everyone’s input. It’s not about what I don’t like or the ministers don’t like, it’s about the parents,” said the premier.
“There’s no better teacher when it comes to the subject than the parents.”
Ford said the 1998-2014 syllabus will be “temporarily” taught, but said “within the curriculum, there’s flexibility, I was seeing, the way the teachers were teaching.”
“I don’t think the world’s going to end in six months while 2014 is taught in the classrooms. I’m sure the students back in 2014 are just as smart as the students in 2018,” he said.
The modernized syllabus the Tories are getting rid of includes teaching proper names for body parts and genitals in Grade 1, which is a change that childabuse investigators had long urged.
Concepts of same-sex relationships are introduced in Grade 3.
In Grade 4, students learn about online safety as well as puberty.
Those in Grade 6 are taught about what masturbation is, as well as consent and healthy relationships.
In Grade 7, students are warned about the risks of “sexting” and learn about sexually transmitted diseases and are informed about oral and anal sex.
Social conservatives, who oppose same-sex marriage and abortion rights, have argued such lessons are not “age-appropriate.”
Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod argued that evangelicals like McVety, who is personally close to Ford, will not be designing the revamped syllabus.
“I don’t know Charles McVety. He is not going to lead this process. The minister of education is going to lead this process and the minister of education with parents will lead the process,” said MacLeod.
Thompson, for her part, ducked reporters and was unavailable to comment on the sex education debacle.