Thorncliffe’s sex-ed gets expert’s support

York University professor says principal’s choices are the ‘best in this case’

In Grade 3, students in Ontario schools could learn about same-sex families as part of a lesson on accepting differences under the province’s new updated health curriculum — but at Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park elementary, they’ll only be discussed if the students themselves bring up the topic.

As the school at the eye of the sexeducation storm, Thorncliffe has also chosen to offer alternative classes to Grade 1 students whose parents object to them learning the proper words for genitalia, instead teaching them about “private parts” during lessons on inappropriate touching, a move that was criticized but also acknowledged as making the best of a difficult situation.

“This school has lived under the scrutiny of everybody in the city in a way that just doesn’t seem fair, so I have a lot of empathy for the principals and teachers who are trying to teach this curriculum under the spotlight,” said York University Prof. Jen Gilbert, an expert in sex education.

“I think that if we take a holistic approach, thinking about the education of these students, engaging parents and working with the community is also an important goal of education.

“I think it is reasonable to find accommodations that meet the spirit of the new curriculum and to understand that, while there might be this one lesson that’s devoted to these topics each year, these conversations are happening across the school year and across curriculum areas.”

As for teachers not mentioning homosexuality in Grade 3 lessons, she said they should “feel like they are able to represent the full range of families that we find in our world,” but noted that “conversations about families and differences not only happen in one part of the curriculum” so children may have already discussed them in other classes.

Gilbert doesn’t believe Thorncliffe’s alternative offering will lead to other schools following suit.

“Over and over again,” she added, “we find that parents in general support comprehensive sex education for everyone, including their own children.

“This is a principal who is working carefully with his school community, making choices that are best in this case.”

Last fall, Thorncliffe Park school was hit the hardest by protests, which saw hundreds of children pulled out of school because of the sex-education curriculum.

Even after parents stopped offering their own classes in the park beside the school, enrolment was down and has only recently rebounded to 1,310 students, 40 short of the number expected.

Principal Jeff Crane held 20 sessions with more than 650 parents to show parents what exactly would be taught and to counter misinformation circulating in the community, which has a large Muslim population.

And when sending letters home to parents giving two weeks’ notice before the human development class, he also offered a “religious accommodation” — classes where teachers would use the terms “private parts” instead of penis and vagina.

It was a move meant to keep kids in school and learn most of the curriculum.

When the updated curriculum was championed by both Premier Kathleen Wynne and Education Minister Liz Sandals, they both noted the importance of children knowing the correct names of body parts, something urged by both police and the Children’s Aid Society.

Critics of the sex-education curriculum have planned car rallies in cities across the province on Saturday.