Ontario students to learn gender identity, LGBTQ issues in Grade 8: sex-ed curriculum
Posted Aug 21, 2019 10:39:20 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ontario government has released their new sexual education curriculum for elementary students, which will go into effect at the start of the school year.
The 2019 Health and Physical Education curriculum deals with bullying, mental health, concussions, gender identity, same-sex relationships and age-appropriate sexual health education.
The government has broken down the details on what students will learn about human development and sexual health from Grades 1 to 8, and why certain topics are being taught at certain age levels.
Starting in Grade 1, children will learn to identify body parts, including genitalia, by their proper names, using positive language when describing their bodies and basic hygiene such as hand washing.
When it come to the topic of gender identity and LGBTQ issues, the new curriculum won’t have children learning that until Grade 8 — along with abstinence, contraception and consent.
Read the complete breakdown here.
However, the province also requires school boards to develop a procedure that allows parents to exempt their child from “instruction of the human development and sexual health education component of the elementary Health and Physical Education curriculum.” This must be in place by Nov. 30.
It will cost the province $2.25 million to implement the revised elementary Health and Physical Education curriculum, and the addendum to the Kindergarten Program along with other curricula.
The Wynne government’s sex-ed curriculum sparked controversy, particularly among social conservatives, when it was introduced in 2015. The Ford government vowed to scrap the program and start again, giving parents more input in what their children were being taught.
The Wynne update was the first time the curriculum had been updated since 1998, and it included warnings about online bullying and sexting that were not in the previous version.
But protesters had zeroed in on discussions of same-sex marriage, gender identity and masturbation.
To read the complete Health and Physical Education curriculum for Grades 1 to 8, click here.
