Rampant pearl clutching as Queen’s Park updates sex ed to compete with Internet

Prudes, start your engines. The provincial government has announced changes to the sexual education curriculum, most radically for children in Grade 3. “Days of euphemism and innuendo…are over,” says the Globe and Mail, which means that eight- and nine-year-olds will be taught about sexual identity and orientation, unless, of course, their parents remove them from the class. As sure as the sun rises, a chorus has raised its voice: “Won’t someone think of the children?”

“I think it’s a sort of infringement on parents, because you’re talking about a very personal and sensitive area and dealing with kids so young, I believe it will end up infringing on their thought processes and their desires and ability to make correct choices,” said Reverend Ekron Malcolm, director of the Institute for Canadian Values.

Christian right leader Charles McVety, who is also part of the coalition, said it is unconscionable to teach children as young as eight years old gender identity and sexual orientation. He accused the Premier of listening to “special interest groups with an agenda,” including former education minister Kathleen Wynne, who is openly gay.

Premier Dalton McGuinty says that these changes to the curriculum are an effort to provide kids with a reality-based sex education in an age where all the filth of the Internet is just a click away. The curriculum was last “updated” under Mike Harris, who put a new emphasis on abstinence. Whatever the lesson plan, it’s difficult to see how Ontario’s teachers can compete with the firehose of porn on the Internet. Based on the outcry from conservative groups, though, you’d think that the government was forcing preschoolers to watch “2 Girls, 1 Cup.”

• Ontario to introduce more explicit sex education in schools [Globe and Mail]
• Ontario unveils sex education for 21st century [Ottawa Citizen]
• Sex education program sparks outcry [Toronto Sun]