The Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario (ACBO) and groups representing Catholic school board educators say they are confident they can teach the new curriculum, released Feb. 23, through a Catholic lens.
The new curriculum will, among other topics, introduce potential online dangers, as well as same-sex marriage, in Grades 1 through 3, “sexting” to students beginning in Grade 4, progressing to learning about risky sexual behaviours in later years.
“While Catholic schools have a responsibility to follow the curriculum set out by the Ministry of Education, they have always sought to do so in a way that conveys, respects and models Catholic Christian principles to our students,” said Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins, president of ACBO, in a Feb. 23 statement. “They will continue this tradition.
“A group of Catholic educators will produce resources that support Catholic teachers so that the new curriculum is implemented in a way that is consistent with our Catholic teachings and appropriate within the context of a Catholic classroom.”
The Institute for Catholic Education (ICE), which includes representatives of the bishops, the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario, the Ontario Association of Parents in Catholic Education and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), is that group.
“We’ve just begun the process of reviewing the revised curriculum,” said ICE executive director Michael Pautler.
He noted much of the material in the revised curriculum “is already included in the Fully Alive program already used in the Catholic school system.” An analysis is underway to “identify the gaps and develop appropriate materials to support teachers in implementing the expectations of the revised curriculum” in a way “consistent with Church teaching and our faith tradition.”
Parents As First Educators (PAFE), the Catholic Civil Rights League, Campaign Life Coalition and Patrick Brown and Monte McNaughton, two Progressive Conservatives vying for the party leadership, promised to fight the curriculum.
On the morning following its unveiling, about 500 people braved the elements to gather at Queen’s Park in Toronto to protest the new curriculum, including Brown. Brown criticized Premier Kathleen Wynne for not listening to parents.
“Wynne’s approach to the issue of sex education has shown little attempt to consult parents and families,” he said. “Wynne kept her curriculum secret until yesterday. Now that her curriculum is public, now that parents can see it, the government doesn’t even care what you think.”
Kathy Horling, a parent of four children ranging from Grade 2 to 8, takes specific offence to the curriculum’s attention to gender theory as well as non-traditional sexual practices.
“I should be one telling my children about this not the government,” she said. “Why start putting ideas in their heads when they are so little? They’re kids, they don’t need this.”
McNaugthon agrees.
“The government should not be telling parents what’s age appropriate for their children,” said McNaughton in an interview Feb. 23. “The real consultation process is going to begin today.”
“After vast numbers of Ontarians said that the 2010 sex-ed curriculum was unacceptable because it promoted sexually explicit information to children at ages when it will only harm and disturb them, it is outrageous that the 2015 update is almost a carbon copy,” said PAFE president Teresa Pierre.
“When will Premier Wynne start to pay attention to the tens of thousands of Ontarians who have rejected this program because it will sexualize children at inappropriately young ages? When will this government understand that parents won’t stand for this?”
In 2010, then Premier Dalton McGuinty withdrew a controversial — and similar — curriculum after a huge parental backlash.
“There’s a difference between ‘educating’ and ‘indoctrinating,’ ” Campaign Life organizer Alissa Golob wrote on Facebook. “This sex-ed curriculum would also instil in young, vulnerable minds the acceptance of non-traditional family values, which are not only the building blocks of our society, but foundational Catholic teachings.”
James Ryan, OECTA president, doesn’t see why the new curriculum is controversial. He said the new program has important, positive revisions, and says it is an improvement for the “secular” public schools in that “it adds the whole concept of values” and puts more “stress on abstinence and talks more about relationships.”
(With files from Evan Boudreau.)