In August 2019 Doug Ford’s Ontario government released a new health and physical education curriculum the first mention of sexual orientation now makes an appearance in grade five the government of Ontario’s website says students learn quote about factors that may affect the development of a person’s understanding of themselves and their
Personal identity including their sexual orientation to break down what that means we spoke to the CEO of the Ontario physical and health Education Association which helped consult The Province on the latest curriculum this learning is all about having every single student understand their self-concept have them build confidence
Have them build resilience and have them be able to engage with each other and a lot of the learning focuses on that so an example of the way in which a teacher might explore this curriculum expectation is that they would talk about what it means to to um what what a
Self-concept means and they would ask the student some prompting questions around list three words that people use to describe you list some things that you think you’re good at talk about your interests right like these are all of the things that help us build out a self-concept gender identity and sexual
Orientation intersect with how a young person understands their self-concept meanwhile gender identity first appears in grade 8 when students learn about quote gender identity gender expression and sexual orientation and to identify factors that can help all young people to develop positive personal identity the teacher would work through some
Terms and definitions and again these are all aligned to Concepts like the Ontario Human Rights Code and all like these are not invented Concepts um but rather having students understand what is sex what is gender identity what is sexual orientation what is gender expression there are some definitional
Terms that help teachers you know provide that learning um and then there there are participatory activities where uh you know the students would explore the connection between gender expression um and gender identity and sexual orientation and so there’s a lot of um understanding like how our minds and how
Our hearts and how our bodies you know connect to each other and how CH uh Young Folks will experience their identities in that regard so how much leeway do Educators have when teaching these subjects we spoke to the CEO of the group people for education to find
Out there’s tons of leeway and I think that what’s important is that you know teachers are educated to be teachers and so they you know work really hard I think to ensure that uh everybody’s comfortable in the class uh that they are finding ways of teaching uh subjects
Which may make some kids un uncomfortable in as uh sensitive a way as possible so again nobody’s like hammering this stuff in or um you know there there isn’t it’s not out of a sense of political agenda and teach there is lots and lots of flexibility uh what what are are described in
Curriculum are um overall outcome goals you know kids should know by the end of this uh you know section of the curriculum these kinds of facts how they teach it is really up to teachers they’re given examples of possible things to use possible prompts but it
Really is up to teachers how it’s Tau ker says it’s up to schools and the provinces to choose when and how to enroll teachers in professional development to update their training in these courses parents and Guardians typically receive a letter before sexual health education is set to be taught to their children
Topics like gender identity and sexual orientation are included in the Ontario government’s health and physical education curriculum, which was released in August 2019. Here’s a breakdown of how — and when — students learn those subjects.
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