Scarleteen

Currently, students in Ontario are walking out of class to protest the repealing of an updated sex-curriculum. Where I'm from, sex-ed consisted of less than an hour long "talk" sometime in high school. I've had friends from other parts of the world whose sex-ed was completely different, ranging from multiple years to none at all. What was sex ed like for you?

having gone to a private school in one of the most liberal states in the US,my education was probably not the norm. There was a designated sex ed teacher, and no standard curriculum. We were taught about almost all types of sex (BDSM etc were briefly mentioned but not focused on), the ways sex is determined, sex vs. gender, condoms, a basic rundown of STIs, one of the first topics was consent, most of the LGBTQIA+ (not including the Q, and no mention of pansexuality or in-depth discussion of polyamory), etc. there were still a lot of gaps, but based on what I know others are taught elsewhere, I think I was given the baseline I needed

Parents need to be the first source for info and cannot in my opinion think for a second that school will cover all the bases. Ontario had a sex-ed curriculum that was working under the Liberal government which recently lost. That curriculum included options other than abstaining, masturbation, consent and gender identity. It started as young as kindergarten where parts of the body and appropriate/inappropriate touch gets discussed. An underqualified politician with a bent like Trump's won the election and doesn't agree at all with teaching anything that is in this curriculum that came out in 2016. So, what does this person and his government do? It's insane but they reverted back to an abstainence only curriculum from 1998. It doesn't cover gender identity, consent or any of the other topics I mentioned above nor at the right ages and grade levels to understand them. Futhermore, this government has a snitch line so they can investigate any educator as well as school teaching the 2016 curriculum over the 1998 one and deliver discipline and stiff penalties. People can get fired over this. The students have walked out and so they should. I say they have every right to proper sex-ed and teacher's every right to teach what they know is true and right. I don't know what will happen but a curriculum that is 20 years old and doesn't deal with today's views and sticks heads in the sand is wrong. I am hoping that parents see what's lacking in said curriculum and voters do too. Parents must now fill in all the gaps but not every parent is comfortable or able to do this job. The government ain't helping students or parents any that's for sure. There ought to be a law against people not getting access to info that can affect their lives and health because let's face it ignorance here can be dangerous. That said, if you are a parent in Ontario there's an excellent book that from a reader's perspective (I hate, hate, hate to sound like an ad for it which I'm not) called Sex Plus! Learning, Loving and Enjoying Your Body by Laci Green. It has chapters on sexual and gender identity, body image, birth control and every topic in between. It's designed to educate teens and those entering college even about a healthy and informed approach to sex. Anyways, just a book recommendation.