Education Minister ‘taken aback’ by sex ed criticism

Ontario’s education minister is surprised by some of the criticism over the province’s proposed changes to the sex ed curriculum, saying the concept of consent is already taught to primary school children.”I’ve been quite taken aback by things that people are trying to label as sex ed,” Liz Sandals is reported to have said.The current physical and health education curriculum teaches Grade 1 students parts of the body.”Now, I had just considered that basic anatomy,” Sandals said. “Some people seem to talk about sex ed. So I guess the current curriculum starts sex ed in Grade 1 if you think basic anatomy is sex ed.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne said earlier that Ontario students should start learning how to read facial expressions and emotions as early as Grade 1 to give them the ability to understand the concept of consent.

Wynne had just met with two Grade 8 girls from Toronto who launched a petition to have consent included in the sex ed curriculum, which the province is in the process of revamping. What the experts recommend will be published online this winter, Sandals said.

The girls say the curriculum must be about more than just teaching students to ask for consent, and should teach kids how to understand body language, facial expressions and how “the lack of ‘No’ isn’t necessarily a ‘Yes.”‘