Sex ed will be same for both school systems

Catholic and public school children will learn the same sex-education curriculum, after parents in both systems are consulted about the right age to start teaching explicit material, the Ontario government says.

Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters Wednesday he hadn’t actually read the proposed curriculum until last Thursday, hours before announcing the program would be sent back for more parent input.

Curriculum is routinely reviewed by the Ministry of Education and does not usually need the approval of the premier’s office before it is sent to the schools, he said.

“Sex ed was obviously a horse of a different colour, as they say. It went out the door and I decided that we had not properly consulted Ontario parents on this issue, not fully,” McGuinty said. “This is a very sensitive issue and I think we failed to do our job.”

The Catholic school boards were not prepared to begin teaching children in Grade 1 the proper names for their genitals, nor were they prepared to tackle the issues of sexual orientation and gender identity in Grade 3.

The Liberals say they’re waiting to hear from all parents, not just Catholics, on when they believe it is age-appropriate to address these topics.

“I don’t distinguish between two school systems when it comes to our curriculum. God love them, but we have a single curriculum when it comes to mathematics, when it comes to history, when it comes to world studies and when it comes to sexual education,” McGuinty said. “We’ll find a way to make sure that it suits all our children.”

Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky said Catholic schools have the denominational right to teach these issues from the perspective of their faith but are expected to cover the same topics.

“They learn the same things perhaps in a different way,” she said.

Ontario Conservative MPP Elizabeth Witmer, a former education minister, said the messages coming from the premier and Dombrowsky on the sex education curriculum have been anything but clear.

Asked if this controversy might invigorate a debate around full funding of Catholic schools, Witmer said it’s a possibility.

“If this does become an issue, (the Liberals) would have no one to blame but themselves based on how they’ve handled this situation,” Witmer said.