A Teacher Blogs

A group of activists opposed to the 2015 Ontario Health and Physical Education Curriculum met with Premier Kathleen Wynne on April 29th demanding a withdrawal of the document.  They walked away empty-handed. Left to right: Gwen Landolt, Jotvinder Sodhi, Lorraine La Vigne and Maggie Amin look on. Photo: Lianne Laurence / LifeSiteNews LifeSiteNews had this to say: Speaking at an informal press conference outside Queen’s Park, the six vowed Ontario parents will keep fighting an odious curriculum they say will incalculably harm their children by exposing them to explicit sexual information far too early. As well as (Gwen) Landolt, national vice-president of REAL Women of Canada, the group included Jotvinder Sodhi of the Mississauga-based HOWA Voice of Parents , Feras Marish, representing the Muslim community, Christina Lui of the Chinese-Canadian Parents Alliance of Ontario , Maggie Amin, and Lorraine La Vigne. TheRebel.Media was there too. From Emily Pratt's ...

It was inevitable.  Following the airing of the Bruce Jenner interview on ABC News , the atmosphere was ripe a backlash of ugly, reactive commentary. And I suspected it would be used to buttress the non-fact-based campaign against  Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum . What I had not expected was the ammunition would be would be the horrendous tragedy of David Reimer . Gender Identity and John Money  tells the story of David Reimer , born 1965, whose penis was irrevocably damaged in a botched circumcision, setting the stage for a life of torment and indignity, culminating with his suicide. The author of the blog post is Lou Iacobelli, a devout Catholic, parents rights advocate, and a retired teacher. In fact I took eleventh grade English with him nearly forty years ago. On the essential facts of the case, I don't dispute what Mr Iacobelli posted: Psychologist and sexologist John Money told young David's parents that he could give their chi...

Peel District School Board Chair  Janet McDougald just became one of my heroes. For being forthright about the efforts of a handful of hardline religionists to hijack the discussion of Ontario Health & Physical Education Curriculum . Speaking to the Toronto Star's Louise Brown , she says: “A small fraction are intentionally misleading people (about the curriculum),” she said, “but the vast majority are confused and upset about what they’re reading and we need the (education) minister to work more aggressively at providing parents the answers they need to feel comfortable about it going forward.” Right on both counts. The "small fraction" consists of representatives of a number of organizations: The Institute for Canadian Values , Campaign Life Coalition , The Parental Rights in Education Defense Fund (PRIEDF) , and Public Education Advocates for Christian Equity (PEACE) . There's a couple of new kids on the block: Parents Alliance of Ontario ; HOWA CRP , le...

1950s Sex Education LP Recording I was reading up on some of the groups that participated in the April 14th My Child My Choice protest against the Ontario's 2015 Health and Physical Education Curriculum. A group calling themselves The Well Informed Parent caught my eye. From their website:  "We are parents representing parents. We have drawn on the considerable skill sets of many parents - such as educators, lawyers, concerned parents and medical professionals. That way we can be well equipped to make informed decisions in regards to our children's education and well-being." To this end, The Well Informed Parent has come up with alternatives to contested components of Human Development and Sexual Health   and other sections of the curriculum at various grades. To summarize, here are the most hotly contest contested components, as reported back in 2010 by Kathryn Blaze Carlson for the National Post : Grade 1: Identify body parts, including genitalia (pe...