I didn’t vote for Doug Ford.
Ontario’s new premier's party didn’t get my vote for a number of reasons. I knew that him being in charge of our health care and education system was going to put our most vulnerable at risk.
I don’t want to say ‘told ya so,’ but, told ya so.
He hasn’t been in office long (though it already feels like a lifetime,) but Doug Ford has already managed to turn back time and undo some of the few things we can say our previous government did right; most notably, updating our horribly outdated health and sex-ed curriculum.
That curriculum update was met with some serious opposition from people who thought it ill advised to teach six year olds what their body parts are called. People didn't like the idea of our older children learning that same sex couples exist, or that they are allowed to tell a person in authority not to touch their body in any manner shape or form with which they feel uncomfortable.
The updated curriculum was put in place to reflect the fact that the world has changed and so too has the understanding of what healthy knowledge is.
After millions of dollars, much debate, much drama, much protest and much to the dismay of families who don’t want their children to be taught any of these things, the curriculum was put into place under the Wynne government. Today, Mr. Ford said ‘forget all that. Let’s go back to what we were doing before.’
You know why most people are up in arms, and always have been, over the curriculum? Because they don’t read. They just hear rumours and glide on fear. I would say that the vast majority of criticism over the new (now defunct) curriculum is based on misinformation.
“I don’t know maybe I'm a bit naive here, but I didn’t want my children knowing about sex by the age of six,” said one woman in a parenting Facebook group I’m in.
Cool. They don’t actually learn about sex in grade one. You know what my six-year-old learned in school? That thing jutting out his groin area is called a penis. His sister has a vagina. That’s what they learn in grade one. They don’t learn ‘penis gets inserted into vagina and sperm comes out and then that sperm fertilizes an egg and that can turn into a baby.’ Which is true! But not what they are taught in grade one. So, chill out Felicia!
That’s just it, though. People are more in fear of the curriculum than educated about it. They don’t want their children to learn about sex because then they’re going to want it?!? Newsflash, they will anyway! And without this curriculum, they’re relying on YOU to tell them won’t get pregnant the first time they have sex. Are you going to tell them that? When? Because some kids are having sex in grade six, so you might not want to wait too long! But, I digress.
I spent an entire day recently laughing if my kids said the word ‘arm.’ I wanted them to realize how ridiculous it was to laugh at the word penis. Because it’s just another body part. “Isn’t it silly I’m laughing at the word arm?” I’d say. And they’d laugh at me laughing. IT’S JUST A WORD, PEOPLE! Yet there is a whole group of people who think it is inappropriate to teach our children the proper words for genitalia.
Plenty of research went into the new curriculum. Ford took less time than it takes my six-year-old to poop to flush it all down the toilet.
Yes, I teach my kids the proper terms. They understand love is love and they have been taught about consent from day one. But I PROMISE you the curriculum was never about my kids. It was about your kids – the kids of parents who have issues with this stuff being taught in the first place. It’s your kids who need to learn it.
It’s a sad day for my province. I don’t even know who won here, in Ford’s world. If appealing to his sense of what research suggests is good and right isn’t enough, how about pointing out the MILLIONS of dollars that went into building the damn thing. You’d think at the very least that would get his goat.
He doesn’t care, though. He was voted in with a clear majority, and this was one of his campaign promises. So, thanks to everyone who picked him to be our premier. We’re in for a rocky ride.
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