Issue 1, November 2014
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November Connections in the2014 Classroom November 2014
November 2014
York University FESA
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Issue 1, November 2014
The Impact of Theatrical Performance on Connection and Pedagogy Nicholas Catania Reflecting on this month’s theme, it is inevitable that classroom connections are essential. The connection between student relationships and course material are integral to establishing wholesome learning environments, however, there is another sphere that requires important emphasis as well: the community. Communities hold collective public and private institutions that work together as a cohesive unit. One of these elemental social institutions is the theatre. Dating back to antiquity, theatre served as a means to educated the masses. As history progressed, theatre became geared toward a hierarchy of class as forms of entertainment and high art. In Renaissance Italy, street performances such as commedia dell’arte served as comedic relief from life struggles. While theatre served its many purposes, the underlying force remains within the educational realm. Today, theatre can incite many different emotions in people. Some seek theatre for a sense of culture, whereas many approach the industry as a means of entertainment. Although differing views, theatre provides an escape that allows for direct connections to be made during the experience. When attending a performance, audience members
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become immersed in the world visually presented before their eyes. Audiences are encouraged to question the motives, psychology and history of the characters. Good theatre has the ability to invoke empathy within its audience; a relation like none other. Compared to film, audiences are transformed directly into the threedimensional world lived by the characters on stage. While culture is one of the larger entities that encircle theatre today, productions offer a set of frames and different interpretations relating to points of view. Students are able to compare, contrast and critically think about meaning and message as it relates to their everyday lives. Through all of this, a connection is made. Looking back to grade three, my first memorable production was Annie. Although the campy songs and adorable orphans did not assist in highlighting the Great Depression all too well, the production was memorable and existent. Later on I would soon come to utilize my talents in the theatre arts; however, the educational message was there. Returning to class, we were given a worksheet on the characters. We were asked about our favourites, our less desirable characters, and opinion on the play as a whole. Class discussion
later ensued regarding the overarching lesson of the play; specifically, the importance of living holy lives, as is the expectation within the catholic education system. Back in April, I was called out to review a performance hosted by Soulpepper in the Distillery District. Trudeau and the FLQ sets out to portray the life and predicament of Canada’s legendary Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, during the October Crisis of 1970. At no point have I ever remembered leaving the theatre feeling so informed and academically inspired. Although satirical, the production depicted and portrayed the entire tragedy greater than a history textbook ever could. While teacher candidates are working effortlessly to establish a connection within the classroom, the next step is moving within the community. Once the classroom environment has been established, one cannot dismiss the immense educational impact that the
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Issue 1, November 2014
Commit to It Soyinka Reid
It can't all be about books and exams. The most memorable piece of advice I ever received about university is simple yet sage. It was to," find a club you love and commit to it". This honest recommendation has only grown in relevance for me. It means more than the cliché high school advice, thinly veiled attempts to pad résumés, fulfilling volunteering requirements, or checking something of a bucket list. I’ve learned the value of committing to an extracurricular activity that means something. I've found that in FESA. The Education Faculty's Students' Association is one of the best opportunities of my life. It's the perfect demonstration of genuine
community, camaraderie, and connection we need to keep life interesting. I'm reminded of that every time I have fun discussions with other council members during office hours, or organize and participate in our events. We're connected by our love of learning and education, and united by the laughter we gleam from little moments; our escapes from the everyday stresses of post secondary education and crazy lives. Everyday becomes an experiential learning opportunity. Seek out and find your perfect extracurricular where you feel instant connections to the people and initiatives. Just maybe, there'll be a position for you on FESA next year. My advice: "Find a club
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Seek out and find your perfect extracurricular where you feel instant connections to the people and initiatives.
Connections and Complex Relationships Nadine Wyczolkowski Connections are inherent in education as complex elements are integrated into a cohesive yet unique web. Such webs encompass individual and collaborative learning and teaching as well as relational webs between teachers and students alike. Establishing a connection with every student is crucial to create a class that goes beyond the lesson itself, and to transform a classroom into an inclusive learning environment where all students’ uniqueness is acknowledged and appreciated. If teachers fail to connect with the subject material, how can they foster a connection between the students and the topic? If teachers cannot connect with the students, how can they educate the students and learn from them? Herman Melville stated that “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” Through our vocation of teaching we will impact thousands of students. Understanding the gravity of a teacher’s influence can be evidenced by recalling some of our stand-out teachers, whether they were exceptionally amazing or horrendous they indeed had an impact. Just as spiders spin their unique webs, we communally create a multifaceted support system with concrete and abstract connections that unify once disparate entities and vague concepts into a stunning interrelated network. Such a system links various associations that enrich our understanding of knowledge and growth in addition to the students’ awareness. I believe that we should be sensitive towards the complex interrelationships that emerge in teaching in order to be considerate of the holistic learning environment in order to recognize the consequences of our actions.
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Education from an ED 3 Perspective: A Discussion with Urshian Khalid Tara Schell T: How do you feel about that? Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to sit down with Urshian Khalid, and ED3 student in our U: Scared! It’s very scary, but it’s exciting. I Faculty. Urshian, who hopes to teach physical education and English in the I/S division, met me mean, I’m in ED 3 now, and my last year of undergrad as well, and it feels like I really just bright and early to talk about her experience at York, what she’s learned along the way, and what started. But I do feel really excited that I’m graduating this year. Over the past few years it’s like to be graduating in just six months time. with education, and with our faculty, I’ve T: Hello and welcome! Just going to dive right in learned a lot and I’m really glad that I chose to here: why education? do Concurrent because it gave me a longer period of time within the Faculty. Being able to U: I think one of the really amazing things about see all the different types of things that the being a teacher is that you get to be one of the first Faculty talks about has been amazing. For people in a student’s life that really pushes them to example, we’re really liberal, which is great. I see how great they are. Because kids are absolutely really made some great connections with a few amazing, and they don’t always realize it, which is of the Faculty of Education professors as well, really sad. And I want to be that person that shows and it’s fantastic to be able to talk to them kids how amazing they are, and how much they about things that you’re passionate about, and can do, and how much of an impact they can have stuff that you see in the classroom. I’m really on other people. One of my students last year came excited that I got to be able to grown and learn to me telling me that she was going to run a half here at York. marathon, and about her fitness goals, and as a teacher it’s really great when a student comes to T: If we could go back to what you said about you about something like that- about something our faculty being really liberal- do you think that’s changed the way you see teaching? you’ve talked about in your classroom, or something you’ve embodied as a teacher. And thinking about the impact my teacher’s had on me U: I think it definitely has. Coming into the Faculty, I knew from friends who were in the in high school, they didn’t just impact the way I was as a student in class, they impacted who I was program that it was very liberal, but I got to see it first hand when I got in and took courses as a person. They instilled in me a hunger for knowledge that wasn’t fully there yet. I saw how like Adolescent and the Teacher. As a teacher, you are open to new ideas; you are open to great these people were as teachers, and how positive they were, and how much they do. That’s always learning. Not just teaching, but being able to learn from the kids. In the classroom, I definitely one of the things that pushed me towards education- seeing how much of an impact want it to be a two way street. Obviously there are some things where I have to talk about teachers could have on students outside of the facts, that’s different, but when we’re actually classroom, and not even know about it. learning about stuff that’s applicable to their T: Absolutely, you definitely have an opportunity everyday lives, I want to have a conversation to make a lasting impact. So, the next thing I with them as opposed to just lecturing them. wanted to talk about. You’re graduating this year? So that’s the kind of atmosphere I like to establish in my classroom, based on what I’ve U: Yes!
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learned from the Faculty, because it’s so liberal. And I go in [to classrooms] with a very open mindset. If the kids are talking about something that happened to them over the weekend, and there’s some way I can tie it in to my lesson that day, that’s fantastic- that’s what I want. Because as a teacher, you can’t be stagnant, you always have to be changing; you always have to be looking at new ways to engage the kids. T: So, looking back on your experience as a whole, I’m interested in hearing what you think the most important thing you’ve learned here is? U: Well, I think kids are fantastic. I mean, whether that’s high school students, or primary students, kids are fantastic. Because they’re so honest in what they’re feeling and there’s no filter on them. Which is great, because you really get a sense of where you’re at as their teacher, and how they’re learning, and what they’re engaging with. I think the most important thing I’ve taken away from my experience is that, as a teacher you always have to be able to look at your student, and pick out what will engage them. And I think that ties in with differentiated learning. That was one of the big things that I think has stuck with me over the course of the past few years: the importance of being able to take your material and cater it in different ways to the students, so a bunch of them will be able to take it and run with it. Right now I’m doing a media unit, so I’m exploring different ideas through music videos. So, I’m doing things like social change and patriarchy and gendered ideals, and stuff like that. So, what I do, is at the beginning of each of my lessons I play a music video of the day, and then we analyze it as a class orally, and before I even have to say anything, these kids will pick out things in the music video that I’m blown away by. And when that
Urshian, pictured above, works for residence life and is an active member of York’s athletic community.
happens, that really warms my heart, because I see how much they’re engaged and how much they love the material, and I know they see the stuff in everyday life that we’re exploring in the class, so it’s great that they’re able to pick that out and have a conversation with me about it. T: Fantastic! Could we touch on the most surprising thing you’ve learned? The thing you’ve come across that you least expected. U: The most surprising thing… that’s a tough one. Seeing how much I’m impacted my kids, I really didn’t expect that. I mean, considering my own experiences with the teachers who actually pushed me towards education, I knew that I would be, in some way, impacted by kids, but I didn’t know how much of a positive impact they’d have on me. Which is great because I really think education should be a conversation, and should be something you can engage in rather than sitting there and memorizing stuff. Tying back to being a really liberal faculty, and how much they teach us to be open minded and grow, when I’m having a conversation with a student or a group of students in the classroom, I try to take away what they give me. I take it home, I think about it, I find material on it, and I’ll find ways to apply it to my next couple lessons. I find how to tie it in, because if they’re speaking about it, it’s important to them. For me to be able to pull something out of them- a vocal reaction that they wouldn’t normally have, that’s 5
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EDible News ED something I strive for, and that’s something I wasn’t expecting when I was coming into the program. I wasn’t expecting to be able to connect on such a personal level with my students. And the other thing is, being on both sides of the spectrum- being a student and being a teacher- I see that, as a teacher, you don’t realize how much of an impact you have on your students. You can unknowingly be a student’s saving grace and not know. And it’s something I’ve been called in the past, I’ve been called someone’s saving grace, and I had no idea. I literally hadn’t the slightest clue. And when I realized how much of an impact I’d actually made on this person, that really cemented that I want to be an educator and help students realize how great they are and how much they can accomplish. I think education reaches far beyond the classroom. Education doesn’t stop at the door of your classroom, it’s in the world, and it’s everywhere. T: That’s so great. And going back to what you said about taking something that they thought, and tying that into a future lesson- I love that. I feel like that would be so validating for the child, and make them think, “My thoughts and my opinions are good enough for the teacher to use, so they must be important”. I think that’s amazing. U: Yeah, and I think that’s something we should be doing in education: tying in their experiences to the material, because if we teach just the material it’s very mundane. I mean, the kids aren’t going to take anything away from it. And like you said, it is very validating for the students to be able to see that, “hey, what I’m saying matters, my teacher actually cares about what I’m saying”. I remember when I was in high school, I was really lucky, I had teachers who were really passionate about education and about our growth as students and as little leaders in the classroom. But I had some friends who weren’t so lucky and who didn’t have such 6
Issue 1, November 2014 great teachers. And what I like to take away from that is that those teachers didn’t validate the students’ experiences. Also, it helps piece together lessons. Like, right now I’m teaching an entire unit, but over the course of 10 lessons every Wednesday. So there’s a disconnect between when I see them each week. And it’s hard because I’m doing an entire unit with them, so I have to be able to tie everything together. So, if you take away students’ ideas and experiences and tie them into following lessons that helps. T: I’m taking away stuff that I want to do now, so this is awesome. Okay so, you are just about through the education program, you have six months left. So, having gone through the program, is there anything you would change? U: Something I would change about or program… I don’t think there’s anything. I would maybe touch a little bit more on assessment in the classroom. I mean, they’ve done a fantastic job so far with assessment, but I think I would maybe touch a little bit more on how to create stuff for the kids to assess them with. But everything really is fantastic. I’m actually taking this course on inclusive education in the winter- and this is definitely not something that we should change, because I’ve been hearing so many fantastic things about this course, and I’m really excited to take it. I’m so excited that this is a course that’s offered in our faculty, and really excited that I get to be able to learn about how to make education and literacy inclusive for kids of all different backgrounds and experiences. Because we all come from different experiences and they shape the way we learn, and the way we view things, and the way we do things as well. They shape our behavior, and they shape our thoughts. So, that’s really great- another great thing to add to the faculty! T: Fantastic! Thank you so much for sitting with me today.
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Teens May Be Taking ADHD Meds In Response To Academic Pressure Huffington Post: Rebecca Klein Posted: 10/16/2014 4:21 pm EDT Updated: 10/16/2014 4:59 pm EDT While the number of children medicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) continues to rise, a new study shows that the number of kids who actually take such medication varies by season. According to research published this month in the American Sociological Review, middle and high school students are 30 percent more likely to have a prescription filled for stimulant medication during the school year than they are during the summer. However, these rates aren’t uniform across class or location. Students from higher-income families, and students who live in states whose governments more closely monitor school performance, are more likely to only take medication when school is in session. Researchers also found that the trend was more pronounced among families with private insurance than those with public insurance. Using this indicator, researchers concluded that wealthier children were going off medication during the summer at a higher rate than less wealthy children, as public insurance programs like Medicaid serve families with limited resources. Notably, ADHD is associated with a number of attributes that could be detrimental in school settings, such as forgetfulness and inattention. For those reasons, the study notes, stimulant medication like Adderall or Ritalin can help improve academic performance for students both with and without ADHD. Researchers also found that students were more likely to go off their stimulant medication during the summer months in states with strong educational accountability systems. The report measured those accountability systems based on state ratings from Education Week Research Center’s 2008 Quality Counts report, which looked at factors like how strongly states hold schools responsible for their performance. The study’s authors ultimately conclude that
Pellentesque:
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wealthier students are more often taking stimulants during the school year in response to academic pressure. Jennifer L. Jennings, an assistant professor of sociology at New York University and a co-author of the study, told The Huffington Post that the study’s findings could be interpreted in a number of ways. “If it’s the case that kids only need their medication during school, perhaps we should look at what’s happening at school as opposed to the kid. Largely that’s the way we’re thinking about it,” said Jennings. “Another way to look at it would be, ‘Actually, these kids need to be on these medicines Consectetuer: continuously. Doctors and parents are doing these kids a disservice.'” She continued, “If you think the true rate [of kids who need to be medicated for ADHD] is probably the summer rate, you should think about changing schools, as opposed to kids.” Marissa King, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management and another co-author of the study, suggested to USA Today this week that schools have become “more academic,” meaning they now place less emphasis on subjects like arts and physical education, and more emphasis on reading,
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math and other subjects that can be assessed with standardized testing — a wide-reaching trend that research has attributed to the 2002 adoption of the No Child Left Behind Act. “As schools become more academic, as a consequence we’re seeing an increase in schoolbased stimulant use,” King told USA Today. “Kids are actually just trying to manage a much broader shift in the way the school day is structured.” Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University and author of Age of Opportunity: Lessons From the New Science of Adolescence, told HuffPost that the study illustrated “another weapon of higher-SES [socioeconomic status] families to manage their kids’ school performance and school careers.” “What we can’t tell from the paper is whether the results are saying that higher-SES parents have more concern about side effects of the medication, or that they take their kids off medication when they perceive them as not needing it,” Steinberg went on. “Or both.” He agreed that the results suggest that schools in states with higher accountability standards create abnormally high-pressure environments. Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank, took issue with that interpretation in an interview with USA Today. He told the newspaper that he thinks “schools look the same from state to state and city to city.” “Affluent kids and their families are worried about the SAT — they’re worried about getting into elite colleges,” Petrilli told USA Today. “They’re not worried about passing the state test.” POST IN CONTEXT: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/20 14/10/16/wealthy-kids-adhdmedication_n_5998386.html http://www.empoweringparents.com
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Arts Education Transforms Societies unemployment rate than those without diplomas. And when exposed to arts education, students of all backgrounds are more likely to graduate. Americans for the Arts’ research shows that lowincome students who are highly engaged in the arts are more than twice as likely to graduate from college as their peers with no arts education. Additionally, low-income students with a high participation in the arts have a dropout rate of 4 percent, in contrast to their peers with a low participation in the arts who have a dropout rate of 22 percent.
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Huffington Post: Robert L. Lynch Posted: 10/26/2014 10:59 pm EDT Updated: 10/27/2014 8:59 am EDT Do you enjoy the sleek look of your new iPhone? You can thank Steve Jobs for taking a calligraphy class at Reed College. Have you or your kids scribbled on a pair of Vans sneakers? Vans’ President Kevin Bailey credits the brand’s creativity with the arts education many of his employees have taken. At her promotion and swearing-in ceremony a few weeks ago, Capt. Moira McGuire, assistant chief of Integrated Health and Wellness at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, credited the arts as central to her practice as a caregiver for our wounded, returning military veterans. These are just a few of today’s leaders crediting their success to arts education.
Once they graduate, students who have had arts education are more likely to hold onto jobs and thus positively contribute to the economy. According to a 2012 study in the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, jobs in the creative areas–such as engineers, artists, scientists and educators–experienced lower rates of unemployment during the 2008-2010 recession than those in service or production jobs, even when employees had the same level of education. Furthermore, the researchers note that those in creative jobs are more resilient to technology advancements and outsourcing than other careers.
Students with exposure to arts education are also more prepared for the jobs of today and those of the future. Americans for the Arts and the Conference Board’s joint “Ready to Innovate” report shows that 72 percent of business leaders say that creativity is the number one skill they look for when hiring, and a subsequent report credits arts education as key to a student gaining that creativity. Additionally, inIBM’s 2010 Global CEO Study, 1,500 CEOs from around the world named creativity as the leading Although many people may agree that arts (music, skill needed for business success. The executives theatre, dance, visual, media, literary and more) are from 60 countries and 33 industries believe that an important part of education, they may not realize instilling creativity in their organizations is the key the powerful trickle-up effect of arts education on a factor for successfully handling the challenges modern, innovative workforce. Indeed, arts facing businesses today: changing regulations, education has the power to transform societies for evolving industries, incredible data accumulation the better. and quickly changing customer preferences. Arts education increases employment rates by The value of arts education extends even beyond raising high-school graduation rates. Last year, high primary school. According to Adobe, while 78 school graduates had a 3.5 percent lower
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percent of college-educated Americans believe that creativity is important to their current careers, most found that they value creativity more as professionals than they expected to while in college. So arts education for adults–like taking a ceramics course, playing in a band, or even just attending performances– can positively affect job performance. And artistic hobbies matter too: Robert Root-Bernstein, a creativity researcher, consultant, and professor at Michigan State University, published research showing that having one persistent and intellectually stimulating hobby (like painting or playing an instrument) is a better predictor for career success in any discipline than IQ, standardized test scores, or grades. Franklin Roosevelt said it well: “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” So to prepare, protect and equip today’s workforce and that of the future, we must ensure that arts education remains a priority in our schools and in our lives. Do you know whether your local school provides quality arts education? Americans for the Arts offers a toolbox–including research, questions to ask, and ways to involve the community–to equip parents, citizens and teachers to advocate for arts education in schools. It’s an issue not just for parents, but for all of us: to ensure a flexible, innovative and employable workforce, we need creative, curious citizens who have been educated in the arts. POST IN CONTEXT: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-lynch/arts-educationtransform_b_6051742.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education
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Taking a Lesson from Malala
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HUFFINGTON POST: Fernando Reimers. Posted: 10/16/2014 4:01 pm EDT Updated: 10/16/2014 4:59 pm EDT When Jon Amos Comenius proposed, four centuries ago, that all persons should be educated, so we could have Peace in the world, he laid the cornerstone for public education. It would take more than another century for the first nation states to begin to build the institutional infrastructure that allowed every child the opportunity to be schooled. For most of the world, advances in providing real educational opportunities are more recent, the work of visionaries who understood that Peace rested in guaranteeing every person some basic rights contingent only in their humanity. The inclusion of the right of education in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, just over 60 years ago, began a most remarkable expansion of educational opportunity globally. Progress in translating this aspiration into real opportunities to learn has been the result of the dedicated work of ordinary people who establish schools, teach and support those who do. Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi are two such people, who remind us all of the necessity to continue advancing in providing meaningful opportunities for all children to learn and gain the mindsets and skills that empower them to be free, improve themselves, their communities and the world. In recognizing their important work the Nobel Committee builds on the intellectual foundation created by Comenius, by Eleanor Roosevelt and all others whose work linked the advancement of Peace with providing individuals the opportunity to learn. When Malala was recognized a year ago by the Harvard Foundation in Cambridge, I was struck by the depth of perspective of someone so young. As over a thousand people in Sanders Theater gave her a standing ovation, she said humbly ‘I don’t want you to think I am in any way special… it is just that in a context of grave injustice, when no one does anything, the voice of a single person can make a big difference.’ Malala’s Nobel Award was announced a day before we celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child, a date established by the United Nations to call attention to the barriers that prevent many girls
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EDible News ED around the world from the opportunity to develop their talent. Those barriers are an affront to the basic human rights of girls. But these barriers are also an affront to those of us who witness this gross violation of basic standards of fairness. That those barriers still exist under our watch, challenging international covenants, laws and basic sense of fairness, should cause us to take them personally, as Malala and Kailash have. Much progress has been achieved in recent decades in expanding educational opportunities for girls, as a result of the efforts of governments and non-governmental organizations, as well as a result of the work of ordinary citizens. The Millenium Development Goals, for instance, a global compact adopted at a United Nations meeting in the year 2000 to eradicate poverty, focuses one of the goals in closing gender gaps in access to, progress throughout school and completion of various education levels. But these goals are not sufficient to empower girls, as Malala’s example makes evident. Malala is impressive not only because she has well developed cognitive skills, she is smart, thinks clearly, is curious and can think about new problems based on what she knows. She is also creative and inventive, in a context where there were not many obvious resources she could garner to advance the cause of girls education, she resorted to blogging as a way to reach a global audience. If Malala’s smarts are impressive, so is her character. She comes across as a person with deep empathy for others, with the capacity for selfreflection, with a strong moral compass. She is nothing but resilient, perseverant and disciplined. Cognitive skills and character are enhanced by Malala’s fine interpersonal skills, she can listen, and speak, she can talk to all kinds of audiences, she advocates negotiation and peaceful resolutions of conflicts. Malala can most certainly work with others and lead. It is this rich set of competencies and dispositions, cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal,that make Malala 12
Issue 1, November 2014 the remarkable young person that she is. These are the skills and dispositions we should strive to help all girls, and boys, in the world develop as a result of global efforts to expand educational opportunity. We should see children and youth as nothing less than full, multidimensional, human beings: mind and heart, character and relational skills. Nothing else will do if the main purpose of educating all is to have peace in the world. Ongoing efforts are failing because they express too narrow a view of what it means to educate a child, particularly a girl who lives in poverty. As we share in the joy of this deserved recognition to the good work of two social activists, of two ordinary citizens who, in the face of grave injustice, raised their voice where others didn’t, we should reflect on the capacities that are the reason they can do this. We should also examine whether we have the capacities to do our share in building a world in which we do not need to fear that those who follow us will say, in retrospect: “they saw half the sky denied the simple opportunity to learn and did nothing, they saw girls kidnapped by thugs in schools because they wanted to be in school, and did nothing, they saw girls shot in the head in school buses and remained silent, they knew girls were trafficked and violated and pretended it was not their business. What were those people thinking?” Causing us to ask these questions, and to choose to take them personally, might well be the biggest legacy of Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi. POST IN CONTEXT: http://www.huffingtonpost.co m/fernando-reimers/taking-a-lesson-frommala_b_5995082.html
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Ontario to survey parents as it updates elementary sex education program opportunity to get “more feedback from parents from across the province.” Lack of such feedback formed part of the criticism when the new curriculum came under fire four years ago.
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The Ministry of Education wants to release an updated sex ed curriculum by next September, after a 2010 controversy saw the previous revision shelved.
By: Kristin Rushowy Education Reporter, Published on Thu Oct 30 2014 Ontario parents — one from every elementary school — will get a chance to offer their opinion on a new sex education curriculum, which was shelved in 2010 but is now being updated and will be introduced in schools in September. About 4,000 parents, likely the school council chair at each school, will be asked to take an online survey about “trusted sources for health information” as well as when “certain information should be taught in schools.” They’ll be asked if puberty and matters of sexual health should be taught before kids are likely to experience them, if parents should be notified when their children will be taking the sex ed curriculum and what will be taught at what grade. The province says the online survey is an
“As the new curriculum is finalized, the insights and advice provided through this process will be considered along with research and information from earlier consultations and focus groups with students, teachers, parents, faculties of education, universities and colleges, as well as other organizations and stakeholders,” the Ministry of Education said in a release. The government aims to have the new curriculum in place by next September. “Students need to have the best information possible so they can make informed decisions about their health and well-being. In our increasingly interconnected world, students often get information from unreliable and inaccurate sources,” said Education Minister Liz Sandals in a written release. “That is why an up-to-date, relevant and appropriate health and physical education curriculum is needed now more than ever, and is why we are committed to having one in place for the 2015 school year.” Ontario has the most outdated sex education and health curriculum in the country. The phys. ed curriculum now being used was implemented in 1998 and does not cover topics such as cyberbullying, same-sex relationships nor mental health issues, forcing teachers to turn to other provinces for materials and lessons. When the Ontario government tried to implement a newer version, created with the input of and consultation with numerous 13
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In the online survey, which will be available mid-November, parents will be asked: §
How familiar they are with health and phys. ed curriculum and how curriculum is developed.
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How important it is that curriculum be up-to-date and that sex ed curriculum “(include) concepts and topics that are relevant to children and youth so they do not seek information from unreliable sources.”
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If students should learn about sex ed “before they face a situation where they may need the information” and that they learn about puberty before going through it.
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How important it is that “children are exposed to all kinds of diversity through the school curriculum.”
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How comfortable parents feel talking to their children about sex and if they would like to get advance notice “so that I can discuss this learning with my child at home.”
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Who are trusted sources for sexual health information, including doctor or nurse, public health, parents, media or teacher?
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If information, in a pamphlet or other form, should be provided to parents outlining what sex ed covers in each grade and how to talk about these issues with kids at home.
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groups and parents, it faced an outcry from religious leaders who objected to what they called explicit sexual content for elementary kids. The rejected 2010 curriculum included discussions of homosexuality in Grade 3, puberty in Grade 6 — with masturbation as a possible topic — as well as information about sexually transmitted infections and delaying sexual activity, in the Grade 7 curriculum. Oral and anal sex could be discussed in Grade 7 as well. The government backed away and only just recently began to look at updating the 2010 version — since it now needs an update — and calling for consultation with parents. 14
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