Right now in Ontario, there is a debate, a protest, a fear about the new sex education curriculum. This is the first update to this curriculum since 1998 (elementary). There are a few things about this new sex education curriculum that is causing such discourse. The nuts and the bolts of it is that parents are afraid of what our kids will be learning and the fact that we will have so little control over what they are taught in school. The truth is folks, we already don’t have a heck of a lot of control about what our kids learn out there in the real world, sex related or not.
One mistake we make as parents (and as humans) is that we get caught up in our own experiences. It is human nature to only remember our own lives and our own experiences. Sometimes I look at my 12 year old daughter and need to remind myself that though she came from me, she is not me. She is going to grow up in a world that I know nothing about. The only thing, and I mean the only real thing, I can do about that is try to prepare her best I can, using the tools I have or have access to. That’s it, it is really simple. I can’t protect her from that mean teacher at school, all I can do is be there for her, talk to her and give her the tools so she can deal. Parents make a big mistake when we either don’t realize or forget that we are not here to fix everything that happens to our kids. No, our job is simple, prepare them for life, their own lives. Teach them how to deal on their own and solve their own problems. Our world is getting harder, and we will not do our kids justice by teaching them to be afraid of that world. We need to arm them, with the knowledge and the confidence that they are capable. The truth is, they are going to have to be a lot more capable than we ever were. Times are a changing, either get on board or go down with the ship. So to all those parents protesting, ask yourself this, how do you want to teach your child to survive?
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