Talking about sex is a taboo in South Asian community. Discussing merits and demerits of teaching it to kids is taking the topic too far away from even only mentioning it.
Parents realize that it is being taught in schools in one form or the other, however they would rather schools do what they have to do on the subject. Nonetheless, the recent controversy surrounding health and physical education (HPE) has had many parents on red alert as to what schools would be teaching their kids.
A mother of four, Ontario’s new minister of education, the Honourable Leona Dombrowsky, believes that “We allowed someone else to tell our story.”
She clarified that 90 % of HPE curriculum has to do with physical wellness of children, food and nutrition and exercise.
John Corlett, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at Brock University, agrees. He writes “ It is designed to teach children about active living, healthy eating, life skills such as peaceful conflict resolution, and values such as respect, inclusion, cooperation and dignity — all cast in the light of what educators have come to think of as physical literacy.”
He goes on to write:
“McGuinty and his government turned their backs on research, evidence, common sense and the critical educational needs of Ontario’s kids when they decided to “rethink” the new curriculum. They allowed ideology to bully knowledge and genuine, realistic caring for children who have never been more in need of the kind of education the new health and physical education curriculum offers on so many critical fronts.
Lobbyists and detractors who have emotionally misrepresented what is in the curriculum, alarming many parents in the process, claim there had been no consultation about the curriculum. This is simply not true, and the government’s own Ministry of Education can verify that the breadth of consultation about this curriculum has been remarkable. As far back as 2007, ministry officials consulted on the evolving document with groups such as the Institute for Catholic Education.
So the decision of the government to retreat from its own excellent work was either pure politics and polls — hopefully that was not the case — or it was a serious case of misinformation reaching McGuinty prior to his unfortunate announcement.”
HPE curriculum was also meant to reflect Ontario’s diversity by engaging communities to understand the reality of our kids when we talk about sex education curriculum.
Minister Dombrowsky has worked in education prior to being elected an MPP in Ontario Legislature in 1985 when she was elected as a school board trustee. She is “very excited” about “returning to the role where I can work very closely with our partners in education.”
Reflecting back she thinks that a decade ago, “our schools were in need of much attention. There had been serious cuts to education. Students across Ontario have missed over 2,000 because of labour unrest.”
The situation has drastically changed now, in Ms. Dombrowsky’s opinion. “The investments made by government..demonstrate that his [Premier McGuinty] investments are paying off.”
The soft spoken Minister recounts Ontario government’s right decisions when it comes to focus on student achievement; success rates in Ontario kids at an early age and global competition.
“We want our students to be successful as early as possible. When children in early years are successful, they are more likely to continue to be successful in secondary and postsecondary education,” Minister Dombrowsky says. “Investing in full day learning for four and 5 year olds” is a means to early success of kids.
The proof of Ontario’s quality education lies in the fact that education experts from the US, Europe and other parts of the world look at Ontario’s education system “as a progressive piece of public policy in dealing with issues like poverty as well, closing the gap of student achievement and we continue to improve in that area.” As such, Ontario government, Minister Dombrowsky feels is activist..and education reforms as a whole have been very successful.”
As a parent, she feels “parents are first educators.” As a minister, she recognizes “that parents want the very best education for their children, the education that would enable kids to get jobs that would sustain them throughout their lives.”
The role of school boards, then, is to act as “delivery agents.” Locally elected school boards “provide resources within schools that schools need to be successful.”
The involvement of South Asians at school board level seems to be rare and sparse and why South Asian parents are not really involved is “a challenging question.”
School board elections are a public process where a property tax payer can put their name forward to run for the position.
For her part, Minister Dombrowsky “encourages ethnic communities and communities across Ontario to put their names forward. Sometimes people need to be encouraged so I’d offer encouragement to South Asian community” to be involved in governing bodies.
Author: Asma Amanat
