编者按:安省中小学即将开学,将开始教授新版新教育课程。反对新版性教育课程的家长团体今天到安省各省议员办公室前抗议。安省家长联邦还发表了一封致省长韦恩的公开信。
以下是公开信的全文:
On behalf of the Canadian Families Alliance, we are writing to you to request the Ministry of Education’s participation in a public debate on critical issues related to the implementation of the 2015 Health and Physical Education Curriculum.
We as parents fully recognize the need for school curricula to be regularly updated and therefore we are not opposed to the introduction of a new Health and Physical Education Curriculum for Ontario students. We acknowledge the merits of the new Curriculum in many of its content areas. That said, we believe that the Human Development and Sexual Health content area has a number of deficiencies and accordingly must be reconsidered.
One of our primary concerns is that the Curriculum omits and misrepresents proven medical and scientific facts that are absolutely fundamental if we are truly committed to the protection of ourchildren. We highlight several areas of concern as follows:
The Curriculum draws an equivalency between all sexual activities with respect to the risk of STIs. However, it is well known in the medical field that anal intercourse for example, carries
with it a significantly increased risk of HIV infection – conservatively estimated to be up to 30 times higher. Although rarely discussed, the essential fact is that this increased risk is due to basic human physiology. We believe therefore that there must be more complete and accurate sciencebased information provided to students on issues related to STIs. They are serious diseases and therefore must be addressed on a sound medical basis.
The Curriculum promotes condom use alone as an adequate level of protection against the risk of STIs and pregnancy. It is not, as has been clearly established in numerous scientific studies to date. Most STIs can be transmitted in various ways (hands, skin, shared objects etc.) against which condoms provide no protection.
We believe that presenting subjective opinions as established scientific facts must be avoided in the Curriculum. Perhaps the clearest example of this is the belief that explicit sexuality and body parts should be taught to students as young as 6 years old. Moreover, there is no recognition in the Curriculum that teaching detailed sexual information at such an early age will inevitably lead to harmful impacts in many of our children; nor is there any discussion on how these impacts can be addressed by teachers and parents when they do occur.
With the proliferation today of sexual imagery and messaging in the media, we believe that there needs to be a thorough discussion on the exploitation of students, and in particular young women, by the pornography “industry” and most importantly, how students can protect themselves from the harmful and addictive impacts of pornography viewing.
We therefore believe it is critical that the Curriculum be given an open, transparent and public hearing. We understand that as of yet, there has been no teacher training conducted or resource materials provided to Ontario schools. There appears to be a tremendous opportunity available to us now to amend and enhance the Curriculum before it is fully implemented across the province.
We are requesting that the Ministry of Education participate in a public debate to be facilitated by the Canadian Families Alliance. The objective of the debate will be to conduct an open and above all respectful discourse between key experts and stakeholders on critical issues related to the Curriculum and most importantly, provide an opportunity for all of us to work together towards the implementation of a Curriculum that is in the best interests of all Ontario children and their families.
We look forward to the Ministry's favourable reply.
Sincerest regards,
Canadian Families Alliance |