I feel like the misconceptions floating around are largely the fault of the province and education leaders. They need to make the curriculum available so parents can see what educators will be teaching their kids.

In every single article and press release I've seen, there are no links to summaries or topics that are part of the new curriculum, just quotables like "Wynne won't back down like McGuinty did" and "many parents are outraged". Parent groups that are wildly speculating and reporting hearsay aren't any better either.

Beyond that, I have a particular problem with the following approach:

McDougald will ask trustees Tuesday to send an open letter to Queen’s Park asking for help to debunk the myths around the new lessons — like explaining that masturbation is not a topic that must be taught, but rather is a subject on which teachers have been given tips on how to respond if any student happens to bring it up.

How are "tips on how to respond to questions" any different than laying it out in a teachable curriculum? Kids are absolutely going to ask questions, so saying "we won't bring it up unless they ask" is a nonsensical approach.

Bottom line: don't make it sex-ed. Make it a block of human anatomy (taught under the header of science or physical education), and sure, go ahead and teach all about how human reproduction works, and even risks like STIs (just like one would teach about any other diseases in anatomy courses). But you don't need to teach elementary-level students about sex in any way that's outside of scientific human reproduction (like masturbation or anal sex). That's absolutely up to parents and not public educators.

I've not commented on the rumours about how early kids will be taught certain things because I expect most of the information floating around about that is false. However, it doesn't seem necessary to teach human reproduction to any students younger than, say, Grade 6 (a number I've come up with personally, obviously that's something to be decided by educators with the input of parents).

Let's have a real discussion about this.