Unease among teachers

Photo Dominic Scali
Valérie Boyer (left), Pascale Rodrigue (centre) and Gabriel Amyot (right), the Neo, notice that the reality of transgender people is absent from the canvas in the sex education program for high school students.

Dominique Scali

Tuesday, 20 February 2018 22:55

UPDATE
Tuesday, 20 February 2018 22:55

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Angry, uncomfortable and still not trained, the teachers do not feel ready for the return of the sexuality education across the province, in six months, to the point where schools may lack the volunteers to teach it.

“Speaking of sexual assault of children of the first year… If I had to do it in the morning, I would spend sleepless nights “, shows Nathalie Morel of the autonomous Federation of education, which represents more than 34,000 teachers.

After having been abolished, there are more than 15 years, sex education will be back in all schools of the province and at all levels from pre-school, primary and secondary, as of next fall.

The teachers and sexologists interviewed by The Journal are pleased to see the back of this program. But the teachers are “angry,” before the “rush” of the ministry of Education, said Mrs Morel.

“They are afraid to make a blunder in addressing not a subject of the right way, or not having the appropriate response “, said Josée Scalabrini of the Federation of trade unions of education, which are part of more than 65 000 teachers.

Shortage of teachers

For the past two years, about 140 schools are participating in a pilot project. Despite this, the available material is incomplete, has found The Diary after obtaining the canvas teaching that have been created for the program.

Themes are absent and no canvas was passed on to the students of fourth and sixth year of primary education, nor for those of the fifth secondary.

The teachers are unaware of when and how they will be trained to discuss sexuality. Will they be released ? And if this is the case, who will replace them while they absenteront to receive the training, whereas schools are already a shortage of teachers, have raised the trade unions.

“Those who give this training are supposed to be voluntary. But what if, in a school, there are no voluntary ? ” asks Ms. Scalabrini.

It is likely, therefore, that teachers are forced to teach it even if they don’t feel comfortable talking about sexuality, ” said Mrs. Morel.

“Do some introspection “

In his canvas, the department invites yet the person who will teach this topic to “do some introspection” and to “make the point” in its level of comfort.

The more that students may disclose that they have been attacked during or after the workshop.

“And this is not easy, to receive it,” says sex therapist Geneviève Labelle. The person who collects this confidence must adopt an attitude that is helpful, otherwise it can interfere with the healing process of the victim, ” she says.

“In an ideal world, there should be a sex therapist in each school. “

“The teachers are already over the head. How can we think to add a task as delicate as this ? ” asks the sexologist Jocelyne Robert.

Nothing about the abortion and transgender people

Sexologists and stakeholders said that the abortion and the reality of transgender people, two sensitive topics, are not in the program of sex education for high school students.

“I’m a little worried about that. This is bullshit, or this is serious stuff ? “looking forward to the sexologist Jocelyne Robert, who has the impression that the ministry of Education” gropes “.

Abortion appears nowhere in the canvas teaching which have been submitted to the Journal. In contrast, most of the means of contraception are discussed, including the morning-after pill.

“It is obvious that it is necessary to discuss the possibility of unwanted pregnancies “, she explains. Even if most young girls know these days that abortion exists, it is important that the girls know that he is not a dangerous option for their health.

“Young people are very curious and they seek answers. If we [do] not provide them, they will go to seek it elsewhere and could fall on the wrong information, ” says sex therapist Geneviève Labelle.

Questions teens

The reality of transgender people is also absent from the canvas of the program for high school students.

“It really is a shortage,” said Valerie Boyer, the speaker to the body of The Neo, which already gives workshops in schools in the Lanaudière region. This is a topic where teenagers pose many issues, transgender people are increasingly visible in our society, she notes.

“What is a trans person ? Why some of people are they ? Is it that there is a change in sexual orientation when [change sex] ? “, lists the speaker Gabriel Amyot.

The sexual identity, which dictates whether a person feels male or female, should not be confused with sexual orientation, which dictates rather about who a person is attracted, ” he says.

“To come “

In the program of the ministry, sexual identity, will be addressed in the primary, but the content does not appear to have yet been developed.

“A clarification will be made to help the reader […] to know what posture pedagogical adopt “, we are told in the canvas of the pre-school.

Late Tuesday evening, the ministry of Education had not made the calls from the Log.

THE TOPICS DISCUSSED

Pre-primary and primary

• The human body
• Gender identity
• Hygiene
• The pregnancy and the birth
• Sexual assault
• Roles and sexual stereotypes
• Puberty
• The awakening love and friendship

Secondary

• Romantic relationships, and seduction
• Sexual orientation
• The identity and sex-role stereotyping
• Sexual assault
• The act of a sexual (masturbation, orgasm, pornography, etc)
• Sexually transmitted infections and contraception
• The violence