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By: Diane Doran
Imagine this. You decide to go to grad school. You save up so you can afford tuition, or maybe take out another loan. You juggle courses, TA work, and your own research. You work hard to meet everyone’s expectations. Sometimes you sacrifice your sleep, or your health, or your relationships. You live on a sub-standard wage. You lock yourself away for weeks to write your thesis; if you don’t submit it by the deadline, you’ll be charged for another semester of tuition. You break down at least twice, but you keep going, and one day, against all odds, that sucker looks just about finished. You prepare for your defense and spend the whole night before thinking about the questions you might be asked rather than sleeping. You pass! Only minor revisions. Almost there. You sign all the paperwork. You go back, you make the edits. You make sure you’ve formatted it just the way the university requires. So close. Now all you need to do is submit it to the School of Graduate Studies, but McMaster University has one last nasty surprise left for you: it’s going to cost you.
In order to graduate, you must submit an electronic copy of your thesis to SGS, and in order to do so you must pay exactly $40. Apparently, the thousands of dollars that I paid in tuition and student fees only cover my education — graduation not included.
No, unfortunately, this is not a Monty Python sketch, this is the perennial farce that is McMaster University administration. The mysterious “library and archiving fee,” of which no description can be found, is the final frontier between you and your degree, and it comes as a shock to most graduate students. It’s like buying an airline ticket, getting on the plane, and then being asked to pay a “descent and landing fee” while you’re cruising at 39,000 feet.
Now just to be clear, I am not kicking up such a gigantic fuss just because I now have 40 fewer dollars in my bank account. On vacation, I once spent $20 on a paper puppet in the shape of Spongebob Squarepants that the vendor convinced me would dance on its own when placed next to a stereo. It did not. And yet I’m not nearly as angry about that.
It’s the principle. If publishing your thesis on MacSphere were optional, you’d hear no complaints from this girl. I chose to pay tuition, because I decided I wanted an education. But I had no choice but to pay this fee, if I wanted anything to show for it.
The ransom on your diploma is set at $40, which most of us could probably begrudgingly afford; but not unlike the profits of criminal extortion, the use to which these funds will be put is not at all transparent. McMaster’s policy is for all theses to be uploaded to MacSphere on their library website, where they are searchable and can be accessed by a wider audience. Which is great, but I am profoundly confused as to what part of that is costing us each $40.
Am I paying for an administrative assistant to open my PDF file and drag and drop it onto the website? Am I paying for a tiny amount of space on a server until the end of time, which has been calculated to amount to exactly $40? Until SGS decides to respond to my recent tweet, we’ll never know. More likely, I’m helping to repay the overhead costs of McMaster deciding to invest in new software or platforms, and so are you, because they know, of course, that you’re not leaving without that diploma.
Now, I’m not a totally unreasonable person. If a gym invests in new equipment and a sauna, they have the right to start charging a bit more for membership. That’s how business works, and McMaster University is a business like any other. I understand that. But even if SGS manages to convince me that the “library and archiving fee” is legitimate, why on earth is the fee not included with tuition and student fees at the beginning of the year? Nobody starts a degree thinking “who knows, I might even graduate!” Why is that not part of the deal?
SGS, I believe I speak for disgruntled grads across this campus when I ask you please, don’t wait to trip us right before the finish line.
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By: Sunanna Bhasin/Opinions Columnist
It came up during my literature class, this idea of living provisionally.
As it was described, I felt somewhat enlightened. There were suddenly words I could use to explain the feeling that I, and many of you, have experienced and may still experience too often. It is the feeling of dread that what you’re doing doesn’t interest you. You look forward to the weekend because as soon as it arrives, you can relax and do what you really want. In some cases, this can’t be helped. We all have those hectic weeks full of midterms and assignments that make us pray for a break. Just a few more days, and it’ll be Reading Week. Just one more month, and the term will be over. But this can be unhealthy if it becomes our entire month, or even worse, our entire year.
Ever hear students say: “Once I finish my undergrad, complete med school, and do my residency, then I can relax and live the life that I want?” It’s almost too common. Multiple people in my life used to encourage me to pursue med school, and when I showed any sort of uncertainty, they’d simply say, “think about how amazing your life will be when the schooling is over.” I never questioned the idea of living provisionally until I was introduced to the language that allowed me to talk about it, and then challenge it. Unless I enjoy the journey, why should I suffer for years doing something I get zero pleasure from only to reap financial benefits in the end?
University may not be the cliché “best time of your life,” but it should be a good time nonetheless — a time for personal growth, learning, and dare I say it, even some fun. For the first year and a half at McMaster, all I could think about was graduation and how much of a relief it would be to get out. Looking back, I know it was because I didn’t care for a few of my courses and because I may have been experiencing an identity crisis.
Now is the time for us to explore various subjects and join extracurricular activities that we want to be part of, not just because we need to fulfill a certain requirement for the next stage in our life. Spoiler alert: sometimes they go hand in hand.
Of course there’ll be times when you’ll find you’re overwhelmed and only want to live for the weekend, but I hope you’ll find a good balance that’ll allow you to take on university with a smile on your face, with a love for what you’re doing, and a purpose and sense of belonging. It could take a while to get there, and sometimes you may find that it’s easier to keep your eyes on your feet and continue on a path that you don’t necessarily find worthwhile, without looking up and re-evaluating your situation.
But I can guarantee that you’ll find your time at school to be much more fulfilling when you’re happy and in a space that you want to be in. So if you’re considering switching programs, but the hassle is stopping you, it won’t compare to being in a program that doesn’t fit your interests. If you’re dying to try a new extracurricular but are scared of taking the first step – do it. I wouldn’t be at The Silhouette if I hadn’t just made up my mind and stuck to it. It could change your entire university experience for the better. So please, dear students don’t settle. Don’t settle for monotony if you find that’s where you’re stuck. Don’t settle for provisional living.
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By: Alex Killan
Between excitement, uncertainty and fear about the future, almost every undergraduate will experience massive moments of self-doubt, feelings of failure and fear. It happens at every level — the first years feel it as they transition into the world of post-secondary education, and the graduating students feel it as they approach the end of one chapter in their educational journeys.
Our fear of failure is paralyzing and it stops us from taking risks. We prefer to stay with things that we know we are good at, things that we understand and things that give us confidence and the opportunity for success. Our fear of failure stops us from trying new things, prevents growth and development and leads to the development of a narrow skill set. Yet, we often forget that significant success often comes from many attempts and many failures. Ultimately, by emphasizing linear and rapid professional success, society and its inhabitants have failed each other.
To this end, meritocracy, the idea that success is based on merit, is a blessing and a curse of our society. From a young age, we are told that if we are passionate enough, creative enough and determined enough, we will succeed. From this approach, it naturally follows that if you fail, you simply did not work hard enough. The responsibility of failure is placed on the individual and as such, the idea of meritocracy, if not examined critically, can be extremely toxic in the context of personal success and failure. Though hard work is an important factor to success, we need to acknowledge the role that context, luck and privilege play in success.
Planned happenstance, a theory of career planning, acknowledges that in many cases, success is not linear and logical; an individual’s career path can be altered by one opportunity or one new contact. Within this framework, failure can be a positive thing. For example, failing a course can indicate that subject may not be for you, and prompt you to explore another area. Getting fired may lead to another job that brings you greater fulfillment.
On social media platforms, we are constantly bombarded with the success of others. Accepting personal failure becomes difficult. Approaching failure as an opportunity for growth, reflection, and exploration is nearly impossible; we cannot capture it nicely in a photograph.
But really, what is success? Upon reflection, we realize that it is challenging to define. It is a deeply personal concept that we are not often encouraged to define. As such, we may spend significant positions of our life chasing something that we do not really want. No matter what your path to your personal success, accepting failure as an integral part of it is critical.
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By: Kaiwen Song
MCAT? Thank God that’s done! Autobiographical sketch? Just needs another look. Supplementary essays? Completed and edited! Now I just pray that my reference letters arrive on time.
This September, many of my peers and I applied to medical school through the Ontario Medical Schools Application System. In addition to the full application, OMSAS requires that three physical copies of completed reference letters be received by Oct. 1 — not sent by, not postmarked on, but received. Although many medical schools understand the variability of mail delivery times and use Oct. 1 as a flexible deadline, certain schools don’t. The University of Toronto medical school this year is notable for declaring on its FAQ page that if a reference letter arrives at OMSAS even just one day after the deadline, the corresponding application will not proceed to file review.
As you can imagine, the weeks leading up to the deadline were a very stressful time. In addition to taking the MCAT, completing our autobiographical sketch, and writing our supplementary essays, we also had to take all the necessary steps to ensure that our reference letters arrive on time. Unfortunately, as students, we can only do so much. We begin by asking our potential referees early to provide them with plenty of time to write it, as well as for the letters to arrive at OMSAS safely before Oct. 1 through the postal system.
As the deadline approaches, we start to send carefully worded reminders to our referees — forceful enough to express the reference letter’s importance, but restrained enough to not offend. Although we understand that our referees lead busy professional and personal lives and require time to complete the letter, we can’t help but feel uneasy since our entire applications are on the line. At the time, it felt supremely unnerving and frustrating – all of our hard work can be undone by something outside of our control.
Upon further reflection, I am surprised to say that I actually believe that the University of Toronto medical school’s strict deadline is fair. If the deadline was flexible, up to what point should reference letters to accepted? One week after the deadline? One month? There must be a clear deadline to ensure that all applications are processed in a timely manner, and Oct. 1 seems perfectly reasonable.
That being said, I would like to advocate for the change from physical reference letters being mailed in to electronic references sent through email. The biggest source of stress regarding references was the unpredictability of the postal system. Reference writers could send the letter weeks before the due date, but there’s still the chance that it could arrive later than the deadline, especially if the letter is coming from another province or country. If a letter is lost in the mail, students have no way of determining whether that occurred, and there may not be enough time after this discovery to ask for another letter. All of these issues can be addressed by switching to an electronic system, such as the one used by the United States’ undergraduate college application system. Students are asked to input their referees’ email addresses into the system, and their referees will receive a secure link in which to comment on the student’s suitability for their applied program. As soon as the reference letter is submitted, the student will receive notification of its completion.
An electronic system for receiving reference letters will streamline the process, reduce the anxiety of students at a very tumultuous time in their lives, and ensure that all applications can begin to be processed in a timely manner. As anyone can tell you, applying to medical school is hard enough already. Let’s not make it harder than it has to be.
Photo Credit: Ontario Universities' Application Centre
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By: Isaac Kinley
Earlier this month, Research Infosource Inc. released its 2015 list of the top 50 Canadian Research Universities, as measured by research income figures from 2010 to 2014. The rankings placed McMaster sixth in the country overall, eighth in total 2014 sponsored research income, first for corporate sponsorships, and thirteenth in non-profit sponsorships.
The rankings also measured research intensity, placing McMaster third in the country at $339,500 of research income per faculty member in 2014. Professor Allison Sekuler, McMaster’s interim Vice President of Research, credited the university’s performance to several factors. She pointed to the interdisciplinary faculties and institutions McMaster hosts, such as the Arts and Science Program, one of the oldest of its kind in Canada.
She explained that, along with the size of the university, these initiatives help to foster collaboration between faculty members with different areas of expertise and bring varied perspectives to research questions. “We’re big enough that there’s a lot of really interesting stuff going on but we’re small enough that it still feels like a community,” she said. “When I was at the University of Toronto before, I might have to drive an hour to see some of my colleagues.”
The rankings also showed that corporate research income as a percentage of total research income from 2010 to 2014 was higher for McMaster than for any other university in Canada. This raised the issue of corporate influence on basic research and academic independence.
However, Prof. Sekuler isn’t concerned. “[The McMaster Industry Liaison Office] reviews every contract that comes in to make sure [they] are in keeping with the ethos of the university,” she said.
She also explained that the goals of research and commerce are not necessarily mutually exclusive. She cited Interaxon, the company that sponsors her own research, saying they’re interested in not only improving their product, an EEG headband, but furthering basic research on the human brain. The partnership also allows her to obtain data from many more subjects than are usually available for her research. “We try to be very careful when we’re making agreements with companies, or nonprofits for that matter, in terms of what their role is in the research,” she said. “We generally aren’t getting a lot of funding from companies where it’s constraining the kind of work that people do. Academics don’t typically like to do that.”
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Students from the Bachelor of Health Sciences program welcomed Prof. Stacey Ritz with a performance of the restructured lyrics to Fountains of Wayne’s “Stacey’s Mom” this past Welcome Week. The McMaster alum joined the Bachelor of Health Sciences faculty as the new Assistant Dean on Sept. 1, replacing the faculty’s first Assistant Dean, Prof. Del Harnish.
Prof. Ritz has an extensive background in science and health, with a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Ph. D. in Molecular Immunology, Virology and Inflammation, both completed at McMaster. She then went on to complete a post-doctoral fellowship in Clinical Immunology and Allergy from the University of California and has more recently finished a Masters of Education from the University of Western Ontario.
Prof. Ritz not only knows her way around McMaster, but she also knows her way around the Faculty of Health Sciences. In the past she has been a first-year Inquiry professor and co-developed and taught a fourth-year course in “Science, Culture and Identity.”
“I was in the environment where the BHSc program was starting and evolving and so it was really interesting to me because I had always loved teaching, I had loved being a TA, so seeing the way that the inquiry pedagogy was being used in the classroom from the faculty perspective was really valuable,” she said.
“The year one inquiry facilitators had a breakfast together early one morning every week and talked about what was going on in the classroom ... It helped me understand what I wanted to be as a teacher.”
A lot has changed since Prof. Ritz last saw the McMaster campus, namely the size and spread of the faculty, which includes the addition of the program’s specializations. On the other hand, leaving the Northern Ontario School of Medicine , where she worked from 2010 to 2015 as an associate professor, was like leaving behind her family.
“It was a really special experience to be involved in a brand new medical school, and building it from the ground up and seeing it come to fruition. I would have been happy to stay there for the rest of my career,” she explained.
Yet Prof. Ritz knew that her time with Health Sciences faculty was unfinished, and she has many plans for the future.
In order to look towards the new, Prof. Rtiz is turning to the old – the current faculty in the program, many of whom have been at McMaster for years.
“It is exciting to see teachers who are so excited about teaching, so committed and interested. I really want to capitalize on what their insight has been in terms of what the program needs.”
The goal is to gather their input on what they value in the current state, where they can see improvements or what direction they would like to see the program go in.
Prof. Ritz hopes to gain an appreciation for the essence of the program without shaping it with her own ideas – at least not yet. She is wary of colouring other people’s perception and is holding back in order to see how her vision combines with those of existing faculty and students.
Her predecessor in the role, Prof. Del Harnish, was outspoken about the need to assess the value of grades, an aspect of education the Prof. Ritz wants to continue looking into.
“We need to think about what we can do as educators so that getting good grades and learning deeply and well and in a satisfying way match up. If you have a system where what you want for students and what you are assessing students for isn’t aligning well, they are going to [focus] on the assessment. It is always a challenge to look at the hidden curriculum of what your assessment is doing.”
When asked about someone who inspires her, Prof. Ritz names her grandfather.
“He is 90 and although he never graduated from high school, he is one of the most educated people I have ever known. He is the absolute paradigm of what it is to be a self-directed learner. At age 90, he has learned to cook, he is trying new cuisines, he is writing a new book. I think a lot of people could learn from his example in terms of what it means to tap into your own curiosity.”
By: Christine Chow
It’s a swift and effective ambush that sweeps across Hamilton by night, catching Mac students unaware as they toss and turn in their beds, dreaming of a life where midterms and assignments don’t exist. For those who have not yet been infected, I say to you with caution: beware the common cold. Laugh all you like, but when you (inevitably) find yourself trying to clear that persistent, gunky feeling from your throat, know it’s only a matter of time before you’re next.
Getting sick doesn’t really seem like a big deal until you remember that those fictitious midterms are, in fact, real, and happening with or without you. Particularly with the new MSAF modifications, one would have no choice but to believe it is absolutely vital to haul your sorry, infectious butt to class, lest you miss that one lecture that turns
out to be a quarter of the final exam. But this is exactly how colds propagate, and in a school of over 30,000 students, there’s just no escaping it.
The key to surviving both school and sickness is to get rid of the sickness fast. The best way to do that? Sleep. Anything less than seven hours not only increases your susceptibility to a cold, but also decreases the production of cytokine proteins and antibodies that regulate sleep patterns and fight off infections in the immune system respectively. Don’t stay up until 3 a.m. just so you can squeeze in that one last Avenue quiz, especially if it means you’ll be keeling over in your morning lecture the next morning.
Keeping yourself hydrated allows your body to function normally and to flush toxins from your system. If your throat feels like sandpaper every time you open your mouth to speak,
eating ice chips provides an interesting alternative to tossing back that mundane eight-glasses-a-day requirement you’ll probably never fulfill, as it relieves both thirst and irritation.
Similarly, while hot liquids like broth, tea, chicken soup, which has anti-inflammatory properties, and Neocitran (a personal favourite) might not deal with the direct cause of sickness, they do help tackle some of the symptoms associated with the common cold.
It’s important to ease up on your intake of caffeine and alcohol while you’re feeling under the weather, as they actually cause dehydration and make it harder for you to reach your daily quota. Instead of staying out late and deceiving yourself into thinking a morning coffee will solve all your problems, consider a good night’s rest instead. You’ll scare off less people without an overactive microbiome at your back.
Above all, the key to surviving a bad cold is to have the right mentality. Sure, you’ve been turned into a temporary mouth-breather, your nose is a leaky tap, and you have a headache that makes it feel like elephants are trampling your brain, but take a look around: everyone else is sick too. So until some sort of system is implemented that allows us to miss class without reaping the consequences, shameless plug for the advantages of podcasted lectures here, cue the melodramatics if you must, but remember that it’ll pass. How soon is entirely—well, mostly—up to you.
The Canadian Council of Registered Nurse Regulators is facing backlash after moving to an American practicing nurse licensing exam called the National Council Licensure Examination last January. All nurses are required to pass the licensing exam in order to begin practicing. These changes were brought forward because the CCRNR wanted to move to an online system with the NCLEX. However, this marked the end of the Canadian test, the College of Nurses of Ontario Registration Exam.
Carolyn Byrne, the Associate Dean and Director of the School of Nursing, is among those pushing for reassessment.
“We are the only country in the world, excluding the United States, that uses an American exam. [There was] no discussion about this, it was just announced that it was going to happen.”
Those who wrote the exam for the first time struggled with the American adjustments to the test, including the use of the generic names of drugs dominant in the U.S. and the use of the U.S. imperial system instead of the Canadian metric system.
Due to this gap between U.S. and Canadian convention, there was a drop from an average pass rate of 90 percent to 72 percent across Canada. This fall is indicative of a similar decline in the number of people who achieved a passing grade, with a drop from 94 percent to 85 percent for McMaster students.
“It’s very upsetting, you know? These are bright students,” said Byrne.
When asked about if there is a capacity for change with the CCRNR, Byrne said she does not know.
“But we are certainly fighting back. We did have a conversation with [the CCRNR] but to me at this point they’re not prepared to change anything.”
The Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree will not change their curriculum to suit the exam, but there has been an overwhelming response to support the students.
“In [Ontario] students only have three chances to write an exam. In the States sometimes they can write forever. We are trying to make changes. We would like a Canadian exam [but] I don’t know if we will get that. If we use NCLEX for the rest of this year, we would like to give students four chances to write rather than the three, with the fourth one being free. Say none of this changes, we are putting in special workshops to help the students learn how to write that exam,” said Byrne.
Photo Credit: School of Nursing
By: Steven Chen
As the rustling shuffles of students reawaken the campus this fall, McMaster aims to bring new flavour with the launch of the Master of Public Health graduate program.
Led by McMaster University’s Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the MPH program applies the department’s rich expertise in health policy analysis and research within the practical field of public health.
McMaster’s interest in public health came shortly after the SARS outbreak of 2003. Professor Holger Schünemann, chair of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, lead the development of the MPH program over several years along with Professor Julie Emili, program director of the Public Health and Preventive Medicine Program at McMaster. The program is directed by Dr. Fran Scott, an alumni of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.
The Master of Public Health program concentrates on advancing the education of students by offering a flexible, practical, meaningful and evidence-based approach to addressing public health challenges in local communities and beyond.
“The MPH program is very much going to be integrating community engagement in its courses,” said Scott. “There is also the practicum, which is a four-month placement at a public health or community agency. The students will bring their own expertise but they will also learn from the agency about how to work with the community.”
Additionally, the program sets out to encourage students to contribute to the community. “We are encouraging students within the program to take on leadership roles,” she said. “By providing them these practical opportunities to take on challenges, they will refine their skills in cultural competency, communication, advocacy, analysis and articulation of evidence.”
Applicants for the MPH program’s inaugural class had to meet a broad range of criteria, such as previous work experience and having career goals aligned with the program’s objectives.
“We are definitely looking for people that are self-directed…Teamwork skills are necessary because a considerable amount of the program revolves around peer learning,” said Scott.
Considering McMaster’s long-standing global reputation for innovative learning, the Master of Public Health program aims to distinguish itself from other Canadian programs by featuring a unique approach to the area of public and population health.
“We are starting locally and extending the material to the provincial, federal and global levels,” said Scott. “In this way, we offer an education that complements the Master of Science in Global Health, although much of what we teach are similar skills.”
The MPH program also offers the option of doing a thesis project along with the practicum. “Not many [master’s programs] do across Canada, most of them are practicum-based, but because we have a lot of research here at McMaster, we really wanted to create the next generation of research initiatives and collaborations,” Scott added.
With the first classes of the MPH program starting this week, Dr. Fran Scott has made it a priority to deliver a quality education for all her students.
“We wanted to start with 25 full-time students, since it helps to ensure a quality experience,” said Scott. “We do not wish to have agencies take on several students, we want them to take on just one student and make it a really good experience.”
“Public health in Ontario is continuously changing… and I expect for it to change in terms of its organization, the problems it will focus on and the resources it will have,” said Scott.
“We want very much for the students to be aware of this and we are hoping to teach them that kind of flexibility so that they will be able to respond to these changes when they graduate.”
By: Eva Clark-Lepard
The Ontario sexual education (sex-ed) curriculum has not been updated since 1998. At that point in time, “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion topped the charts and butterfly clips were actually fashionable. This was six years before Facebook, eight years before Twitter and 13 years before Snapchat. This was two years before current ninth graders were even born. This curriculum included information on body parts, STDs and puberty. It advised teachers to mention abstinence and decision-making skills.
This September, a new health and physical education curriculum document has been introduced to classrooms all around Ontario. This curriculum includes new additions, such as the mention of gender identity, sexual orientation and a focus on diversity. The curriculum consists of required material complemented by various teacher prompts, so as to assist teachers in answering any questions the class may have.
Despite the similarities between the two curriculums, the 2015 sex-ed curriculum has certainly caused a stir. While there are a large variety of complaints with regards to the curriculum, the recurring complaints are the following: that the curriculum’s inclusion of the topic of consent will allow children to consent to sex, that the topic of gender identity will cause children to question their own gender and become confused, that the curriculum will encourage LGBTQA+ identities rather than regarding them as “sinful” and that the inclusion of the words “oral sex” and “anal sex” in regards to STD/STI transmission will cause rampant promiscuity.
These grievances and many others have been the driving force behind many public acts of protest. These include various rallies at Queen’s Park with signs emblazoned with the phrases “Kathleen Loser” and “Let kids be kids—just say no!” More recently, only half of the students at Thorncliffe Park Elementary School in Toronto attended class on Sept. 8, while graffiti bearing the phrase “Shame On You” appeared on the school days later.
The resistance to the new sex-ed curriculum is multifaceted. Many are simply misinformed, believing some of the statements described above. Others believe that sex and homosexuality should not be discussed at all. Furthermore, some believe that the values represented in the curriculum do not represent those of their family. As an individual who wants to teach sex education and research reproduction for a living, I’ll try and address these three areas of complaints.
Firstly, to those parents who believe that their children will be learning how to perform oral sex in grade eight, I beg of you to please look closer than what your friend told you or what you read in a catchy 140-character tweet. The entire curriculum is online, please read it and realize that this curriculum is only going to help keep people safe and healthy. Just to clarify, this is what Health and Physical Education Curriculum does say about oral sex: “engaging in sexual activities like oral sex, vaginal intercourse, and anal intercourse means that you can be infected with an STI. If you do not have sex, you do not need to worry about getting an STI.” It goes on to say that students thinking about having sex should seek out healthcare professionals who can provide important information about protection.
Secondly, to the Ontarians who are sex-negative (the belief that sex is harmful or shameful) or homophobic, I’m sorry that the government of Ontario is trying to help raise your kids to have more meaningful relationships, less shame about their bodies and less hate for the members of their communities. Hopefully the kids that don’t skip those lessons will still create a community that celebrates diversity and body positivity for your child to grow up in.
Lastly, to those who believe that the sex-ed curriculum goes against their beliefs and values. I respect that Ontario is a diverse province with different religious and cultural belief systems. I respect that these systems may classify homosexuality as a sin and condemn various types of relationships and sexualities.
However, the values infused into the sex-ed curriculum are not random; they are the values of Canada. It has been legal for LGBTQ+ individuals to get married in Ontario since 2002 and there are Gay-Straight Alliances in middle schools. This curriculum is founded on the basis of kindness to our neighbours and the celebration of diversity—diversity of sexual orientation, of hair colour, of religious affiliation. In the words of Edward Keenan, “those values remain worth teaching.”
Photo Credit: CBC
