Some parents in Ontario are keeping their children out of class because they disagree with the new sex ed curriculum. Some say it contradicts their religious beliefs; others argue it usurps their parental rights. I get both arguments. I do wonder if some of these parents would feel as qualified to teach their kids about physics.

We all think we know about sex because we’ve had sex but let’s face it, most of us are woefully ignorant. How else do you explain stories like this?

Maybe if we start talking about this stuff early on, like it’s no big deal, we can take some of the tempting magic out of the equation. I know parents worry if you talk about sex, your kids are more likely to have sex. But given what all of us are exposed through technology, having a teacher talk about sex in a clinical way in a classroom is the least of our issues.

One of the things Ontario parents object to is the age at which some of this education begins but consider that girls can begin puberty at 8! Back in the 1860’s, the average age for girls was 16! Early onset puberty is linked to everything from obesity to exposure to various chemicals.

I remember my sex chat with my mother. I was 22 and about to be married. She gave me a pamphlet entitled “What every young woman should know.” It was mostly about getting your period. It was not helpful at that point in my life.

No one wins this type of debate–not governments tasked with educating the public, not parents who keep their kids out of school and then have to scramble to fill in the curricular blanks and not the kids who may inadvertently get the message that sex really is that all powerful dangerous thing and thus make it more tempting than it would ordinarily be once teenage hormones kick in.

I just wish after so many millenia it wasn’t such an issue.