by SAMER ELATRASH

Here’s a hypothetical situation: in a classroom somewhere in Quebec, a precocious boy asks his instructor, “What is the normal size of a penis?” Under new Quebec reforms to education, the budding pupil may have to wait till math class to get his measurement.

The Quebec government has cancelled formal sex education from school curriculums, encouraging all teachers to integrate sex ed into their classes. But the reform, introduced in Secondary 1 classes last September, may deny students important knowledge while sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are increasing, critics of the reform say.

“These reforms make it possible to go through school without receiving sex ed,” says Channing Rodman, a program developer with community group Head and Hands. Last month, Head and Hands began circulating a petition against the cancelling of sex ed.

“The problem is the rates of STIs are on the rise in the age group between 15 and 24,” she says. An October 2005 paper by Health Canada reported an increase in syphilis infections, especially among gay males.

Queasy teachers don’t teach

The reform has divided teachers, many of whom have had no experience teaching sex ed. Before the reform, five hours a year were set aside by schools for sex education, usually in moral education and health classes.

A 57-page booklet distributed by the Quebec government says sex ed would now be “a responsibility assumed by all members of the school team working in cooperation with each other and with partners in the community.”

The booklet offers advice on how to include sex ed in class. In history class, students would learn about the mercurial standards of beauty, and in phys ed class they would learn the connection of “body image to the importance of adopting a health lifestyle.”

With no oversight to ensure that the subject is integrated in classes, teachers who feel uncomfortable talking about sex in their classes could avoid the topic. Katia Berdichevsky, who teaches a moral and religious education course at Marymount High School, says some teachers have objections to teaching sex ed. “There are people who have religious issues who won’t even get near that issue,” Berdichevsky says. “It shouldn’t be left to the whim of every individual teacher.”

Introducing sex ed into classes such as English or history means more work for teachers who already have course work to cover, and teachers are not receiving all the training they could get, Berdichevsky adds.

But the reform has its “good points,” says Lisa Henderson, an advisor with the English School Board. “It’s not just teaching the plumbing,” she says. “Sexuality is not just the sexual act. To have it taught to us as an individual subject doesn’t make sense.”

However, Henderson says the weakness of the reform is in the absence of a curriculum and evaluations. “We don’t know who’s doing what,” she says, and issues such as birth control may “fall through the cracks.”

Community groups step in

Rodman says she has no issue with creating an across-course approach to sex ed, but, “The reform doesn’t seem to make it practical. You have an interesting experiment that is not set up to succeed.”

To fill the breach, the NDG-based group began SENSE, a two-year pilot project which includes giving sex ed workshops in high schools and encouraging students to become “peer educators.” The SENSE project is supported by a committee of teachers and parents formed after the reform and the Farha Foundation, an AIDS-awareness group.

Head and Hands, which also provides counselling and legal advice to youths aged between 12 and 25, has already given several workshops, and although Rodman says students and teachers have responded well, the community group will need more funds to continue its work. Rodman says it costs $50 to prepare a workshop, and only part of the costs has been covered by schools.

The government says it encourages schools to work with community organizations on sex ed instruction. Schools may increasingly rely on workshops by groups like Head and Hands, but it hasn’t yet seen support from the government.

François Lefebvre, a spokesman with the education ministry, says the government is “investing millions annually in professional and support resources” to schools, some of which could go to community organizations.

But, says Rodman, “We haven’t heard from them.”