FREDERICTON, NB—Dissent continues to grow against a sexual education program being implemented this year in New Brunswick middle schools. Those opposed to the new curriculum say it relegates abstinence to a minor role and teaches too much sexual information too early.

In 2001, the province announced studies toward providing a new sexual education program for middle school students. The curriculum discusses sexual aspects such as orgasm and masturbation in Grade 6; abstinence is not discussed in depth until Grade 8. The onus is on teachers as to what they teach or don’t teach.

Mary Thurrot, a former teacher and director of the Christian Action Federation (CAFNB), says the current program is based on faulty Kinseyan research and premises and instead advocates for an abstinence-based material to be introduced in schools. When the new program was first proposed, she wrote a brief to government officials, provided a video promoting abstinence curriculum to the Department of Education, and even offered to instruct teachers how to teach abstinence.

For all intents and purposes, she was ignored.

Parents have placed a great deal of trust in the government to teach their children properly, Thurrot says. As parents realize what is being taught in sex education, that trust has been ruptured.

“Sex education as it is taught today is not primarily about body parts, functions and relationship in the nuclear family,” cautions the CAFNB website (www.parentsrights.ca). “Rather it involves restructuring children’s values and beliefs. Traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs are considered by some to be repressive and unhealthy.”

CAFNB is holding meetings across the province in churches and community centres to inform parents of the content and implications of the new curriculum. Many parent groups are urging the government to implement changes.

“It is not true that we don’t want sex education,” says Elizabeth Wilson, a parent of four school-age children and a nurse. “With abstinence-based programs there is full coverage of STDs, the freedom that comes from waiting, freedom from STDS and teen pregnancies and the consequences associated with these…We want the right sex ed program put in.”

Although provincial representatives were initially hesitant to make changes, Education Minister Madeleine Dubé agreed to meet with a parents’ group on December 1 to hear their concerns. The government is also planning to address the subject through a review board. Wilson says she hopes parents’ will be invited to take part.

“They need closer consultation with parents regarding the curriculum,” she says. “Letters, e-mails and phone calls have made quite an impact. Politicians base how hot an issue it is by the piles of paper they have on their desks.”