I would indeed worry about the remarks from Kidder.

““It’s really important that we be talking to them about a wide range of stuff when they’re really young, so that we’re thinking about our interactions with other people, and we’re thinking about how we eat, and we’re thinking about how to keep ourselves safe in all sorts of ways,” Kidder said.

“So it’s school as a part of society, as opposed to school sort of disconnected from society.”

Sex education is a big part of keeping kids healthy, and it’s sad that a “very small group” of people managed to convince the government to scuttle those reforms, Kidder added.

“Sometimes there’s a tendency in a year before an election not to do anything that might be construed as controversial,” she said.

“So I hope it’s not just going to get left.”

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/08/08/ontario-curriculum.html#socialcomments#ixzz0wDXKdhno

It gives the impression that our schools are the best to deal with all social issues. I have lost track of how many times my kid has come home, urging me to adopt a certain viewpoint. Viewpoints that are being held by whatever government is in power. I get particularly upset, on viewpoints that our food and consumer agencies have our best interests at heart. Furthermore, I question the wisdom of teaching grade 8 students how to use defibrillators, without learning the other manual techniques, that the Red Cross and other agencies offer for a fee, for the general public. It does cost a pretty penny to become a life guard, and a lot of the expense is the Red Cross material that is needed to teach the life guard courses.

I am not against it, but it does make me uneasy, that organizations that are connected to the government, will be making a boat load of money, teaching students a particular way to think and act. Conditioning the students before adulthood, that government has the best interests of society, and not the family unit or the individual.

Given the disproportianate amount of influence P4E seems to wield in education I find Kidder’s claims of a “very small group” having an impact on government policy pretty ironic.  She seems to have acquired a role as the “go to” person on all things educational simply by being quotable.  What expertise/training does she actually have?

This appears another attempt to use the school system to “educate” kids on what the right view of things is on complex issue that may not be easily taught, especially to young children.

Don’t they have trouble already finding room in a day for things kids really do need to know?  What’s to be taken out in order to deal with the new things?

There seems a rush to burden kids with all sorts of issues long before they’ve had a chance to just be kids.  I find it sad somehow.

” What expertise/training does she actually have?”

  exactly the question smart media should be asking. Often her quotes make no sense whatsoever.

  Education Reporter has an interesting take on the release of this by the Star that’s worth a read.

I find P4E sorta vacuous; their default is simply that we should dump money into education to the point where there’s more than enough of everything.  What they don’t seem to do very well is go on the assumption that there’s not a bottomless pit of money and so there should be prioritizing of what’s necessary and what’s nice.

I’m sure they mean well but a little more in the way of real analysis would be useful.

I feel uneasy too. The concept that children need to know and be able to ask questions and know they can talk to adults about these problems is a good one. But, just like anything else it depends on when you do it and how you do it.

Personally, I find today’s children - and that includes my son - extremely imature compared to how we were at that age.
That stems to a great degree from the belief shared by many parents that today’s world is a dangerous place and therefore the children need to be protected and supervized all the time.

The laws may be open to some interpretation but in GTA for most parents they translate into you cannot leave a child younger than 12 alone at any time; and that includes not leting them play outside or riding the bike unless a parent sees them all the time.
As a consequence kids are either in organized activities - most kids can’t even organize themselves to play soccer without an adult since they’ve never had the experience - or inside watching TV or playing games (since that’s safe!).

They don’t even go to the grocery store at the end of the street to buy bread or milk but we discuss drinking and race violence with them ..?...

How can they possibly understand the context of these issues and why is it safe to put such a burden on their minds at a young age when it’s not safe to play outside alone?

I find that in many ways one one hand we infantilize our kids and we don’t teach them early enough how to manage everyday life for themselves and on the hand we burden them at a young age with big problems that even we, the adults grapple with and to which there are no clear solutions.
For more sensitive kids I think this a recipe for worries and helplessness.

Europe, it one of the reasons why I moved to NL, so my youngest could enjoy going to the store on her own, at the young age of 6. Playing on her own with her friends, using the community as her playground, and not the fenced yard in Ontario. As a parent, it was a wonderful feeling of chains being release, where I no longer had to keep an eye on my child every waking moment. It also afforded the opportunity to have chats about situations that are a danger to children, or for that matter adults. My youngest is much more savvy about the dangers that lurk around the corner, but also has the skills to avoid them. In Ontario, in the populated areas, my youngest would be as you have describe, one of them that would be immature in handling day to day situations.

By the way, my youngest who is now 15, stills remembers the freedom she had as a 5 year old, when we first moved to NL. She remembers the feelings of the freedom, without being saddled down by the big problems in today’s society.