To the OP:

Looks like there is not much you can do in Toronto, except opt for schools which suit your requirements(ie. do not follow TDSB recommendations).

Here are some points from the guide for teachers recommended by TDSB:
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The Toronto District School Board’s “Challenging Homophobia And Heterosexism: A K-12 Curriculum Resource Guide”



The document was produced by the TDSB — not the Ontario government — and is based on previous anti-homophobia curriculum resource guides, including one dating back to 2002, when the Conservatives were in power. The TDSB says the guide is intended to help combat harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity and create safer, more inclusive schools under the Ontario Human Rights Code and the 2009 Keeping our Kids Safe At School Act.

The guide is not required as part of the curriculum. Teachers may choose to use the guide, or sections of the guide, in their classrooms, or not. If they do, they are instructed not to inform parents. Unlike the provincial Health and Physical Education Curriculum, parents are also not allowed to withdraw their children. That is because teaching the content is protected by the human rights legislation, the board says.

The TDSB says it does not track the use of this guide, but the director of Gender-Based Violence Prevention estimates hundreds of teachers use the guide each year. Ken Jeffers said he recommended the guide to at least 75 schools during workshops last year. At professional development sessions and staff meetings, teachers are often encouraged to use the guide.


Key points:

Junior Kindergarten to Grade 3: Broaden the students’ concept of family diversity; familiarize students with terms such as gay and lesbian; read the book Who’s in a Family, which looks at same-sex relationships/single parents/divorce; teach a drama activity that encourages “girls and boys to role-play opposite roles” in order to create diverse family tableaux for a pretend scrapbook; discuss bullying and the use of words such as “sissy, fag, gaylord, batty man, poofta, tomboy, lezzy, lezbo, dyke, homo, queer”; explain Pride Week by showing pictures from the parade and reading Gloria Goes to Gay Pride; ask students to make posters for the TDSB float in Pride Parade; help students host their own Pride Parade.


Grade 4-6: Show the children images from LGBTQ publications such as Out, The Advocate, Curve, Xtra, Siren and Fab; discuss case studies such as “Siobhan’s Story,” which is about a young woman who was called a “lezzie” and “dyke” for joining an anti-sexism club; discuss gender-role stereotyping.


Grade 7-12: Activities include setting up a Kissing Booth — a stamp on the cheek, or a few chocolate Kisses — where students broadcast a slide show of anti-homophobic messages. The guide also recommends certain school-wide activities, including creating an anti-homophobia education display and mentioning contributions of LGBTQ community members during daily morning announcements.





What The TDSB Guide Says About Opting Out Of TDSB Anti-Homophobia Education

“Can schools or teachers choose not to address controversial issues for fear of negative parents response? No. Teachers are obligated to address all equity issues.”


“Should schools send notes or permission slips home before starting any classroom work on LGBT issues? No. If a school treats the topic of sexual orientation or anti-homophobia work differently from the range of other curriculum topics, this could be construed as discriminatory practice.”


“Can a parent have their child accommodated out of human rights education based on religious grounds? No … While the TDSB works to create a school system free from religious discrimination, this freedom is not absolute.”


“Can teachers seek accommodation from teaching materials that may contradict their religious beliefs? No. The TDSB is part of the secular public education system.”



Full Article:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/08/flash-points-in-the-sex-ed-curricula-across-canada/

Quote:

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Originally posted by Aashu

For San hugo : "Desis please stop arguing with foreigners on the subjects which are normal for them, it hurts the impression we carry."

Your comments makes me mad/ angry and I want to spurt out few things here but will control myself ! Still i can say totally disagree with your comment!

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An interesting article in today's Globe and Mail:



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After weeks of bitter debate, the Vancouver School Board has finally passed a sweeping new policy to recognize the needs of society’s newest oppressed group – the transgendered. Now, kids who feel that their gender expression may not align with their biological sex will have the right to be referred to as “xe, xem and xyr” instead of the misleading gender-binary terms “he or she,” “him or her” and “his or hers.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/welcome-to-vancouvers-pronoun-wars/article19234644/

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Read the comments section. It is interesting.






Here's a sample:


DustyPixie 15 hours ago

Our school boards bend over backwards to accommodate the 0.1% of six year olds who self-identify as transgendered, but ignore the empirical evidence that the system completely fails boys.

How about address the boy crisis in education for once?





"A rose by any other name is still a rose"

If these "gender neutral" labels still have somewhat of a gender specific application then they are pointless. School should not be a place of dogmatic social engineering.

Does anyone else find it odd that the two board members who voted against the motion to pass these pronouns were kicked out of a committee for tolerance? Apparently, as with everything "progressive", there is only tolerance for people and ideas that fully agree with everything that "progressive" dogma dictates.




Sounds like a solution in search of a problem.





Back in my day, it was a teachers job to teach. It was a parent's job to raise children. Look how times have changed.

Back in my day, parents were allowed to instill diverse values, diverse religions and diverse moral and ethical backgrounds. Certainly not like that anymore. The state will take care of that for you, thank you very much, and you get no say in the matter.

For all this talk about valuing "diversity", why is there no diversity of thought tolerated anymore?








Maybe they should just focus on teaching the kids math, how to read, a little grammar so they can string words into a sentence. I fear they are only confusing the kids even more with all of this dogma. Just let the kids be kids. This nonsense is already prevalent in the Toronto school system. This decision will be coming their way very soon.




Jack Canuck 15 hours ago

More social engineering nonsense fomented by people with too much time on their hands funded by the largesse of taxpayers' dollars. Where does it end?





This is getting ridiculous and dangerous. 1) Some people are legitimately transgendered, but it's a very tiny fraction of the population. 2) Some people are confused, gay, bisexual, have mental illnesses or have been abused and this is a much larger segment of the population.

Labelling these issues "transgender" and telling kids everything will be all right once they embrace that label or hormone treatments or a sex change operation is incredibly irresponsible. In a lot of cases it's not true and it's not what those kids need. These are kids and they are developing, they are figuring things out. Assigning the "xe" label to a child is abusive.




I fully support the idea of finding ways to make transgendered students included and as comfortable as possible. However, this seems at best a clumsy non-solution. I thought the xe, xem etc. thing was a joke until I kept reading.





It's not surprising that there is a Mental Health Crisis in the country when we have so many social engineer crazies setting policy.






Stephen Thompson 13 hours ago

“Ethnic Chinese believe in a rational orderly society, where parents are the primary educators for their children,” he says. But they regard these school policies as “irrational and disorderly.”

Add me to the list.





Gizella 14 hours ago

Gender self-identity before fore the age of around 18 is part of the flux and flow of childhood and adolescence where young people discover who they are. Encouraging a child who at the age of 10 self-identifies more with the opposite sex to pursue radical treatment and surgery and moreover to indulge in this kind of social politics is ridiculous, and does not serve the child well (by the age of 18, left to their own devices, who knows what decisions a child will make).


And finally, for the true mislplaced gendered people, that incredibly tiny percentage of the population, making a huge public effort, that also impacts the majority (and the taxpayer), is just a bizarre impulse. The only thing I can think is that in our very inclusive, peaceful, relatively prosperous country, it's too dull without having something, anything, to fight for.







Samrani 15 hours ago

If students have a preference in how they want to be addressed then I don't see a problem with attempting to satisfy that request.

My concern is that in places like Sweden, they are using gender neutral pronouns for all students. Is it possible that this will become a human rights issue and everyone will be sent for sensitivity training for not using the correct pronouns?

Agree with San Hugo.

You guys are making a mountain out of a molehill.

There is no point in thinking that Canada will also be like India with respect to culture. It is hypoctitical when one wants to enjoy clean air, no corruption, better healthcare, free schooling, Canadian cars, Canadian homes, dress the Canadian way, work in Canadian offices but don't want to embrace Canadian openness, freedom, love of all, respect of all genders etc...

You can't have it both ways.

Hope this helps.

Murali Krishna.

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

Friends the world is changing. The change is evident all over the globe including Canada and India. When as a young oil company executive, I was getting posted to various parts of India, no body gave me a house for rent as I was single. Today live in, pre marital sex is very common, especially in the bigger cities of India. No body cares a damn about it.

Now as far as gay community is concerned, I do not know if it is a genetic thing as we can blame the genes for any thing but there is no scientific evidence. I personally believe again personally that humans want to differentiate themselves from other of the same type in any society. So in a society where every body follows one religion and has every thing the same - how do I differentiate myself. Being Gay or saying that I am brahmin or a thakur etc. This is the origin of distinguishing oneself compared to others. The genesis is that I am different. Now talking about human rights you will see going forward humans will be living in conjugal relationship with animals and it will be allowed and accepted especially to start with liberal countries.

We could argue that no religion and the human anatomy is not meant for gay relationships but still people advocate this relationship as a big thing. There are enormous financial and corporate gains to be made so much so now a days to say that I am straight, able bodied male is a crime against humanity. We should not make unkind comments. But that is the way the world is going. In the name of liberal values every thing goes. There is not much to do except relax and enjoy your own value and life. No body cares about what others think or do not think. That is my way of life and for our friend who started this thread - probably learn to ignore most of the things. Further there is not much of difference left in modern day India and Canada.

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Ash

deleted

Aashu,
Agreed that it is not a rule to give up what you like of India, if you are staying in Canada, BUT that should be kept within the 4 walls of your house.
Imagine, if Drug taking is so common in Somalia, and the Somalian's demand that they want to take Cocaine on the streets, will that be allowed in Canada.

Canadian constitution guarantees its citizens certain previlages and freedom. We have to respect that as a society. Just read Redflagdeals.com. See how the white people abuse immigrants who are not accepting Canadian society. They are telling that immigrants come to Canada to escape warfare from their mother countries, to avail free schooling and healthcare etc.. Due to annonymity, they are opening asking people to return to their home countries, if Canada is not suitable to immigrants. Soon this will spread (with the rise in the no. of immigrants coming in).

I am also surprised that you are not agreeing to :
1. No corruption.
2. Better health care (This is not only better but totally free)
3. Free schooling (There is no donation, tution fees, buying of school books etc.. In fact in some schools, Tim Hortons provides free breakfast. Depending on the location, you get a lot of freebies)

Hope this helps

Murali Krishna

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.