This school year is marked by the entry into force of the new Culture and Citizenship of Quebec (CCQ) program in Quebec schools, replacing the Ethics and Religious Culture (ECR) course. Since the program’s gradual entry into force in 2023-2024, we have heard many testimonies from teachers who do not feel ready or sufficiently equipped to teach this course and address the so-called “sensitive” topics that must be covered, including sexuality.
Some mentioned not feeling equipped enough to address certain issues related to sexuality or to understand the reaction of some of their students or their parents. But have you, through this process, given a voice to the young people, to whom you wish to speak and to whom you claim to speak?
Whether at the start of this new school year or in the development of the program, it seems that no one has thought it necessary to really involve the people concerned, us, the young people.
We are a few young people from diverse backgrounds who have just spent two days discussing what would constitute a comprehensive, inclusive, current sexuality education adapted to our diversity—the one you claim to know and that scares you so much. There are hundreds of us across Quebec who have expressed our needs and desires regarding a sexuality education pedagogy that suits us as part of an action research study conducted by Les 3 sex and Oxfam-Québec.
Your apprehension, even your shame in addressing a subject so central to our development, is not ours.
Sex education should not become an aspect of the new CCQ course that evolves according to the teacher’s comfort level, at the risk of becoming complementary. Nor should it be the responsibility of young people – often queer youth – to educate their peers or teachers and compensate for their lack of comfort.
If the information we receive, or the context in which we receive it, does not match our needs, we will look for it elsewhere. We are already listening to podcasts and influencers who flood us with information, the information we want to receive and beyond.
Like you, we are not immune to misinformation, with all the harmful consequences that this can bring. Do you really want to leave our sociosexual learning to the vagaries of algorithms?
Ultimately, we want to normalize discussions around young people and sexuality, both in schools and in society. Only by demystifying sexuality can it be discussed without taboos or judgments.
Dare to talk to us and include us in the development of a renewed pedagogy, adapted to the way we want to learn and what we want to learn. But above all, trust us: we know, better than anyone, what we need.