Inquiry Question:

What is the relation with or the importance of religion & sex education, and
what factors affect this in the classroom?
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Start with reading of a book, and asking if they would use it as a parent or

educator if/when teaching about sexual education.

Brain break: do questions, competitively. Whoever answers first and correctly

will gain points. Winning group gets a prize.

Go through Comparison and long term affects, while answering the questions as a

whole.
Future activity. Getting them to write do what they this should be changed or what
they would like to be changed.

Essential Questions:
1. Catholic vs. Public
a. Comparison with the Public and Catholic Curriculum
a. There are two approaches to sex education: value-free and
abstinence-based. Both impact knowledge, and both reportedly
satisfy Alberta Educations life-skills curriculum.
b. Similar outcomes and goals are laid out in the curriculum. They
both have the same goals in mind as to the ideas of what the
students should be learning and the grasp that they should have in
the end. Both start from gr.4 and go up.
i. 4th grade: describe physical, emotional and social changes
that occur during puberty; e.g., menstruation, secondary
sexual characteristics, changing identity and moods
ii. 5th grade: identify the basic components of the human
reproductive system, and describe the basic functions of the
various components; e.g., fertilization, conception.
iii. 6th grade: identify and describe the stages and factors that
can affect human development from conception through
birth; examine and evaluate the risk factors associated with

exposure to blood-borne diseases HIV, AIDS, hepatitis

B/C; e.g., sharing needles. Body piercing, tattooing,
helping someone who is bleeding, being sexually active.
iv. 7th grade: examine the human reproductive process, and
recognize misunderstandings associated with sexual
development; identify the effects of social influences on
sexuality and gender roles and equality; e.g., media,
culture; examine the influences on personal decision
making for responsible sexual behavior; examine
abstinence and decisions to postpone sexual activity as
healthy choice.
v. 8th grade: recognize and accept that individuals experience
different rates of physical, emotional, sexual and social
development; determine the signs, method and
consequences of various types of abuse; e.g., neglect,
physical, emotional, sexual abuse; identify and describe the
responsibilities and consequences associated with
involvement in a sexual relationship; describe symptoms,
effects, treatments and prevention for common sexually
transmitted disease; i.e., chlamydia, HPV, herpes,
gonorrhea, hepatitis B/C, HIV; identify and describe basic
types of contraceptives; i.e.; abstinence, condom, foam,
birth control pills.
vi. 9th grade: apply coping strategies when experiencing
different rates of physical, emotional, sexual and social
development; e.g., positive self-talk; determine safer sex
practices; e.g., communicate with partner, maintain
abstinence, limit partners, access/use condoms/
contraceptives properly; identify and describe the
responsibilities and resources associated with pregnancy
and parenting; develop strategies that address factors to

prevent or reduce sexual risk; e.g., abstain from drugs and

alcohol, date in groups, use assertive behavior.
c. One of the differences, of the few that we found, would be the
primary educator. From the Catholic perspective, the teachers
should be the secondary educator of human sexuality or the sexual
education. In the Public school system, it is the teacher who is the
primary educator.
d. Catholic schools mainly teach abstinence.
i. This document also clarifies the role of educators and
family: It being understood from what has been said on
the primary duty of the family, the role of the school should
be that of assisting and completing the work of parents,
furnishing children and adolescents with an evaluation of
sexuality as value and task of the whole person, created
male and female in the image of God.
ii. In determining the content for each grade level, Alberta
Learning Outcomes were considered in the light of Church
documents such as The Truth and Meaning of Human
Sexuality which states that It is recommended that respect
be given to the right of the child and the young person to be
adequately informed by their own parents on moral and
sexual questions in a way that complies with his or her
desire to be chaste and to be formed in chastity. This right
is further to be qualified by a childs stage of development,
his or her capacity to integrate moral truth with sexual
information and by respect for his or her innocence and
tranquility.
2. Affects on Students in the long run
a. Campaign Life Coalition national spokes-man David Curtin says the
root cause of teen pregnancy is not insufficient knowledge but
insufficient judgment. Society doesnt seem to understand that the
rate is rising because of sex education programs that teach the how-tos

of sexual activity, he says, as opposed to teaching kids how to say no

to sex outside of a monogamous married relationship.
b. The most common approach to abstinence alternative is provided by
Teen-Ed, based in Lethbridge. It is formally taught in about eight
Alberta school divisions, and its material filters around through others.
It does not teach contraception, mainly because the technicalities make
sense only to people who are already sexually active; for most teens
who start early, sex just happens, and no amount of prior coaching
ever seems to change that. For this reason Teen-Ed teaches teens who
are not already sexually active to consult a doctor.
c. Teen birth/abortion rate trends in Canada
i. Combined: declined in each consecutive year from 44.2 per
1000 women aged 15-19 in 1996 to 27.9 in 2006, a decline of
36.9%
ii. Canadian teen Birth: decreased from 22.1 per 1000 in 1996 to
14.2 in 2006, a decline of 35.7%
iii. Teen abortion: decreased from 22.1 in 1996 to 14.2 in 2006, a
decline of 35.7%.
iv. ***add on the picture to the PowerPoint***
d. Alberta teen pregnancy rate of 35.7 pregnancies per 1000 females 15
to 19 years of age is slightly high than the national average of 32.1.
After a decrease during the 1996 to 2003 period, the rate since appears
to be leveling out. From 1998 to 2002, a total of 2,627 live births
were recorded for girls and young women under the age of 20 in
Alberta.
i. Affects that pregnancy will have:
1. Low birth weights, pre-term birth, poor neonatal
outcomes, emotional distress, complications related to
pregnancy ( preeclampsia, anemia), family disruption,
social isolation, education interruption
2. Family disruption: families experience upheavel. This
may include the teen having to move from the home;
can create conflict that makes the teen leave home.
3. Social Isolation: teens can experience exclusion or
distancing from their peer group.

4. Education Interruption: labour and delivery and caring

for an infant, teens may be required to withdraw from
studies for brief or longer terms.
ii. Early pregnancy is one of the leading factors that is associated
with teens leaving school early.
e. Although the aim of the ast two decades has been to open the subject
of sex to easy discussion, the opposite has occurred: sex education
battle lines are so firmly drawn that school trustees, superintendents,
principles, teachers and parents are terrified of speaking about it. Still,
there is not question in most minds sex ed has boosted the exodus of
thousands of children from the public schools into Christian
alternatives and home-schooling.
f. To opponents of the turbo-charged sex education which went into
widespread use in schools in the late 1980s, ;ast months news came
no surprise: teen pregnancies are increasing. Statistics Canada
teenagers rose from 39,340 in 1987 to 46,753 in 1994. It marked a
long-term reversal in the pre-capita rate of teen pregnancy, which had
been in gradual decline since 1950.

3. Past, Present, and future

a. Asking them to write a blurb or discuss how they would like to see a
change in the curriculum or how they would change or suggest change
to the curriculum.