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Teacher Gets an F for Her X-Rated Test
Filed under: In The News, Sex
Are we being graded on this? Credit: Getty Images
It's difficult to even finish the question. These are not the sort of things you generally ask people. Talking this way around the water cooler could get you fired.
Now, imagine what would happen if you were a teacher who posed the questions to eighth graders.
A teacher at Andre-Laurendeau High School on the south shore of Montreal can tell you exactly what would happen. First, several parents would seem to spontaneously combust. Then you'd get suspended, if only because the school board can't find a legal way to have you shot.
The Toronto Sun doesn't identify the teacher, but reports say school officials' heads are still spinning from the test students were given as part of a religion and ethics course.
In addition to questions about sexual positions and the size of African-American sex organs, students also were reportedly asked about sperm, anal sex and lesbian intercourse.
"I find the questionnaire dubious, even for college students," school board director Andre Byette tells the Sun. "We do not approve of the content of certain questions. How does this help the sexual education of students? It's totally unacceptable."
School administrators banned the test following parents' complaints. They also ordered the teacher to stop discussing sexual subjects.
The Sun reports the teacher argued the test, which she wrote herself, was aimed at fighting society's prejudices about sex. That didn't exactly help her case. More parents complained, and the teacher was suspended.
Julie Pelletier, a Quebec psychotherapist and sex columnist, tells the Sun the quiz was "inappropriate for the students of that age group."
Sex education classes have been eliminated from schools in Quebec. As a result, the Sun reports, teachers sometimes take it upon themselves to introduce sex back into the curriculum.
Sexologist Jocelyne Robert tells the Sun the teacher has been judged prematurely, adding that she didn't present anything kids haven't already seen on the Internet or talked about amongst themselves.
Things such as homosexuality and oral sex are not new concepts, Robert says -- even to 13-year-olds.
"It's there," she tells the newspaper. "It's not anecdotal. It's very known to young people. They see it wall to wall on the Internet. If we don't talk about it, we're sort of putting our heads in the sand."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)
12-03-2010 @ 8:34AM
Alicia said...I disagree with the school board director. In a class about sexuality, those questions would not be unusual. In religious and ethics courses, they might not be pertinent, but discussion of sex at length is. In pop culture courses, it's not unusual to watch porn or read erotica. So these would fly on a college campus and that's okay. College is about questioning everything and expanding your horizons and maybe a little bit about shock value.
However, eighth grade is about learning algebra and the only shock value should come in the form of Romeo and Juliet and The Adventures of Huck Finn.
Reply
12-03-2010 @ 4:36PM
healthymom said...Teachers wouldn't feel obligated to discuss sex-ed if we parents just did our jobs and taught our kids ourselves. To those who think 8th grade is too young, take your heads out of the sand! My daughter is in 7th grade and she knows classmates who are having sex. She knew some who were last year, in SIXTH GRADE! Every day I am more and more glad that I chose to talk with her about sex before she was put in a situation over her head. Parents, ask them what they know and you will be shocked- both at the breadth and the misinformation.
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12-04-2010 @ 9:08AM
Alicia said...I'm all for sex ed and I think it should start in 4th or 5th grade about the time when girls first start getting their periods or just before. However, this isn't a sex ed class, it's an ethics and religion class and these questions are out of line for even a sex ed teacher. Stereotyping penis size based on race? That's a ridiculous lesson to teach students.
12-03-2010 @ 7:37PM
woody said...One thing that all young people should learn in a sex ed class, is that instead of thinking of the size of an African-American male's device, is that African-American male's and females are up to 14 times more likely to have an STD including HIV. Without this information, and a fixation on the size of African genitalia, then the sex ed class instructor is being irresponsible.
Reply
12-04-2010 @ 9:06AM
Alicia said...It's not sex-ed. It wasn't supposed to be sex-ed. It is a religion and ethics class and any sex ed teacher who stereotypes the penis size of any race is an idiot and should be removed and sent back to health class themselves.
12-06-2010 @ 11:26PM
Mac said...It didn't occur to you that she "aimed at fighting society's prejudices about sex" by using to test to see if the kids absorbed the fact that the genitals are not any larger?
12-05-2010 @ 2:30AM
Steve Stevens said...I think they should tell them the truth about such things. Kids even at 3 grade should be taught the truth of exploring their own personal areas, on their own or with another person. they should know that it could lead to blindness, hairy palms, blisters from excessiveness, addiction, Peyronies disease, decrease in semen, STDs, HIV, and many other known diseases that can occur from unsafe / unprotected sex. Therefore, they should know the truth, before they explore.
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12-07-2010 @ 3:18PM
davidwr said...I was going to mark you down then I noticed the subtle sarcasm. Well played.
12-05-2010 @ 5:09AM
Calahil said...Seriously these children are too young to learn about religion and ethics. We need to ban the teaching of anything..oh wait. The subject was brought up in the wrong class and in an distasteful way, but these issues need to be brought up to children. Sex is an energy and the more you try to keep it buried by not discussing it with them the more volatile the energy becomes. Parents are to blame for underage sex and pregnancy, because they think they can ignore it and the energy wont blow up. Let's hope parents never become bomb diffusers. Now where were we? Ah yes burning someone who wants to challenge taboos.
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12-05-2010 @ 12:01PM
Steve said...The real scandal is that quebec has abolished sex ed in their school system.
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12-07-2010 @ 2:49PM
Erika said...I agree completely! Definitely a step in the wrong direction.
12-07-2010 @ 3:12PM
davidwr said...Agree! The ONLY reason to to not have a sex-ed curriculum in a modern school is 1) the kids aren't having sex and won't any time soon - this logic stops working well before age 10, and 2) the kids already know all there is to know so it would be a waste of time.
I would love to see the day when all parents taught their kids age-appropriate sex ed from the time they are old enough to know what a baby is until they are old enough to marry, so the schools COULD abolish the programs without depriving the students of a badly-needed education. In the meantime you need "real" human-physiology-and-emotional-health sex-ed starting in 3rd or 4th grade and "preliminary" teaching like "babies come from males and females" and "male animals penises, female animals have vaginas and lay eggs or have babies" lessons in the younger years.
You also need to teach the legal consequences of sex starting well before age 10 but getting into detail after age 12 or 13, including discussions about sex-offenses, child pornography/sexting laws, sexual harrassment laws, ages of consent to have sex and to marry, child support laws, and the like and why those laws came about.
Oh, I almost forgot - you need to give enough information that they can report if they or their friends are being sexually, physically, or emotionally abused at home or elsewhere without causing a rash of false reports or leading to a "tattletale" or "everyone has a friend who is being abused which of my friends is being abused?" mentality among children and without leading to abused children feeling any more fear or shame over something that's not their fault than they already do.
12-05-2010 @ 12:37PM
Dan said...So what is the correct answer? Are they bigger or not?
I never took an ethics and religion class!
Reply
12-06-2010 @ 11:27PM
chipmunk said...C'mon... It's clear why the school board did what they did.
There are 3 reasons why they suspended that teacher:
1. It is clear that any God fearing citizen knows that Jesus doesn't approve of talking about sex.
2. Any good Canadian with any amount of decency knows that if you have to talk about sex, you have to do it in a way that polite company won't be offended. Polite people don't talk about sex organs or anything sexual--that's clearly not polite!. If you have to refer to sexual things, you tip toe about around the subject, and if the listener doesn't understand what you are talking about or doesn't get the point you are making in an indirect manner, then that's his (or her) problem!
3. Sex is just dirty. Really. God doesn't want you to talk about it. Polite people understand that you need to tip toe around that subject. And it is just common sense that children--who are in the prime years of learning--need to be kept in the dark. If children, who don't know any better, insist on talking about it, they should do it in the dark with other children who know as much as they do.
And to those who are worried that our children might be sexually taken advantage of by denizens of the dark, don't worry. Trust in God, who will take care of them, especially He (or is She?) didn't want us talking about sex (especially to our children) in the first place..
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12-07-2010 @ 12:40PM
RU4real? said...Wow. That is one of the most ignorant rantings I have ever read.
12-07-2010 @ 3:49PM
danamch said...To RU4real: I am assuming that Chipmunk's post was cleverly tongue-in-cheek. I found it very amusing and certainly did not take it literally or seriously. It is however, a very pointed commentary on the Canadian societal stance on such issues.
2-13-2012 @ 12:11PM
Hurricane said...Why are they talking about African-Americans instead of African-Canadians?
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1-05-2011 @ 6:32PM
Buzz said...You just took the words right out of my mouth. Almost makes me think that this is not a real story, or at most, the paper pocked it up from a blogger who doesn't't have the chops to be an actual journalist.
12-07-2010 @ 6:41PM
Michael said...Canadians are on the North American continent.
12-07-2010 @ 1:28AM
TD said...The dominant religion in our country takes a strong anti-sex position. Most of our popular religions condemn homosexuality and other common sexual practices. Religion's impact on sexuality, and the questionable nature of religion's stance in terms of secular/humanist ethics, makes a discussion of sex a critical and fundamental part of any understanding of the intersection of religion and ethics, as well as how religion fits into today's culture. This teacher was doing her job.
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