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Sex ed is coming to Quebec daycares. What will the kids
learn?
Pilot project will teach children from a couple months to 5 -years -old
Craig IDesson ° CIBC NmS ° IPost:ed: Selp 12, 201 4:00 AIM IET 1I ILast Updated:4 Ihours agcy
The piillot wiillll use boolks to teaclh daycare -aged children about gender equality. (IKateriina
Georgiieva/CIBC)
Starting this fall, 1,200 daycare -aged children across Quebec will take part in a sex
ed pilot project.
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9/12/2018 Sex ed is coming to Quebec daycares. What will the kids learn? I CBC News
The children will be taught about gender equality and how to protect themselves
from sexual abuse
The initiative is a pilot program run by the Marie Vincent Foundation, an organization
that provides medical and therapeutic services to children who are victims of sexual
violence.
Laura EI-Hachem, a social worker at the foundation, said the project "aims at
empowering these children in their psychosocial development so that one day when
they're older and when their ready to engage in more sexual relationships that it's
done properly."
The pilot will begin in November.
CBC Montreal spoke to EI-Hachem about what parents can expect from the program.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Overall, what will children learn?
It's about teaching the children how to respect their boundaries, other people's
boundaries [and] how to communicate their discomfort if a situation arises where
they feel like they're not being respected.
Also gender equality between boys and girls.
How will children be taught about preventing sexual
abuse?
We're using a lot of books [and] we're using also a big game aimed at teaching
children about sexual violence.
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9/12/2018 Sex ed is coming to Quebec daycares. What will the kids learn? I CBC News
Adults that perpetrate these assaults often use the idea of a game. They'll tell the
child, we're going to play a special game between you and I nobody needs to know.
The pullet Ml use boolks to teach daycare. -aged cIlhHdlren about gender equr.uallity. (Craig
IDesson/CIBC )
We've created an actual game that aims at showing children how really anytime
sexual parts are involved, it is never a game — it is never OK to keep that secret.
Watch Laura El-Hachem show one of the books used in the program:
Sex ed iiln Quebec daycalres 1:0.5
How will children be taught about gender equality?
We created some books for the younger toddlers that are about teaching them
about gender equality.
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9/12/2018 Sex ed is coming to Quebec daycares. What will the kids learn? I CBC News
It's about teaching that there are no activities that are strictly exclusive to boys or
strictly exclusive to girls.
What if parents don't want their child to take part?
Our job is to address the worries of the parents and to take that into consideration
and to really, really work with them to make them comfortable.
With this project, [more than] 100 parents were involved. A lot of them filled out
questionnaires and surveys about what they felt needed to be taught to their
children.
So the parents are involved in building this project. It's a project for the communities
by the communities.
If a parent feels like their child should not be a part of it, then it's always possible to
remove a child. It is not a mandatory program like the sex education program in
schools.
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