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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, September 11, 2015 | 6 "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." ­ Aldous Huxley Being informed gives us the best chance to make good decisions throughout our lives. Decisions borne of a lack of information, or misinformation, can leave us blind to potential consequences and thereby go terribly wrong with regrettable outcomes. We support information over misinformation every time. When it comes to raising physically- and mentallystrong children, our public education system and parents work as a team. Together, they instill a foundation of learning and guidance so children can become responsible contributors to society. At the same time, each generation carries with it an accumulation of knowledge -- both old and new. What was considered appropriate to teach our children 20 years ago, may not offer the most current knowledge. Since the late '90s -- the last time Ontario's sex-education curriculum was updated -- much has changed. Then, same-sex marriage was not legally-sanctioned in Canada, the terms cyberbullying and sexting were not in the mainstream consciousness. While we understand parents want what's best for their children, not every parent is current with what young people are being exposed to both in and outside the family home. Nor does every parent share the same level of comfort talking to their child about their sexual health. Our education system has devised what it believes are age-appropriate lessons in human development and sexual health. We entrust highly-educated professionals to teach our children to read and write and explore maths and sciences and yet some are quick to draw the line at sexeducation. More than a dozen protesters of Ontario's new sex education curriculum stood outside the of ces of Halton MPP Indira Naidoo-Harris and Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn last week holding signs that read `Stop Radical SexEd. My Child, my choice!' and `Parents are rst educators, not politicians.' For parents who have taken the time to read the new curriculum and still have objections, there are other options. Parents can pull their kids from sex education class, according to Ontario's education minister. Others choose to home-school their child. Still, we should all remember that for all the protesters' catchy slogans, sex education is hardly a new concept in Ontario schools, nor is it a static subject to be taught the same way to each generation of children. Until this year's introduction of the new curriculum, our province had the most outdated health/physical education in Canada. Students in other areas of Canada are getting better information and they are no different than our students. Sex education represents only 10 per cent of the Health and Physical Education curriculum being taught to Ontario children from Grades 1-12. Sex education falls under the Healthy Living section of the curriculum, which provides students with information to make healthy decisions about things such as food; safety at home, school and in the community; alcohol and other substances; and sexual activity. Our children should be given the best information available to them, so they can make the best decisions for themselves. The facts of life Editorial B E S T C O L L E C T O "Connected to your Community" R S 5046 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington ON L7L 5Z1 General Inquiries: (905) 845-3824 Classi ed Advertising: (905) 632-4440 Circulation: 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington (905) 631-6095 Volume 53 | Number 73 The Oakville Beaver is a division of Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Vice ­President and Group Publisher of Metroland West Regional General Manager Halton Region Editor in Chief Advertising Director NEIL OLIVER DAVID HARVEY JILL DAVIS DANIEL BAIRD Managing Editor ANGELA BLACKBURN RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director Business Manager Director of Production The Junior Optimist's Collection Challenge Plaque was presented to St. Bernadette School for collecting the most pop tabs and milk bags. The plaque will hang in their school until June 2016. Pictured are: Randy Curvan (teacher); Caroline Da Silveira; Brittany MacKinnon (Junior Optimist president); Emily Drennan; Daniel Giannotti (Junior Optimist vice-president); and Bart Kastanya. Absent from the photo is Nicholas Roman. All elementary schools can compete in the challenge run by the Oakville Junior Optimist Club, a group of Oakville high school students working to make change through volunteer projects and fundraisers. Schools strive to collect as many pop can tabs, outer four-litre milk bags, Campbell's Soup labels and Canadian Tire money and the one that collects the most gets its name on the plaque. Meanwhile, the pop can tabs support the MS Society's Kidz Klub, the milk bags are made into bed mats for use in developing countries, the soup labels provide points to help purchase equipment for the Ross McDonald School for the visually-impaired and the Canadian Tire money is given to Oakville's Fare Share food bank. | submitted photo SANDY PARE MARK DILLS MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager Director of Distribution CHARLENE HALL KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager Proud Official Media Sponsor For: Canadian Circulations Audit Board Member Asking the Town to look at the `Big Picture' We live close to Holton Heights Park and were informed some time ago the Town of Oakville was planning some signi cant work on one of the soccer elds. Fair enough, thanks for the update. Last week, we saw work crews put up some 1,000 feet of tree protection: metal posts, top and bottom lumber rails and orange snow fence. Every tree within 100 feet of the soccer eld wrapped in an orange barricade. Probably more trees were cut down somewhere in Ontario for the lumber the Town used for the few trees they are trying to protect. Is that really necessary? Simple math says the Town may well have spent upwards of $5,000-$7,000 of tax payer money to prevent an errant contractor from getting to close to a tree... or heaven forbid a resident walk too close to a work area. Even ve days later, large sections of the fence are falling down. The Town staff will no doubt come back in full force. What a colossal waste of money. With the Town losing thousands of trees to the emerald ash borer, could that money not have been put to better use purchasing hundreds of replacement trees? It just appears that one department of the Town is completely oblivious of the big picture. Please invest our taxes wisely. George Kloetl, Oakville Letter to the Editor Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Proud Official Media Sponsor For: The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 5046 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington ON L7L 5Z1 or via email to ablackburn@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.