Shaye wanted to change the world. Instead she had to change her oral
Sunday, February 08, 2015 by: Carol Martin
Shaye, who is a grade 4 student at Tarentorus Public School, is so passionate about feminism that she decided to do her oral on that topic.
“She first said she wanted to it on something from history,” says her mom, Linsay Ambeault. “So I started telling her about the suffrage movement.”
That captivated Shaye's interest and she poured her energy into writing what she thought would be the best oral she'd ever written, maybe an oral that would take her to the gym – possibly even the city finals.
But, when her teacher, Mike Chudoba, gave it back to her with his notes, Shaye was disappointed to learn she would have to remove a paragraph that talked about rape statistics and Ontario's proposed sex education curriculum from it before she could present it to her class.
The paragraph Mr. Chudoba said had to go follows:
One out of five women and girls will be raped or assaulted by a man, and less than 1% of rapists are held accountable by a court of law. It was not until this year, 2015, that Ontario's curriculum began teaching kids like me the concept of consent, which is the right to say no.
The issue of teaching children about consent is being discussed in Ontario's parliament after Premier Kathleen Wynne directed it to be included in the planned update of the province's sexual education curriculum, so what Shaye was talking about in her second sentence hasn't happened yet.
But she and her mom believe it's important that kids her age understand they have a right to say 'no' to adults and other kids, and that their bodies are their own.
Premier Wynne would probably agree.
"With cases of sexual harassment and sexual violence in the spotlight, Wynne directed the Ministry of Education to include things such as healthy relationships and consent in the new learning documents, which will be used in schools across the province this fall," says a Toronto Star article original published January 7. "Wynne has asked Education Minister Liz Sandals 'to finalize a new health and physical education curriculum that gets at some of the root causes of gender inequality, and starts at the very earliest stages to develop an understanding of healthy relationships and consent.'"
Shaye's mom is proud of her daughter's obvious passion about feminism and about protecting kids from sexual predators.
“She asked me if anyone had ever changed the world with a speech,” said Ambeault.
But, not all parents want their children to know about rape or sex in primary school.
"The updated version [of the curriculum] was first released in 2010, but shelved after complaints from a few religious groups about children learning about homosexuality in Grade 3, discussions of puberty in Grade 6 and, in Grade 7, talk of preventing sexually transmitted diseases and possible discussion about oral or anal sex," says the Star.
When Shaye asked her teacher why she had to remove the paragraph from her oral he sent her to the principal's office to get her answer.
Tarentorus principal, Brent Vallee, told her the subject of rape and the word vagina were not age-appropriate for her classmates.
“He told me it's the first time he's ever had to deal with a student writing an oral on a subject too advanced for them,” said Shaye.
We'd love to tell you first-hand what Mr. Vallee said about it, but he was pretty adamant about not having any comments on it.
Shaye said Mr. Vallee also told her the oral might have been fine as it was in a different school.
“Why can't he make Tarentorus the different school,” she said. “Some children might have been and they shouldn't be afraid to say they were raped.”
She believes her oral would help raise that topic and let kids have a chance to talk to someone about what happened to them but, if they aren't even allowed to say the word they're probably going to feel some shame about it.
Ambeault said she is disappointed in how things went, even though she empathizes with Mr. Vallee's position between parents who might not want their nine-year-old children coming home and asking them what rape is.
Shaye has been kind enough to let us share her oral with our readers.
“More people are going to hear about this through here than would even if I went to zone finals with it,” she said.
Unfortunately, Shaye didn't make it to the gym with her oral this year but she hopes it will make a difference to her classmates who heard it.
“It could be like that pond thing, you know, with the ripples going out,” she said.
The full and unedited text from her oral follows.
*************************DZCZ.
Feminism
By: Shaye Brianna Moran
I am here to talk about the F word. The other F word, Feminism. In order to be considered a feminist you only need to be on board with one idea; that all humans, male and female, should have equal rights under the law. Feminism itself, is the radical idea that women are people.
First-wave feminism originated with the suffrage movement, which recognized that women were voiceless. They could not vote, nor own property. By risking imprisonment and their own lives suffragists gained the right to vote less than 100 years ago in North America, though in some countries women still can't vote in elections.
Women made huge advances during the 20th century. During World War II women proved how strong they were, by filling roles left unoccupied by men who had gone to war. My great-grandmother worked as a brick layer at Algoma Steel during the war. These women were symbolized by the iconic image of Rosie the Riveter. Though society now knew how powerful women were, women still did not have the same rights as men. For example, my grandmother was not allowed to wear pants to school or work and female teachers were barred from teaching while pregnant.
In the early 1960's, the second-wave of feminism or women's liberation movement began. Women were no longer expected to quit their jobs in favour of raising children and staying in the kitchen. Today, women are no longer the property of men, but we still have a long way to go.
Did you know that 603 million women still live in countries where hitting your wife is not considered a crime? In Saudi Arabia, women are still not allowed to have a driver's license. In some countries, women can't go out in public without their face being covered.
{One out of five women and girls will be raped or assaulted by a man, and less than 1% of rapists are held accountable by a court of law. It was not until this year, 2015, that Ontario's curriculum began teaching kids like me the concept of consent, which is the right to say no.}
Did you know that less than a quarter of the world's countries have ever had a female head of state? Only 21% of managers are women and there are currently only 20 women serving in the US senate compared to 80 men. Women get paid 23% less than men, and women who received straight A's in college are paid the same as men who received C's.
Feminists are not aiming to make women stronger, we already know we're strong, we just want society to see that too. Being a feminist doesn't mean that you think women deserve special rights, but that you know we deserve equal ones.
In my lifetime, women are not expected to receive equal pay until 2058, when I am 53 years old and nearing retirement. I put it to you, that is not soon enough! Women, our time is now. As Elsa from Frozen sang, “It's time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through, no right, no wrong, no rules for me, I'm free!”
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