Committee on Schools and Education

The Committee on Schools and Education is a public education initiative of the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto. It is composed of university scholars from diverse institutions as well as independent scholars, K-12 educators, and professionals who work in schools and community-based organizations serving children, youth and their families. The Committee seeks to promote a better understanding of sexuality and education as they are written across race, gender, class, and religion. A primary goal is to move sex education from its current focus on risk, protection, and control to a focus on the body, desire, and agency. The Committee works through a variety of forums, including large public lectures and panels, small seminars, and media events. The Committee also seeks to facilitate dialogue between scholars and those working directly with children and youth by comparing and contrasting theoretically informed research and the lived dilemmas of caring for the next generation. It promotes further research into how sexuality education is currently proceeding within the confines of existing institutional and social constraints and alternative ways in which it might be re-imagined.