Over the past few years, SOGI 123 has taken a fair bit of criticism from some parents and community members. Unfortunately, much of the rhetoric against SOGI 123 is based on misinformation.
So, what is SOGI 123?
One common misconception is that SOGI education is an explicit version of sexual health education. In fact, SOGI-inclusive education is not a separate curriculum or course, and it only includes age-appropriate materials. It’s an inclusive education initiative that empowers educators to make schools safer and more inclusive for all students. Most SOGI content is woven into classes across different subject areas.
SOGI 123 includes several resources and lesson plans that share age-appropriate information with children related to sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition to being age appropriate, the materials are all aligned with the curriculum in various subject areas.
Teachers can find a variety of resources at sogieducation.org, including book lists, podcasts, ideas to introduce intersectionality, and lesson plans. One of the resources highlights three simple strategies to make your teaching practice more inclusive:
Use inclusive student titles. Instead of saying “boys and girls” use inclusive terms such as “students,” “everyone,” “class,” or even “scholars,” “mathematicians,” or “athletes.”
Make room for students to do anything regardless of gender. This requires teachers to explicitly counter stereotypes.
Make your classroom visibly inclusive by displaying rainbow stickers and including representation of a variety of families.
The following are some examples of age-appropriate lesson plans that touch on SOGI content. The full lesson plans for the topics outlined opposite are available on TeachBC at bctf.ca/classroom-resources.
Kindergarten to Grade 3
This lesson explores the diverse types of families that exist in society. The interactive activity teaches students that all families are special, express love, and support their family members in similar ways to other families and are of equal importance and value within society.
This lesson encourages students to consider what a caring and respectful environment looks like and what the consequences of name-calling can be. It helps students develop a strategy for group self-monitoring of name-calling in the physical health education class that can be transferred across the school environment.
This entry lesson to gender identity helps students learn how to be a good friend and to develop understanding and respect for people when their name and appearance change.
This lesson allows students to explore factors that influence self-identity, including gender roles and identity. Fairy tales are a wonderful genre to explore how gender has been portrayed historically and in current times. Traditional fairy tales and fractured ones (modern day ones with a twist) allow primary students to think critically about how men and women are portrayed and compare these portrayals to themselves, their families, and communities.
Grade 4 to Grade 7
This lesson explores the difference between a person’s biological sex and their gender identity, and that gender roles and expectations are socially constructed, influenced by media, and evolve or change over time. It highlights that everyone defines their own gender identity, and that this identity needs to be respected.
This lesson explores the expectations we have around gender and reinforces the notion that no one should feel confined by these expectations or teased or put down because of them.
Grade 8 to Grade 9
This lesson uses short stories and poetry to explore how gender roles and identity can be shaped by culture and change over time. Students will consider how gender identity and expression is influenced by societal expectations.
This resource is a checklist of questions to help students think critically and discuss the gender stereotypes and bias presented in various novels.
In this activity, students create a map of their school that evaluates how safe and welcoming spaces are for trans, Two-Spirit, and gender-expansive students.
Grade 10 to Grade 12
In this lesson, students explore Indigenous perspectives of gender and contrast these to European beliefs. Students also consider the impact of these colonial ideas about gender on Indigenous people and communities.
This lesson explores the language and terminology that help us to understand and discuss the historical inequality faced by gender and sexual minorities. This understanding helps students to think critically about gender and sexuality, which helps promote a more inclusive school and more equitable world.