Event

Idle Lessons

Idle Lessons is an immersive performance experience exploring the content and controversy surrounding the recently proposed Sexual Education Curriculum. We are examining not only the debated curriculum, but also youth sexuality and the coming of age process within educational institutions in Ontario. The piece is a satirical performance that explores the sensitive issues that inevitably arise from these conversations as they occur in schools, home settings and the February debates at Queens Park. The story follows the lives of various students over a single day as they grapple with relevant contemporary topics such as sexual identity and fluidity, the influence of pornography, social media, sexting, slut shaming, and especially, consent. With this project we hope to inspire compassion from all sides of the argument, along with the realization that something as abstract and varied as sexuality has a hard time fitting into an unyielding curriculum.

The artists of Raw Matter are deeply invested in the events and policies that shape us as a city, province, and country and want to generate that same interest in the public in an entertaining and thought-provoking forum. With Idle Lessons, we hope to reach a sector of the public who may not know much about this issue, or who do not think that they have a right to a voice as they are not in education or, perhaps do not have children. As young adults, artists and voters, we believe that it is important to talk about sex ed in many contexts in order to create a future in which this conversation can be held in a healthy and productive manner.