Our Whole Lives: A sex education program that is actually comprehensive
October 01, 2008 2:00:00
by Anna
Web Correspondent
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund
In a society where sex education too often means a lack thereof, it is encouraging to come across programs that actually teach students the necessary facts about sexuality and support them in developing healthy sexual lives. It might be hard to believe in a political climate that favors abstinence policies, but they are out there.
I was talking with a Macalester friend about sex education just the other day. I detailed how my public school education in Wisconsin failed to offer all the comprehensive information that my peers and I required, and she said she had been pretty satisfied with her sex ed program. Dumbfounded, since she also went to a Midwestern public school, I solicited an explanation. Turns out that she attended a comprehensive sex education class through White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church in Mahtomedi, Minnesota.
After a little more probing, I discovered that the classes at White Bear are part of a national program: Our Whole Lives, founded by the Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ denominations. This comprehensive sex education curriculum is available to six age groups, from kindergarteners to adults, in communities across the country. It emphasizes values of self worth, sexual health, responsibility, and justice and inclusivity, providing discussion about anatomical and contraceptive facts in addition to larger issues about understanding sexuality. Religious affiliation is not what matters here. Our Whole Lives is about getting people the information they need to be healthy, happy, and safe.
I contacted Janet Hansen, the Director of Religious Education at White Bear, and she sent me some details about the curriculum, values, and overall goals of OWL. “Our faith is proud to support comprehensive sexuality education…we feel that this is a very important program,” she told me. White Bear offers age-appropriate instruction for Grades 5 and 6 and Grades 9-12, as well as Parent Involvement orientations that parents must attend before their child begins a session. The idea here is that the program “affirms parents as the primary sexuality educators of their children,” according to a White Bear OWL brochure, and encourages them to build on OWL by talking with their kids about what they learn.
The fifth and sixth grade program focuses mostly on puberty and body changes and uses this as a basis for discussions about sexuality, emphasizing communication and decision-making skills as contributors to healthy relationships. The high school curriculum “Presents a comprehensive approach to human sexuality…based firmly on the values of respect, responsibility, justice and inclusivity,” including in-depth discussions about contraception, safe sex, and sexual relationships, including and affirming sexualities besides the social norm of a man and a woman.
The friend who participated in this program in high school had only good things to say about it. “It was a very supportive community and setting, and the adults didn’t try to be intimidating but tried to make it a trusting space,” she explained. She remembers with particular vividness the time when she and her other 13-year-old classmates had to go to the store and buy condoms and bring them to class, a strategy to help them get over the embarrassment of those sorts of situations. She still hasn’t forgotten how nervous she was when her parents dropped her off in the pharmacy parking lot, but she knows now that it was a good way to introduce students to the real-world logistics of sexual health.
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