Description

The purpose of Our Whole Lives is to help young teens gain the knowledge, life principles and skills they need to express their sexuality in life-enhancing ways.  It is a unique opportunity for youth to get honest, helpful information about sexuality from adults and each other.  Youth will be free to bring up any sincere questions, concerns, or opinions to the group, and their issues will always be respected and addressed in age-appropriate ways.

The program is based on the assumptions that 1) all persons are sexual, 2) sexuality is a good part of the human experience, 3) sexuality includes much more than sexual behavior, 4) human beings are sexual from the time they are born until they die, 5) it is natural to express sexual feelings in a variety of ways, 6) people engage in healthy sexual behavior for a variety of reasons, including to express caring and love, to experience intimacy and connection with another, to share pleasure, to bring new life into the world, and to experience fun and relaxation, 7) sexuality in our society is damaged by violence, exploitation, alienation, dishonesty, abuse of power, and the treatment of persons as objects, and 8) it is healthier for young adolescents to postpone sexual intercourse.

Our Whole Lives is based on the value that every person is entitled to dignity and self-worth and to his or her own attitudes and beliefs about sexuality.  By logical extension then, the program stresses that being romantically and sexually attracted to another gender, both genders or the same gender are all natural in the range of human sexual experience.  The curriculum stresses that healthy sexual relationships are consensual, nonexploitative, mutually pleasurable, safe, developmentally appropriate, based on mutual expectations and are caring and respectful.  Furthermore, students learn that sexual intercourse is only one of many valid ways to express sexual feelings with a partner and that it is healthier for young adolescents to postpone sexual intercourse.

**Special Note**In order to maintain the sense of community and trust needed for the sensitive discussions that occur in this class, no students will be admitted after mid-September.  Newcomers in eighth grade are invited to attend our class about world religions, Neighboring Faiths.