Grades 4-6 Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education Starts in January

Dec 24, 2022 | Beacon, News, Our Whole Lives, RE-Flections

The Our Whole Lives Course for grades 4-6, ages 9-12, is scheduled to start at East Shore Sunday, January 8, 2023.

This ten-workshop curriculum is designed to help children gain the knowledge, life principles, and skills they need to understand and express their sexuality in holistic, life-enhancing ways. Like the other Our Whole Lives programs for different age groups, this comprehensive, developmentally appropriate program introduces key topics like values, body image, gender and sexual identity, peer pressure, and healthy relationships with sensitivity and inclusiveness, yet without specifically religious doctrine or reference.

In addition to information on sex, OWL is intended to help develop emotionally healthy and responsible decision making with regards to sexuality. This curriculum is affirming of LGBTQIA+ values, and approaches sexuality and relationships with an inclusive lens toward Anti-Racism, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Oppression. This course encourages students to ask questions both during class and anonymously in a weekly question-box method. Parents are provided with opportunities for discussion as well as with Homelink resources for their own development and skill building as primary sexuality educators. Our work with OWL seeks to transform the way adults share and provide information to youth and equip them with the skills, knowledge, and resources intrinsic to healthy relationships with self and others.

If you are new to East Shore, please register at esuc.org. In the question regarding your child’s grade please also mark OWL to designate your interest in this course. For example “5th Grade – OWL:” esuc.org/learn/children-youth

If you have registered already for Religious Exploration programs, please contact Amanda Alice Uluhan verifying your student’s enrollment in the Grades 4-6 OWL course.

by Amanda Alice Uluhan, Director of Religious Education