OWL - What is it?

Yesterday I mentioned OWL. OWL is an acronym for Our Whole Lives. The official site is here. In a nutshell, it's an age appropriate comprehensive sex education course that includes an optional spiritual component. The program was created as a joint effort of the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ. With the spiritual component removed, the class may be taught as a secular class.

My kids took the K-1 class at the beginning of the last school year. At that level, they covered family units, family roles, and non-standard family's. Toward the end of the 6 week course, the discussion of how a baby was made came up. We, as parents had to decide how we wanted the class to be taught. Did we want the basic biological facts to be taught, or did we want to leave that completely to the parents? Either way the parents should expect questions. We, the parents, were given the scripts. We, the parents, decided.

The middle school(7-9 grade) class is the longest, and it's the class that is the most taught. Some churches don't have the resources or desire to teach the other classes. Many don't teach High School because of lack of interest in the participants, or a lack of belief that it is necessary. Young adult is a new course. Previously, it was a part the adult course.