The Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto regularly offers Our Whole Lives (OWL), one of the best age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education programs available.

(Page updated Jan 12 2025)

About the OWL curriculum
How our OWL program works
Upcoming OWL classes including permission forms and other info


About the OWL curriculum

Our Whole Lives (OWL) is a series of comprehensive and age-appropriate sexuality education curricula, developed jointly by the Unitarian Universalist Association and United Church of Christ, for six age groups: grades K-2, grades 4-6, grades 7-9, grades 10-12, young adults, and adults.

Our Whole Lives is based on the philosophy of comprehensive sexuality education, which helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. It equips participants with accurate, age-appropriate information in six subject areas: human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Grounded in a holistic view of sexuality, comprehensive sexuality education provides not only facts about anatomy and human development, but also helps participants to clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, social, and political aspects of sexuality as well.

Comprehensive sexuality education has been shown to be effective. A review commissioned by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, released on October 22, 1997, concluded that quality education about sexuality and/or HIV helps to delay first intercourse and protect sexually active youth from STDs, including HIV, and from pregnancy. The review also concluded that responsible and safe behavior can be learned, that sexuality education is best started before the onset of sexual activity, and that sexuality education does not encourage increased sexual activity.

OWL Program Values (click to see a PDF of this handout).

OWL Program Assumptions and “Bill of Rights” (click to see a PDF of this handout).

In our parent orientation, we refer to the “Circles of Sexuality.” Here’s the PDF handout for this (click the image below to see a full-size PDF version):

Circles of Sexuality thumbnail

More details about the OWL program can be found online here: www.uua.org/re/owl


How our OWL program works

At UUCPA, our OWL program is run by a volunteer OWL Coordinator under the auspices of the Children and Youth Religious Education Committee. Maribea Berry has been our OWL coordinator for several years now, taking care of all the logistics of the OWL program. Maribea is a trained OWL leader herself, and both her children have been through the program.

OWL classes run at times that have proved to be convenient for the participants. The goal is to ensure that all children are offered the opportunity to attend each OWL session when they reach the appropriate grades.

We draw from an amazing pool of volunteer teachers within our congregation — R.N.s, M.D.s, therapists, and classroom teachers — and some of our best OWL teachers are ordinary parents whose own children have gone through the OWL program. Many of our volunteers complete the fifteen hour OWL training, and all volunteers are trained and supported by our Associate Minister of Religious Education, who has 25 years of experience supervising OWL programs.

We welcome participants from outside our congregation, and at times as many as a third of participants have not been affiliated with our congregation. Outside participants must be comfortable with our values (e.g., we support equal rights for women and girls, we support same-sex marriage rights, and we support the right to abortion). Because of generous contributions from our members, there is no fee for our OWL programs, and we supply textbooks and other materials to participants at no charge. However, we encourage all OWL families who can afford to do so to make a generous tax-deductible contribution to UUCPA, so that we can continue to offer these programs regardless of family financial status.

If you wish to train to become an OWL facilitator, please reach out to Rev. Cat


Upcoming OWL classes

OWL for gr. K-1

Classes start in February 2 2025 and runs to April 13 2025.

Registration link: https://www.uucpa.org/learning/children-and-youth/register/

This eight-session class will meet Sunday morning during service from 10:15-11:30 (the usual RE time). There is a required parent orientation prior to the class starting date. Please be sure to have at least one parent attend the parent orientation. (Both parents should plan to attend if no child in your family has taken OWL before.)

This program is open to the community, as well as to UUCPA families.

OWL Class - Parent Orientation – 01/05/2025 at 11:30 am - 12:45 pm
OWL K-1 Class – 02/23/2025 at 10:15 am - 11:30 am
OWL K-1 Class – 03/02/2025 at 10:15 am - 11:30 am
OWL K-1 Class – 03/09/2025 at 10:15 am - 11:30 am
OWL K-1 Class – 03/16/2025 at 10:15 am - 11:30 am

OWL for gr. 4-6

Not meeting in 2024-2025. The next OWL for children in grades 4-6 is planned for 2025-2026.

OWL for gr. 7-9

Classes start January 2025.

Registration link: https://www.uucpa.org/learning/children-and-youth/register/

OWL Grades 7-9 – 01/12/2025 at 1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
OWL Grades 7-9 – 01/26/2025 at 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
OWL Grades 7-9 – 02/02/2025 at 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
OWL Grades 7-9 – 02/16/2025 at 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
OWL Grades 7-9 – 02/23/2025 at 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
OWL Grades 7-9 – 03/02/2025 at 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm

OWL for gr. 10-12

Not meeting in 2024-2025. The next OWL for youth in grades 10-12 is planned for 2025-2026.

OWL for adults

Not meeting in 2024-2025.