The purpose of the curriculum is to teach (whether teaching live or using digital format) that the human person exists as a multidimensional being and that one’s sexuality is integrated in all the dimensions. As human beings, we have the capacity to reason, make choices, seek what is true, and to ask questions of ultimate significance. The lessons in the curriculum stress that one’s sexual health depends on the choice to save sex for marriage or one monogamous bond and by making healthy choices in relationships, love, and responsibility. These choices affect the whole person’s present and future well-being and the heritage passed on to future generations.

According to the Arkansas State Health profile (at time of print) (insert applicable state/country’s STD stats) http: //www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/stateprofiles/pdf/arkansas\_profile.pdf, Arkansas ranks eighth for Chlamydia and sixth for Gonorrheal infections in the United States.1 Since sex involves one’s sexuality, is more than an isolated act, is more than a bodily function, is not just a commodity to buy or sell, and since contraceptives do not always provide protection against STDs, sexual health education must appeal to the dispositions of the mind, heart, will, and conscience of the learner. Young people can be reached through their hearts and challenged to become persons of character, capable of contributing not only to their own well-being but also to their communities and society.

The Whole Person Learning Theory by Onalee McGraw, Ph.D., founder of the Educational Guidance Institute, Inc. and author of Teaching the Whole Person about Love, Sex, and Marriage Educating for Character in the Common World of our Homes, Schools, and Communities, explains the philosophical and psychological concepts of the whole person approach to learning: the philosophy that one’s sexuality is an integral part of the whole person. As whole persons, men and women possess a sexuality that is integrated in body, mind, heart, will, and conscience. The sexual domain is permeated by the intellectual, moral, emotional, physical, and social domains. The psychological guiding principle is that cognitive powers of memory, thought, judgment, imagination, and learning related to sexuality permeate the body, mind, heart, will, and conscience; thinking, feeling, and acting in the sexual domain reflect the whole person. 2 The premise of the whole person learning theory is foundational for Concepts of Sexual Health Sex & You!

The resources included in Concepts of Sexual Health Sex & You! (modified for Jr. High) are based on medical facts, statistics from the Center for Disease Control & Prevention/cdc.gov, and are developmentally appropriate for 6-8 grades. The curriculum also meets Arkansas’ 6th, 7th and 8th Grade Health & Wellness content standards. See student expectations listed for the various lessons.3 Permission is given by the authors to insert applicable substitutes for video clip(s), handouts, or slides based on current stats/population/culture maintaining the meaning and values of the original content.

In five 45 minute lessons using video, PowerPoint, lecture and discussion, Concepts of Sexual Health Sex & You! presents Jr. High students with the concepts of the whole person approach and a definition for sexual health that integrates the five dimensions of the whole person; human dignity and development; promotes virtue and character in love and marriage; medically based facts about STDs, contraception, and prevention of disease; and practical help to guide young people in the present and future when seeking answers to life’s most difficult questions. Acquiring this knowledge and life skills will give students the opportunity to pass on sexual health and a heritage for life to future generations.