Flash back to our start at The Country School

Unsurprisingly the new year tends to inspire a bit of reminiscing and reflection upon the past. I recently checked in with Holly Novick, Head of School at The Country School in Valley Village.

Holly was the first school administrator who opened the door and gave me a chance to pitch the idea for a comprehensive, inclusive, fact-based, affirming school sex ed program facilitated by professionals.

At that time, More Than Sex-Ed was still just an idea without a name, or a website, or a corporation, or non-profit status. It was, however, a thing that I discussed endlessly with Beth Rendeiro who had trained and approved me as a Facilitator of the Our Whole Lives, Sexuality Education program for 7-9th graders in 2013. I remember during the first coffee break opportunity at that training with Beth, I told her that I wanted to quit my job and only do sex education. Seriously, have you had a moment like that that changed the whole trajectory of your existence? Bringing great sex education to the wider world would make such a qualitative difference in people’s lives!

I also discussed it endlessly with Emmalinda MacLean, another facilitator trained by Beth as we coordinated volunteers to present community sex ed programs. We all agreed that sexuality is an integral aspect of human existence and affirming, comprehensive sex ed empowers folks to have more honest and healthier relationships. Brought to scale it could change whole communities! 

With a Country School parent at my side, I brought my vision and  the  OWL curriculum to Holly and together we mapped out our initial program for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, and I taught it with my co-facilitator Steven Boe.

More Than Sex-Ed was officially founded two years later, and in 2016 Antoinette Scully helped me navigate MTSE into non-profit status as a project of Community Partners. In subsequent years we have done so much to enrich and improve the MTSE classroom experience. We’ve developed our own powerpoint visuals, adapted and created new activities, updated content based on the most current data and learned from the wider sexuality education field. Our paid professional facilitator team now has such depth and diversity of experience that we are able to serve over 2,000 students per year, but we’ll never take for granted the school and administrators who gave us our start!