This curriculum is called LETS! T.A.L.K.  LETS! stands for Liberatory Education Tools (the name of the team of educators who co-authored this curriculum).  T.A.L.K. stands for Teach, Affirm, Learn, & Know.  We will teach about important topics and learn together, affirming every person in their truth and beauty. By the close of this unit we will know more about ourselves and one another, and understand our community more deeply.

We (teachers, students, and adults who want to be part of supporting this learning at home) will all be learning to become social scientists.  As social scientists we will learn about our bodies, our feelings, and our relationships to our bodies. We will develop our intuition, practice respectful communication with each other and trusted adults, learn a lot of new words, and much more. 

During this unit we will be extra thoughtful to make sure that our classroom and home communities are safe spaces where everyone can ask questions and get accurate answers. In order to do that, we will establish class agreements for our time in the classroom that may also be used at home by families.  We will learn words that might be new and practice using them together. Our families may follow along using the vocabulary in the Adult Companion Guide. 

LETS! T.A.L.K. is rooted in the ethics and ideals of respect, trust, joy and justice, which we will practice together and hold through all our on-going conversations.  This framework of concepts was directly inspired by the excellent work of Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth in Sex is A Funny Word, a book which we highly recommend purchasing for your school library, classroom, or home.  In LETS! T.A.L.K., Justice means that all people, with all kinds of bodies, get to learn accurate, loving, developmentally-appropriate information about their bodies and feelings. Trust means feeling safe asking questions and sharing our feelings about our bodies, gender, and sexuality.  Joy means learning about ourselves in a way that encourages us to rejoice in our bodies and all the beautiful ways they feel.  Respect means that there are no bad  questions, so nobody is laughed at when they ask a question and all people are free to express themselves truthfully. It also means listening when others are speaking and not interrupting. Empowerment means growing more confident in yourself; feeling stronger and knowing that you are able to do the things you set your mind to doing. Having good information and knowing how to find answers to our questions can help us feel empowered.