Think the only people who need sex ed are kids? Try again…we are sexual from the time we are born until the time we die. Therefore, learning about sex is a lifelong process. It is never too late…..

Adventures in adult sex education

Because sexuality is such an important part of life, a church develops education program for adults.

Judith, the oldest, is an artist, and her long, curly gray hair is piled into a messy halo atop her head.

Larry is a gregarious man who works for the U.S. government.

Elizabeth, an information technology manager at a local government agency, is an athletic woman, efficient in her movements.

Her husband, Eugene, sitting nearby, was raised in Spain and has handsome features and courtly manners.

The teacher, Barbara Tuttle, begins class. "Touch one of your hands with the other," she says. "Feel the smoothness and roughness of all the various parts, the places where it's dry or moist."

Some of the students close their eyes as they follow her instructions. Small smiles play on their lips. Tuttle's birdlike mouth breaks into a huge grin. "Congratulations," she says. "You all just masturbated. And in public!"

Next Tuttle, a retired sex therapist, asks the students about the experience of mindfully touching themselves: "How did it feel? Was that pleasant?

"It made me wish someone else were touching me," Elizabeth says.

"It was just nice to be touched at all," says Judith.

So begins the fifth session of Our Whole Lives (OWL): Sexuality Education for Adults, at the First Unitarian Church of Austin. Tonight's class is one of 14 in the seven-month course, which is the result of an initiative of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the United Church of Christ (UCC).

Since 1998 the institutions have coproduced sex education materials for children ages 5 to 18; as church leadership re-examined the curricula, they noticed a need for age-appropriate material for grown-ups.

"We see sexuality as a very important part of the human experience that is lifelong," says Janet Hayes, public relations director for the UUA. "That's why we named our program Our Whole Lives. Your sexuality doesn't end after you stop having babies or get divorced or after you turn 60. It is who we are in our core. We feel it has to be integrated into our spirituality because, for us, spirituality is about wholeness."

So in 2008, the churches — which together have about 6,600 U.S. congregations and 1.4 million members — introduced classes for adults 18 to 35. (In the past ten years, it's estimated, more than 40,000 children, young adults, and adults have taken at least one OWL class.) Oprah.com: How to talk to your partner about sex

Michael Tino, a Unitarian Universalist minister with a PhD in cell biology, cowrote the young adult OWL curriculum and understands why the adult classes have proved popular.

"You can have the best high school sexuality curriculum in the world," he says, "but a lot of critical issues are not going to be addressed in those classes: How do I enjoy my sexuality if I've lost a breast to cancer? How do I manage being a parent and a sexual person? Can I feel sexually satisfied if I don't have a life partner?"

There's one simple reason those questions aren't tackled, Tino says. "Teenagers don't have them yet. Most of what affects our sexuality happens in adulthood — long-term relationships, breakups, parenthood, illness, sheer exhaustion from managing life."

Although the courses the churches prepared were aimed at adults in their 20s to early 30s, to the organizers' surprise, middle-aged parishioners have stampeded the discussion-based program. Students in tonight's class, for instance, are in their late 40s to mid-60s.

One of the first pilot classes for the OWL program took place in Boston three years ago. Several of the participants say that the course lessons were not only useful but surprising. Sylvie, a 35-year-old medical counselor, signed up for the class after seeing it advertised in the church bulletin. Speaking from her home near Boston, she explains that she'd always felt fortunate to have what she considered healthy feelings about her sexuality.

"My dad was a general practitioner and my mom was a counselor, and they were very open with my brother and me growing up," she says. Her parents didn't shy away from explaining things, and kept books like "Our Bodies, Ourselves" and "The Joy of Sex" in the house.

But in 2005, Sylvie and her husband began struggling with infertility. "It took all the joy out of sex," Sylvie says now. "We were always trying to get pregnant." So she signed up, with the hope of refiling sex under "pleasure" instead of "work" in her brain. Oprah.com: How far would you go to conceive?

The first few workshops turned out to be exactly what Sylvie was looking for. Jane Detwiler, a certified sexuality educator, and her cofacilitator led the group through "anatomy of pleasure" and "understanding sexual response" exercises.

Contacted recently at her office, Detwiler says many people learn about the reproductive capacity of sexual organs in traditional sex ed, but not the "pleasure capacity." She says that despite the sexualization of our culture, many of her students don't know what normal genitals look like, and she has discovered that loads of women worry that theirs are abnormal or ugly.

In Sylvie's class, Detwiler used diagrams and photographs to explain that the truth is, of course, that there's a variety of "normal," as wide ranging as human faces. Her students also discussed the parts of the body besides the genitals that are wired for sexual response — skin, lips, breasts, nipples, tongue, hands, brain.

Then Detwiler pulled out a model of a penis and the "Wondrous Vulva Puppet." She had labels ready (clitoris, perineum, vagina, glans, PC muscle) and asked volunteers to place them correctly. As students moved through the lesson, they talked about how the different parts contribute to pleasure.

Next, the instructors asked the students to compare the Masters and Johnson linear model of sexual response — excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution — to a circular model of mutual pleasure.

To explain the idea, Detwiler drew a large circle on newsprint and asked students to think of all sorts of sexy, fun activities and list them around the circle. The students came up with "caress, oral sex, kiss, massage, lubrication, talking, fondling, phone sex, kiss again, snuggle."

In a circular model, Detwiler pointed out, partners can start or stop sensual activity anytime they want, and the activities don't necessarily lead to orgasm.

Sylvie says that some students thought that type of sex would be an exercise in frustration, but others said they could imagine times in their lives when those options would work — when they were not ready to have sex with a new partner, when they were too tired to have intercourse with their current partner, when they were trying to liven things up with a longtime lover.

After most classes, Sylvie came home and described what she had learned to her husband (who did not attend, because the course was something she wanted to do on her own). "Oh, you know," she'd say at the end of each night's summary, "that reminds me. Let's have sex just for fun." Oprah.com: 3 no-fail relationship tune-ups

Another member of this pilot class, Kim, then 35, had been happily married for more than a decade; she had even taught the OWL classes to middle school students for three years.

"I was functioning well," she says, on the phone from Framingham, Massachusetts. "But deep down, I still had some weird, mixed-up feelings about sex left over from my childhood."

Her parents had divorced when she was 3. "Afterward my mother was very free with her sexuality," Kim remembers. "I would hear a lot, and the sounds scared and confused me. I'd say, 'Mom, what are you doing?' She'd say, 'Kissing.' Well, I knew that wasn't it. I signed up for the adult OWL course to keep peeling back the layers, to keep getting better, healthier, happier."

By Amanda Robb from O, The Oprah Magazine © 2008

The worst breakup lines ever

(The Frisky) — Nowhere is the difference between men and women so glaring as when it comes down to the demise of a relationship. Specifically, the unexpected, unwanted, one-sided break-up otherwise known as the dumping.

When you've been dumped like yesterday's trash, why do some guys deliver one more parting shot.

A dumped dude might get angry. Then again, he might just get depressed and mope quietly in his room. He may go to a strip club or pick up a one-night-stand at a bar.

What he won't do is call up all his buddies and poll them about what they think his ex really meant when she quit returning his calls.

Nor will he tearfully declare that said ex must have been either too intimidated by his devastating intellect and/or simply too in love with him.

Now granted, maybe men don't wonder so much because we ladies are more up-front when it comes to breaking hearts. After all, when was the last time you heard of a chick acting like a jerk so he'd break up with her? (See No.3 below.)

The fact is, though they somehow got the reputation as the stronger sex, men tend to be giant wusses when it comes down to ending relationships. So many seem to think pulling a disappearing act is an appropriate breakup protocol.

I understand that a crying and/or screaming girlfriend can be a scary thing, but when you think your relationship is going great and the guy just stops returning your phone calls and texts, it's confusing and depressing. Oh, and highly annoying.

I was all harrumph-y about the injustice of the disappearing act until I began surveying women about the most painful breakup lines they'd had the bad luck to receive.

1) "You're amazing, but I'm just not ready to be in a relationship right now."

This actually wouldn't have been so bad had he not moved in with his new girlfriend two months later. The Frisky: 4 reasons you'll never get dumped

2) "We can't move in together because my mom won't approve."

Though this is highly lame, I believe this lady dodged a bullet. God only knows what else mommy wouldn't approve of.

3) "Yes, I am going to continue acting this way until you break up with me."

This gets props only because the guy was brave (or stupid) enough to cop to his behavior. The Frisky: How not to react when you get dumped

4) "I've never been a lady magnet and now it's being thrown in my face constantly. I figure I've got about of year of this luck so I'd better enjoy it."

Again, brave or stupid — thin line.

5) "I said 'I love you' too soon so now we're tainted because I can't move that fast."

Word from the wise: dude, nobody believes it when you say you "I love you" for the first time during sex. Relax. The Frisky: Don't say I love you too soon

6) "I'm going to grad school and they might send me to Antarctica."

I guess if you're going to lie, lie big, but still.

7) "I'm getting married"/ "I'm seeing someone else."

This one I heard from many different ladies and many different times I wished I could reach back in time to deliver a hard slap on these women's behalf.

8) "If you boil fish in a coffee pot, every coffee you make afterwards will always taste like fish."

Translation: I have taken more psychedelic drugs than Timothy Leary, the Grateful Dead and Syd Barrett combined. The Frisky: How to translate 8 dating lines

9) "I need to be with someone more attractive."

Here's a brilliant idea — if you're not attracted to her, don't do her any favors by dating her in the first place! Oh, and you're a jerk! (Sorry — this story is making me mad!)

On second thought — perhaps the disappearing act isn't so bad.

Why men cheat — his version

(The Frisky) — So, let's talk infidelity. Many ladies want to know why it is men cheat.

Men cheat for variety of reason and biology is one of them, writer says.

 And here's what you want to hear, straight from the talk-hole of the testosterone enabled: men cheat because we are faithless, miserable dogs.

We are backstabbing, silver tongued two-faces who stalk any smooth pair of getaway sticks in a short black cocktail dress that happens to saunter into our lusty field of vision.

Men are horny wolves in fluffy sheep's clothing who delight in looking into your eyes and lying. Breaking hearts is our middle name. Why, at any given moment, while you're gabbing to your girlfriends about flowers purchased, omelettes made, sweet words whispered, we're picturing the nearest woman under the age of 25 in a sheer bikini, riding a mechanical bull.

We are just hopelessly addicted to that "new car smell." We love to make you miserable in our pursuit of total hotness, your fickle happiness not our concern.

And that's just part of it. If you want to blame someone for our cheating ways, blame evolution! We are hardwired to hunt, and to share our wicked cool genetic code with a world that demands that we do! The universe conspires to compel us to pursue that which retreats.

See, we cheat because we're cavemen, and our half-gorilla brains demand we spread as much of our seed over as much fertile ground as possible to make sure that our little caveboys have the chance to grow up and do likewise. And we do this quickly, mind you, because you never know when a woolly mammoth will shish kabob us on one of their mighty tusks. It's not our fault. It's biology, genetics, science! How can you question science? Without it, the curling iron would never have been invented!

Here's another reason men run around behind the backs of their doting, self-sacrificing, noble girlfriends and wives — you don't adore us enough.

When Spartan warriors returned home from victorious campaigns, do you think their women greeted them with eye-rolls and shrugs? They were venerated supremely, celebrated for days upon days! Love was made to them, olives were pitted and fed to them, their wives could not get enough of their dangerous tales of adventure and carnage! Tales told over and over and over again.

And, at the end of each of these nights, as the mighty victors, now satiated and spent, drifted off to sleep, their ladyfolk would purr into their ears, "OMG, you are totally awesome." The Frisky: Nine signs he's a cheater

If you don't pat us on the back and tell us we're special, we will find someone who will, and that person, who will pat us on the back and tell us we're special will be, nineteen years old.

How could I forget this other important reason why men cheat — we're addicted to sex!

It's not our fault we drool for hours over porn while you sleep. It's a diagnosable affliction, and while many of us probably don't really need to see a shrink to legitimately diagnose it, or to even go to rehab, you have to understand that it's beyond our control. We can't help ourselves.

Pity the booty junkie. And don't take our word for it — actual relationship experts on television confirm that some, if not most, men are hooked on sleeping with as many women as they can. This in no way enables us to justify bad behavior and to escape responsibility for our actions. This is just a true fact, that men can become addicted to getting whatever it is they want without consequence.

Surely, as the more emotionally developed and sensitive gender, you can't negatively judge someone wrestling with such a malady. That would be cruel. The Frisky: In 21st Century what's considered cheating?

Get the point?

The truth is that men cheat for the same reason women cheat. And cheat you do.

There isn't a word for a women whose husband cheats on her. But the English language gives us a word for a man whose wife runs around on him. That word is "cuckold," and there are few names as limp and pitiful sounding as "cuckold." Maybe "smoosh."

Women can be faithless, and for centuries, they've done their fair share of tasting forbidden fruit. Literature is full of the sorrow women have caused: Menelaus laid siege to Troy because Helen ran away with another man. Othello smothered his beloved because he believed her to have cheated on him. Even frat boy romantic comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" was all based around that Kristen Bell, from "Veronica Mars," cheating on that funny fat dude. The Frisky: Once a cheater, always a cheater?

Plenty of blame to go around; it would be unfair to savage one gender so the other can enjoy the dismal pleasures of pointless victimization. But there is a reason people, men and women, cheat. The Frisky: Should you out a cheater?

And here's the fable part.

A dog was carrying a bone over a bridge. Looking down at the water under the bridge, the dog saw his reflection, which looked to the dog to be a bigger dog, carrying a bigger bone. Wanting the bigger bone he saw in the water, the dog barked and dropped his bone into the river. Stupid dog loses his bone.

We cheat because we're tempted to risk what we have for the promise of something that isn't, probably never was, and definitely won't last.

So… everyone is capable of cheating. We are our very own villain and that is a true fact. Makes us human, I suppose. The choice.

Ah well. It's a risk we all have to take, trusting the other person even though they could cheat. But without risk, there is no reward.

Why NOT to settle in relationships

(The Frisky) — When I questioned a friend about why she was marrying a guy whom she found only mildly attractive, didn't enjoy having sex with and wasn't in love with, she told me this: "Marriage isn't about love, it's about finding the person who gets on your nerves the least."

Settling for someone you don't hate — but also don't love — may not work out in the long run, says author.

I recall being both horrified and saddened by her cynicism. But as I pondered it further, I wondered if she might have a point.

I was single at the time. A long-term relationship had gone bust a few years earlier and after a hyper-extended mourning period I'd been dating a seemingly non-stop parade of utterly unsuitable suitors.

Among many others, there was the semi-psychotic Eastern-European sculptor, the much-younger scientist-type, the guy who still lived with his girlfriend, and the non-committal bike messenger with substance-abuse issues.

So when I met a seemingly normal finance guy who took me out for expensive dinners and drove me around in his BMW, I talked myself into giving it a go. He wasn't super hot, but then again, neither was I. So what if his favorite book was "The Fountainhead"; I needed to quit being such a book snob. Who cares if he brought up pre-nuptial agreements on our second date — at least the word marriage was part of his vocabulary. The Frisky: What's your dating type?

But as I lay awake after we'd clumsily consummated our budding relationship, I couldn't stifle the all-consuming feeling of dread that washed over me. What had I done? Was I really that lonely? Or worse, desperate?

Last year The Atlantic ran an essay by writer Lori Gottlieb, wherein she claimed, "every woman I know — no matter how successful and ambitious, how financially and emotionally secure — feels panic, occasionally coupled with desperation, if she hits 30 and finds herself unmarried." Her advice to women still holding out for a great guy: settle for an okay dude. The Frisky: To settle or not to settle?

Thirty-three-year-old Alicia, a New York-based floral designer, had been with her boyfriend Fred for four fairly miserable years when she met someone else. "He was tall, hot, British and made me realize I wasn't dead inside."

Though nothing ever happened with the Brit, meeting him made her something was missing in her relationship.

"He hates change so I knew he would never leave me," she told me. "But meeting the other guy made me realize that I wanted to be able to talk to my significant other. I wanted to be with someone who at least acts like he's interested in my life and thinks I'm smart and cool." The Frisky: How to know when it's time to dump him —

Thus enlightened, Alicia promptly dumped Fred. However not everyone thinks she did the right thing. "I went to my gynecologist and she asked if Fred was still in the picture. When I told her no, she scolded me saying, 'No man is ever going to meet all your needs — can you tolerate him?'"

A year later, Alicia remains single and dating, and despite what Gottlieb claimed in her piece, absolutely does not appear to be either "in denial" or "lying" when she says she's never been happier. The Frisky: Why I'm not envious of my engaged friends —

As I slid out of my great-on-paper guy's bed and tiptoed out the door (shady, I know!), my dread was replaced by relief. Back in my apartment with only my cat for company, I realized that I'd become rather accustomed to being alone and while I wasn't ecstatic 24/7, I was actually pretty happy. I loved my friends and family (and my kitty!) and I knew I'd be okay if my life stayed the way it was.

Of course then six months later I screwed it all up by meeting a great guy who I love to pieces. Oh, and my friend who married the guy who didn't get on her nerves — she's now divorced.

Settle? I don't think so.