When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex--and Sex Education--Since the Sixties

by Kristin Luker

Overview

"It is difficult to imagine a juicier subject, or a more thoughtful, fluent, trustworthy guide for its exploration."—San Francisco Chronicle

A chronicle of the two decades that noted sociologist Kristin Luker spent following parents in four America communities engaged in a passionate war of ideas and values, When Sex Goes to School explores a conflict with stakes that are deceptively simple and painfully personal. For these parents, the question of how their children should be taught about sex cuts far deeper than politics, religion, or even friendship.

"The drama of this book comes from watching the exceptionally thoughtful Luker try to figure [sex education] out" (Judith Shulevitz, New York Times Book Review). In doing so, Luker also traces the origins of sex education from the turn-of-the-century hygienist movement to the marriage-obsessed 1950s and the sexual and gender upheavals of the 1960s. Her unexpected conclusions make it impossible to look at the intersections of the private and the political in the same way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393344011
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/20/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	807,131
File size:	433 KB

About the Author

Kristin Luker is a professor of sociology at the University of California-Berkeley and a professor at Boalt Law School. She is the author of the landmark book Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood and lives in Berkeley, California.