1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463056003321

Autore

Kendall Nancy <1974->

Titolo

The sex education debates [[electronic resource] /] / Nancy Kendall

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, c2013

ISBN

1-283-85575-5

0-226-92229-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (295 p.)

Disciplina

613.9071

Soggetti

Sex instruction - United States

Sex instruction for teenagers - United States

Sex instruction - Government policy - United States

Sex instruction for teenagers - Government policy - United States

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Sex education research and policies -- Microanalyses of sex education -- Florida's "It's Great to Wait" campaign: the state as manager, marketer, and moral arbiter -- It's a local thing: sex education as compromise and choice in Wyoming -- No idea is bad, no opinion is wrong, but knowledge is power: sex education in Wisconsin / (coauthored with Kathleen Elliott) -- Engaging diversity: sex education for all in California -- Morality tales: adolescent desire, disease, and fertility in sex education programs -- Men are microwaves, women are crock-pots: gender roles in AOUME and CSE -- What are we doing about the homosexual threat?: scientism, sexual identity, and sexuality education -- Rape as consuming desire and gendered responsibility -- Concluding thoughts: sex education as civics education.

Sommario/riassunto

Educating children and adolescents in public schools about sex is a deeply inflammatory act in the United States. Since the 1980s, intense political and cultural battles have been waged between believers in abstinence until marriage and advocates for comprehensive sex education. In The Sex Education Debates, Nancy Kendall upends conventional thinking about these battles by bringing the school and community realities of sex education to life through the diverse voices



of students, teachers, administrators, and activists. Drawing on ethnographic research in five states, Kendall reveals important differences and surprising commonalities shared by purported antagonists in the sex education wars, and she illuminates the unintended consequences these protracted battles have, especially on teachers and students. Showing that the lessons that most students, teachers, and parents take away from these battles are antithetical to the long-term health of American democracy, she argues for shifting the measure of sex education success away from pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates. Instead, she argues, the debates should focus on a broader set of social and democratic consequences, such as what students learn about themselves as sexual beings and civic actors, and how sex education programming affects school-community relations.