Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality (Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies) [Paperback]

Jessica Fields (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2008 | Series: Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies

Curricula in U.S. public schools are often the focus of heated debate, and few subjects spark more controversy than sex education. While conservatives argue that sexual abstinence should be the only message, liberals counter that an approach that provides comprehensive instruction and helps young people avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy is necessary. Caught in the middle are the students and teachers whose everyday experiences of sex education are seldom as clear-cut as either side of the debate suggests."Risky Lessons" brings readers inside three North Carolina middle schools to show how students and teachers support and subvert the official curriculum through their questions, choices, viewpoints, and reactions. Most important, the book highlights how sex education's formal and informal lessons reflect and reinforce gender, race, and class inequalities.Ultimately critical of both conservative and liberal approaches, Fields argues for curricula that promote social and sexual justice. Sex education's aim need not be limited to reducing the risk of adolescent pregnancies, disease, and sexual activity. Rather, its lessons should help young people to recognize and contend with sexual desires, power, and inequalities.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In an elegant, candid, and rich qualitative study set in three North Carolina schools, Fields argues that the denial of young people's sexualities is at the heart of school based sex education. Highly recommended. -- Choice --Choice

Smart, passionate and engaging, Risky Lessons throws open the classroom door to show the high stakes for teachers and students in our political battles over sex education. It should be required reading for every U.S. politician. -- Janice M. Irvine, author of Talk About Sex: The Battles over Sex Education in the United States --Janice M. Irvine, author of Talk About Sex: The Battles over Sex Education in the United States

Intellectually thrilling, politically timely, theoretically strong and ethnographically elegant, Risky Lessons reveals the problematic effects of abstinence-only education and profound social inequalities, and the social dangers that mutate at their nasty intersection. At the same time, Fields demonstrates the power and urgency of teaching for desire, sexual subjectivity, safety and pleasure. -- Michelle Fine, co-author, Muslim American Youth: Understanding Hyphenated Identities --Michelle Fine, co-author, Muslim American Youth: Understanding Hyphenated Identities

About the Author

Jessica Fields is an assistant professor of sociology at San Francisco State University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (August 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813543355
• ISBN-13: 978-0813543352
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #551,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great buy, July 15, 2009

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Christine L. Moreau - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality (Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies) (Paperback)

Thanks so much,

The book was cheap, I received it in plenty of time, and its condition was great.

Thanks again!