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

by Kristin Luker (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
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"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.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0393329968
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0393329964
  3. Edition
    Edition Unstated
  4. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  5. Publication date
    April 17, 2007
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
  8. Print length
    384 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

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.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Edition Unstated (April 17, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393329968
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393329964
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 18 ratings

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Kristin Luker

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4 out of 5 stars
18 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Brittany
    5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Book
    Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    This is a very interesting book which takes the standard debate about sex education and examines where each side is coming from. I read it for a research paper and I actually decided not to resell the book when the semester ended because it was very interesting.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Michael Tachet
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent pricing. Good reference material
    Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Used this ebook in my doctoral dissertation. Excellent pricing. Good reference material.
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  • Amy
    4.0 out of 5 stars ... bought this book a while ago when it was recommended through amazon after purchasing a number of textbooks for ...
    Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I bought this book a while ago when it was recommended through amazon after purchasing a number of textbooks for a sexuality course in college. I recently picked it up again, and thought the discussion of sex education was useful in thinking about how to incorporate frank discussion of sex in my own classroom.
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  • Rebecca Allen
    2.0 out of 5 stars Frustrating and of questionable value
    Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2008
    Verified Purchase
    Luker's structure for understanding the debate on sex in America (it's in the subtitle) is extremely limited. It's overwhelmingly (altho not exclusively) white, heterocentric (that is pretty much exclusively) and suburban/small town. If I thought she understood there was a problem with not discussing the treatment of homosexuality when discussing sex education in America (because she mostly ignores it), it might bother me less, but she's so focused on understanding the different gender roles, she's locked into the conservatives duality. As usual, as a sociologist, her lack of historical perspective undermines her argument. Worse, her assertion about the "original" definition of "hierarchy" is just wrong, and in bending over backwards to avoid words like "patriarchy" and "oppression", she signs off on previous generations' enforcement of cultural norms at the expense of minorities and other groups with little power.

    If I thought I could trust the rest of the work, these might be issues I could work around. But there are instances of circular argument; she quotes conservative activists repeatedly without acknowledging bias without doing the same for liberals; she repeatedly misrepresents "sexual liberals" and persists in misunderstanding what her interviewees were telling her.

    Her background and credentials suggests she's doing this to "prove" that she's being "fair" to the conservatives. In practice, I kept thinking that she'd be a conservative herself, except for the niggling little problem that she'd have to give up her position unless she could also magically become a man (because doing it through surgery would surely be unacceptable to the conservatives!).

    I wish I knew of a better book on the topic.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • MrsDiva1
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2015
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    Wonderful and fast service
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  • Beverly Neeley
    5.0 out of 5 stars an meticulous investigation into gender, sex education, public opinion and social discord
    Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2019
    Using the voice of a prudent and wise expert, Dr. Kristin Luker's 30-year study of opinions about sex education in the schools explores public responses to the defining set of questions that demarcate the field.

    Beverly E. Neeley, Sociology-UCSD/ I'M CULTURAL
    Dirs: ThomasCMeshack-Pres, ChandraBrown-Treas, JacindaBarnes-Parliamentarian, KadingaSmith-MemberAtLarge
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  • Stefani
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing from a great sociologist
    Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2007
    This was an engaging book to read and it was also well researched. I had Kristen Luker as a professor and true to form, she is fair in her research and portrays both sides of an issue so that each makes sense to the reader. She is a very talented sociologist and unlike some sociologists, she's also manages to write an interesting book. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the debate over sex education.
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Bob Fancher
    3.0 out of 5 stars Useful but limited
    Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2006
    Verified Purchase
    Kristin Luker has chosen a curious method to produce a strange amalgam of a book: she talks to local extremists so she can use sex education as a prism for understanding sex in America.

    While the political battles over sex education might deserve a book unto themselves, and while sex education certainly can't be divorced from our culture's shifting notions about sexuality, Luker's method leaves one wondering how much one has actually learned about either from reading the book.

    As Luker acknowledges in passing, her method of choosing subjects to interview leaves out the entire sensible center, if such there be, on debates about sex education. And as she makes clear, passionate extremists on both sides of the fights generally have difficulty articulating their reasons clearly, and they generally don't understand each other very well. Luker provides on her interviewees' behalfs the articulation they can't provide for themselves. Curious research method, don't you think?

    Luker offers that the warring camps fall into the "sacralists" versus the "secularists." I suspect readers will differ on how adequate they find these grossly simplified generalizations. I find some value, in sort of a quick-sketch-on-the-back-of-a-napkin sense, in drawing the contrasts as Luker draws them.

    But I'm not entirely enthusiastic about Luker's belief that she's found a good prism for viewing sex in America. Local extremists all worked up about school curricula may not be the most representative sample on the broader issue of sex in our society.
    17 people found this helpful
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