When Sex Goes to School

by Kristin Luker

"When Sex Goes to School is a chronicle of the two decades that sociologist Kristin Luker spent following parents in four American communities engaged in a passionate war of ideas and values. The stakes in the conflict 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." "Even among groups of seemingly similar parents, Luker finds no quorum on how or what children should be taught about sex. At what age? Where? By whom? And what about homosexuality? Or birth control? Already this fissure has caused many parents to withdraw their children from public schools, sparking an exodus to parochial schools, as well as boosting the burgeoning home-schooling movement." "Luker's work here covers such virgin territory that it requires a new vocabulary, that of sexual liberals and sexual conservatives. Amid muted living rooms and packed high-school gymnasiums, Luke