Presents a comprehensive analysis of the debates surrounding sexuality education in the schools and examines their implications for the content of educational programs.

Sexuality education in the schools has become a key battleground in the wider social conflict over the sexual norms of Western culture. In Sexual Ideology and Schooling, Alexander McKay conceptualizes the sexuality debates as a battle between two basic but diametrically opposed belief systems about the nature and purpose of sexuality in human life and society—Restrictive and Permissive. He outlines the philosophical/moral foundations of a democratic approach to teaching young people about sexuality and persuasively argues that public institutions, including the schools, should base public policy related to sexuality on democratic principles rather than the dictates of sexual ideology.

The debates on gender and sexuality are widespread today. Many claim that a cultural war is being waged between “conservatives” who uphold the time-honored values of family and sexuality and “liberals” who promote an agenda to redefine these traditional roles. Since the public is often uninformed about the science and philosophical currents undergirding the questions of gender and sexuality, the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum organized an academic symposium in Rome to shed light on the debate. This book gathers the insights of that symposium, which integrated the disciplines of medicine, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, history, philosophy, moral theology, biblical studies, law, bioethics, and pedagogy. This work is aimed at Catholics and all those who seek a more profound understanding of one of today’s most important topics. In the personalist approach of bioethics, the natural law tradition distinguishes the person from his or her acts. In the case of same-sex attractions, the Church teaches clearly that the inclination is not in itself sinful, and that persons with such attractions are deserving of respect and compassion in accord with their full human dignity. Nonetheless, same-sex acts are not natural or ordered. The Church strives to build bridges with the LGBT community by fostering a relationship of compassion, sensitivity, and mutual respect. However, real bridges also require honesty and openness to the truths that pertain to human sexuality, procreation, the family, and the education of future generation.

Originally published in 1993. This book examines how a sexuality curriculum is actually taught to a ninth-grade health class and how it impacts on both the teacher and students. It tackles how sex education should be taught and even whether it should be taught.

Schooling Sexualities brings together contemporary debate about sexuality with the study of schooling. The book looks closely at the production of sexual identities at school and argues that sexuality is intrinsic to the formation of individual and group identities in schools. It explores not only the formal sexual curriculum but the sexual cultures of both teachers and students. Essential reading for teachers concerned with sexual education.

“Up-to-date and accessible, this book manages to be both theoretically subtle and attuned to the realities of classroom practice.†Dr Rachel Thomson, The Open University "[This] book is a great success and provides a wealth of insights into the realities of teaching and being taught about sex and relationships." Michael Reiss, Institute of Education What are the different values and perspectives on sex and relationship education within a single secondary school? How do young people think sex education should be taught? What are the challenges facing the provision of good sex and relationship education at the classroom level and at the political level? Young people often receive mixed messages about gender and sexual relationships. When providing sex education lessons, schools should take into account different ideas and values, including the general British embarrassment over intimate matters and differing political and personal views about sex education. This book combines young people’s views of sex education, schooling and parenthood, with those of teachers, school nurses and head-teachers. It brings together these varied perspectives and considers how they reveal different values, aims and agendas. The authors highlight the potential conflict between approaches to education and health, and reveal the complexity of dealing with sexuality and gender in real-life situations. Focusing on young people’s identities in the classroom, contemporary theoretical approaches in the social sciences are employed to explore how gender is enacted and experienced by individuals, and how social pressures and government agendas operate at the level of the individual. This book contains original, first-hand empirical material from a detailed study of all the schools in one English city, and offers a critical analysis of broader political and cultural ideas and values. Get Real About Sexis key reading for students and professionals in education, health and the sociology of gender and sexuality.