RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Sexuality, Schooling, and Adolescent Females: The Missing Discourse of Desire
JF Harvard Educational Review
JO herp
FD Harvard Educational Press
SP 29
OP 54
DO 10.17763/haer.58.1.u0468k1v2n2n8242
VO 58
IS 1
A1 Fine, Michelle
YR 1988
UL http://harvardeducationalreview.org/content/58/1/29.abstract
AB Michelle Fine argues that the anti-sex rhetoric surrounding sex education and school-based health clinics does little to enhance the development of sexual responsibility and subjectivity in adolescents. Despite substantial evidence on the success of both school-based health clinics and access to sexuality information, the majority of public schools do not sanction or provide such information. As a result, female students, particularly low-income ones, suffer most from the inadequacies of present sex education policies. Current practices and language lead to increased experiences of victimization, teenage pregnancy, and increased dropout rates,and consequently, ". . . combine to exacerbate the vulnerability of young women whom schools, and the critics of sex education and school-based health clinics, claim to protect."The author combines a thorough review of the literature with her research in public schools to make a compelling argument for "sexuality education" that fosters not only the full development of a sexual self but education in its broadest sense.