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The Palgrave International Handbook of Alternative Education pp 401–414Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Alternatives to School Sex Education

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Abstract

School sex education has long been contested in many countries. Disagreements exist about the content of school sex education curricula, including what the term “sex education” means and therefore what precisely should be covered, the balance that should exist between biology and other subjects, the age at which sex education should start, its pedagogies and its values framework. In addition, a more fundamental point of disagreement is about whether it should take place in schools at all. Sex education is unusual among subjects in that a substantial number of people argue that it should be excluded from school. This chapter therefore looks at what the contributions to sex education might be from a range of sources, principally: school, parents, society in general (e.g., via magazines, films, the Internet) and peers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

    Michael J. Reiss

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  1. Michael J. Reiss
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Correspondence to Michael J. Reiss .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Newman University, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Helen E. Lees

  2. Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

    Nel Noddings

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Reiss, M.J. (2016). Alternatives to School Sex Education. In: Lees, H., Noddings, N. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Alternative Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41291-1_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41291-1_26

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-41290-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-41291-1

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