SEX EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOLS

What is sex education, anyway? Mary Calderone of the Sex Information and Education Council points out that ""reproduction education"" is not to be equated with education about sexuality or learning about maleness and femaleness, all of which are necessary. The other panel members at the 1966 conference of headmasters which produced this book are President McIntosh of Barnard, who emphasizes the need to clue in parents; Alan Guttmacher of Planned Parenthood, who wants to ""detoxify"" sex; and Rev. Unsworth of Smith, who is concerned with cultural and moral pressures on young people. Dr. Calderone, the most substantive of the lot, urges a reform of the unemotional-infrequent-hypodermic model in teaching children about sex, and a search for alternatives to the ""orgiastic"" or ""sacramental"" models now foisted on adolescents. The headmasters' comments are earnest and sensible; public school educators have a wider range of problems, but the book offers much of value to parents, pedagogues and older students everywhere.