Touchy Subject: The History and Philosophy of Sex Education, LaurenBialystok and Lisa M. F.Andersen, The University of Chicago Press, 2022, 232 pp.

make a compelling case for a version of comprehensive sex education they envision called Democratic Humanist Sex Education. 1 Their historically nuanced and philosophically thoughtful argument provides insights into selected periods of sex education providing both concrete details and ethical analysis related to issues perennially under debate in sexuality education.As they point out, too, sex education is a topic in and of itself, worthy of detailed study, but also a deeply related to broader tensions related to public schooling.As a historical and philosophical policy analysis, their study demonstrates the pedagogical function of policy and the need to understand curricula in relation to the public good of education.In their vision of an approach to sex education that responds to the needs of diverse democracy, they examine how policy can invite shared conversations, help community members share different values, invite multiple stakeholders into conversation about content and implementation, and recognize that disputes may well be based on differential impacts on diverse stakeholders. 2In seeking to emphasize the possibility of a basic agreement about sexuality education, even across political divides, they repeatedly push against the idea that sex education policies and practices themselves ignite actual controversy.At stake in their analysis is the hope that by agreeing on key principles related to life in diverse democracies, members of public school communities will be able to navigate their disagreements with more clarity and respect, understanding that sex education stages subtending arguments about pluralism, educational authority, and the purpose of schooling.In short, they envision sex education becoming part of civics education.This excellently detailed and complexly argued book suggests that by focusing on shared public goods, debates over contentious subjects might rise above the fray of strident and polarizing arguments about sex.Such a strategy of building toward shared goals, Bialystok and Andersen argue, may help even those who disagree with one another realize that sex education controversies are largely manufactured by interests who would prefer to seed divisiveness rather than move toward