The Sex Ed Chronicles

by Stuart Nachbar

In January of 1980, the U.S. economy is in shambles, Ronald Reagan is beginning his quest to become the country's fortieth president, and New Jersey is about to become the first state to require sex education in all public schools. New Jersey native Greg Mandell, a rookie reporter for the Ocean Republic, accepts an assignment to cover the Parent's Alliance for Schools and Teachers (PAST) and the state's public hearings on sex education. Formed to stop sex education, PAST has influenced the election of three hundred like-minded candidates to school boards across the Garden State. While on assignment, Mandell falls for Andi Gilardi, a popular history teacher up for tenure at Mandell's alma mater, Averdell High School. PAST has accused Gilardi of manipulating her students to fight for sex education and has labeled her a "morally unacceptable" teacher who must be denied tenure. Mandell's respect and affection for Gilardi forces him to make a choice between his professional objectivity and his personal integrity. Based on true events, The Sex Ed Chronicles recounts a journalist's brave efforts to stand up for his beliefs in the emotionally charged arena of sex education in public schools.

248 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 2007

About the author

Stuart Nachbar's body of fiction work is in education politics. His first novel, The Sex Ed Chronicles, addresses the issues surrounding sex education in 1980 New Jersey. His new novel, Defending College Heights, is an investigation of the murder of a U.S. Army recruiter within a tumultuous and corrupt college community. His current project, Tip Offs, is a story based around girl's high school basketball.

Formerly senior vice president of College Central Network, a New York-based Internet company serving over 400 colleges and university career centers, Stuart has a BA and MBA from Rutgers University and a Master of Urban Planning degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He and his wife Carol live in central New Jersey.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well... I enjoyed this account of one teacher's struggle with unfair school politics. for the first 3/4th of the book though I thought it was more a historical account of bringing sex ed to the New Jersey public school system, and being that this event occured in 1980, it seemed quite dated. I had been prepared to complain that the author failed to make me understand the context and why this was important and relevant in the 2000s, when the book was written. But as I got to the end, I realized that it was more about school politics, which, in my adulthood, seems always relevant (btw - married to a HS teacher :) ).