We get our fixed--or malleable--notions of sexuality and gender from a variety of sources: family expectations, a hypersexualizing media gaze, and through the dictates of those great monoliths, Faith and Obedience within a/the Church. However, gender is also being formed in the well-worn halls and the ordered environment of classrooms: schools are…

This book examines identity formation processes among a cohort of upper middle class adolescent females at Best Academy, an elite, private, independent, single-sex high school for girls. Chapter 1, "Introduction," defines the issue. Chapter 2, "Inside Best Academy: Socialization in the Private Girls' School," examines school…

This book attempts to serve as a compendium and a chronology of secondary education in the United States, taking a broad rather than a narrow approach and touching on a great many topics and issues. Chapters 1 and 2 present a history of secondary schools and a discussion of adolescence. Chapter 3 discusses curriculum in secondary schools,…

These papers examine various perspectives on the gender debate in education: (1) "'Too Strong for a Woman': The Five Words That Created Title IX" (Bernice R. Sandler); (2) "Feminists Discover the Hidden Injuries of Coeducation" (David Tyack and Elisabeth Hansot); (3) "Images of Relationship" (Carol Gilligan); (4)…

This report reviews current statistics on the state of girls' lives in the United States at the end of the 20th century. Six chapters cover: (1) "Framing Gender, Identity, and Adolescence" (trends in research on adolescent girls, exploring identities, how girls are doing, and conditions that support or hinder girls' healthy sense of…