You're Teaching My Child What? by Mirian Grossman

You're Teaching My Child What? is an extremely difficult book to read. The author claims to be coming from a perspective of medical science and does make some accurate scientific claims and also is very critical of anything that doesn't match her own narrow perspective. 18 pages into this book I had to stop and put it down because it made me angry and I felt like I could feel the hate radiating out of the pages. The author spends a LOT of energy slandering the sex positive perspective and anyone who believes in it. She professes that this perspective is not in the best interest of public health and is only trying to further some social agenda. This is a harsh claim from a person who is doing the exact same thing throughout her book. The scientific facts she presents have some validity but only give the reader a partial picture which she then uses to attempt to convince the reader that her perspective is in the best interest of public health. There is no debate of points. She cites one or two studies before preverbially jumping up and down about how the sex positivity is akin to a death warrant.

Miriam Grossman beats the reader over the head with a constant rant about the ineffectiveness of current perspectives on sex education. She attempts to villianize historical researchers on which some of the modern theories of sexual education is based. Her attacks on the researchers is personal and has little to nothing to do with their proposed theories. She's basically waving her arms saying, "Don't listen to those people, they're weirdos". This is hardly the basis for the scientific argument the author promises and is more akin to the taunts and mudslinging of a preschooler. There is one chapter in the book that focuses more on biology and the physical transmission of disease. This is the easiest chapter to get through as the author spends less time pointing fingers than the rest of the book. Sadly, she still harps on beliefs several times. Overall I'd say that there is about five valid and scientific points she makes in her whole book, the rest is personal belief or hate speech.

The most irksome part of this work is that the author contradicts herself on several points. It's difficult to take her seriously. She speaks very highly of the scientific method being superior and doesn't support the current research and she ignores any research that doesn't support what she is saying. She also completely discredits research all together in her conclusion saying, "Diplomas represent years in graduate school, not wisdom". Why position yourself as a person of authority as a doctor and psychiatrist? Why cite scientific studies if you're going to encourage parents to ignore the research? Miriam Grossman claims to come from a place of science and no social agenda and she uses that position to attempt to hide her own social agenda. It's not difficult to see through the words on the page and know that this author is writing from a place of disgust and narrow mindedness. I would never recommend this book to anyone.