Publisher’s Weekly

A high school sexuality educator and English teacher at Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood, Pa., Vernacchio has been featured in a 2011 New York Times Magazine cover story. Based on hisPsychology Today blog, this account of his frank, outspoken approach to sex education strays far from the stilted warnings of yesteryear. Vernacchio suggests trashing the old baseball model (first base, scoring) with the stereotype of boy as aggressor and girl as defender, and replacing it with a “pizza model,” in which kids learn to approach sexual relationships with respect for each partner’s (or “sweetheart’s”) decisions, boundaries, and desires.