During
the ten-year hiatus between the first submission of my proposal and the
acceptance of my Human Sexuality course as a psych elective, academic interest
in the subject proliferated and many colleges and universities had begun
offering stand-alone courses. The college book mills, fully aware of this
rapidly growing interest, began grinding out textbooks on the subject. By the
time I offered my first section of SSC 160, I had at least a dozen textbooks
from which to choose. My choice was Human
Sexuality by David A. Schulz.
I
chose his book for several reasons especially because it was well-written,
accurate with clear illustrations, and only 110 pages—the right length to be covered
in a one-quarter course. This last aspect was really appreciated by my students
who complained constantly about having to purchase very lengthy, expensive
textbooks from which their instructors might require only half or fewer of the
chapters be read by them.
During
the summer of 1989, I received notice from Schulz's publisher that his book was
out of print and no longer available. I started immediately searching for a new
textbook for my course. By the beginning of fall quarter, I was frustrated and
disappointed because none of the books I looked at were as well written or as
accurate as David Schulz's book AND not one of them was less than 300 pages in
length, much too long for a one quarter course.
Fortunately
the college bookstore was able to scrounge enough copies of Human Sexuality to meet my students'
need during the fall quarter but was not able to guarantee that there would be
enough available for the rest of the year. I had no choice but to write my own,
which the college published. I used The
Sexual Person with necessary updates and revisions until I retired.
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