Bailey Cove Evening: The Abstinence Teacher

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
Ruth Ramsey is the human sexuality teacher at the local high school. She believes that "pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power." Ruth's daughter's soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim belongs to the Tabernacle, an evangelical Christian church that doesn't approve of Ruth's style of teaching and makes her the focus of a very public crusade. And Ruth, in turn, doesn't applaud the Tabernacle's mission to take its message outside its doors. But when a controversy on the soccer field pushes the two of them to actually talk, they are forced to look beyond their first impressions.
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