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vidual. The inadequacy of mere information in matters of sex is painfully evident. To the knowledge of what is right must be added the will to do the right. All the other aspects of the social emergency treated with superhuman wisdom would still leave the greatest problem unsolved. As moral and religious instruction is the dominant educational need of the present generation, so the moral and religious aspects of sex problems transcend all the others in importance.

These are the most important phases of the social emergency. It is difficult to see them in all their intricate relationships and to realize that in any one approach we touch only one side of a many-sided problem. The great majority of our people see only the superficial aspects or see one particular phase in distorted perspective because that is brought close to them through a special case of misfortune. Even social workers are in danger of narrowness of vision because of devoted service in particular fields. To attempt to deal with sex aspects of school hygiene, as though these problems were distinct from other phases of the social emergency, is to invite failure from the start. The union of the American Federation for Sex Hygiene and the American Vigilance Association is a step in the right direction, for it gives promise of seeing the social emergency clearly and seeing it whole.1

C. EDUCATION v. PUNISHMENT AS A REMEDY FOR SOCIAL EVILS.

HUGH CABOT, M. D.,

President American Society of Genito-Urinary Surgeons, Boston, Mass.

Boys have, in general, been given no systematic training or instruction in the nature of their sexual make-up. But if the boy's equipment was not cared for by education, it was not neglected by nature. Natural curiosity and intense sexual cravings attend sexual maturity, and its phenomena are often rather terrifying to the uninformed. To fall into error is what might naturally be expected of ignorance facing the unknown. Again, at the period when active growth is over, the young man will not infrequently be driven by his sexual self to an extent almost incompatible with efficient living (of course assuming that he is not married). His instruction is likely to be at the hands of ignorant contemporaries in the form of misstated fact or direct lie.

The girl has been given even less information. Our attitude has been, "Don't ask." Her religious teaching has laid stress upon the sanctity of marriage, but she was not taught what the marriage rela

1 The two organizations were amalgamated at the Buffalo meeting.

tion is. Like the boy, she picked up a certain amount of misinformation.

Such was the equipment of the younger generation. It taught asceticism, not chastity, before marriage, and after marriage a licentious sexual life, limited only by its compatibility with human existence. And this standard we proposed to enforce by punishment.

The boy, following his instinct, often became infected with venereal disease. Fearing to go to parents, and lacking money, he fell into the hands of quacks, with resulting complications and uncured and chronic disease. The boy of stronger character adopted asceticism, and, not understanding the storms of his nature, in his turn fell into the hands of the quack, and was drained of money, health, and at times almost of reason.

The girl was denied her natural defense, that of comprehension, and, when the defense of a guarded life was lax or absent, yielded to she knew not what. Pregnancy, abortion, prostitution, venereal disease were among the natural results; the last, if possible, more serious in her than in the boy.

The plan of dealing with the sex question during the past half century has not, I think, met with much success, and the continuance of this method will meet with even less success in the future. The dangers arising from the mismanagement of the sex instinct are increasing. Control by punishment, which has failed in the past, is necessarily doomed to more tragic failure in the future. Punishment dealt out as we have dealt it is concealment, lying; concealment and lying undermine character; and the wonder is not that character is less firm and robust than we desire, but that any firmness or vigor exists at all.

If we are to stand any chance of success, it will be upon a basis of intellectual comprehension and by the deliberate strengthening of the personal defenses of the individual which enable him to guide successfully his own life. Dependence upon an abiding faith, based upon accepted dogma, is not suited to the spirit of the times. Faith has waned; can it be because we have been faithless? We have lied, and the failure of faith is the dividend paid for our untruthfulness. To secure comprehension, a thing far more fundamental than knowledge, instruction must be given early, must be continuous and progressive. It must teach clearly and honestly the true nature and effects of the sex instinct. Instruction leading to comprehension will require men and women of unusual breadth and strength of character, but I believe that no other form of education is more likely to produce profound and lasting influence upon national character. This teaching must not be in isolated form. We must guard against the ever-present danger of bringing people, old as well as young, to regard sexual morality as different and removed from other forms of

morality. We must so plan our instruction as clearly to relate this form of morality to truth, honor, courage, virility.

Sooner or later we shall come to realize that teaching the comprehension of the sex instinct is the function of the public school, though we are far from such a realization to-day. We still cling to the idea that this instruction can be given in the home, forgetting that a large proportion of parents are not equipped, either by nature or art, to give this instruction. If we depend upon the home as the source of teaching, that teaching will not be given.

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D. POINTS OF ATTACK IN SEX EDUCATION.

THOMAS W. BALLIET, New York University.

As a matter of wise public policy and as a means of accomplishing ultimately the greatest good, sex education should begin where its necessity and practicability are universally recognized and where mistakes during its experimental stage will be much less serious than in the case of such instruction to young children in school.

Accordingly, the first point of attack should be the parent. No one questions the possibility of doing a vast deal of good by enlightening fathers and mothers on this vital subject. Public sentiment is ripe everywhere for this step, and competent persons can be found, usually among the medical profession, to give this instruction. Furthermore, the proper instruction of parents will be the most effective means of creating public sentiment in favor of giving such teaching in proper form to children in the schools.

Another point of attack for which we are ready is the Army and Navy. There is no place where such instruction is more needed, and its necessity and practical value are not seriously questioned by anyone. It should be given entirely at the Government's expense and usually by men who have had medical training; and it should not be given spasmodically, as at present, but systematically and thoroughly, and on a scale large enough to reach every enlisted man.

A third point of attack for which we are ready, and which has already been quite vigorously begun, is sex instruction in the colleges, both for men and women. Such instruction will not only meet the personal needs of students, but will equip those who are to become teachers in elementary and secondary schools to give it to pupils in these schools.

A fourth class of persons to whom sex instruction can now be effectively given are groups of young men and young women in Young Men's Christian Associations, Young Women's Christian Associations, social settlements, and similar organizations.

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E. CHARACTER AND THE SEX PROBLEM.

RICHARD J. TIERNEY, Woodstock College.

Sex hygiene concerns the eternal destiny of man, the fate of his immortal soul, as well as his temporal interests. It is not merely a pedagogical question. In the last analysis the question concerns the abolition of sexual sin. To this end public teaching of sex hygiene to school children is now advocated.

The proposed courses involve two elements, the intellectual and the ethical. The former is detailed; the latter vague and purely naturalistic. The main result aimed at is knowledge. The appeal is to the wrong faculty, the emphasis in the wrong place. Information can not keep a man upright. Knowledge is not moral power. Precaution to avoid disease is not virtue. No marked improvement in morals has followed the bringing to the attention of our college boys the dangers of sexual sin. "Damaged Goods" teaches that knowledge does not protect. William James approaches the same truth when he insists that sensuous images must be combated by ideals that lie beyond the intellect. As it appears to me, the detailed teaching of sex hygiene will even thwart the noble purpose in view.

The imagination of the child is flighty, the will weak. The first sex impulses are psychological. The detailed teaching of sex hygiene makes a strong impression on the imagination. Sinful thoughts, desires, and conversation follow and prelude other crimes which we pass over in silence.

Sex instruction is apt to put forward by some years the time of suggestion and temptation. Safety lies in diverting the attention from sex details. The two great natural protections are modesty (reserve, if you will) and shame, not prudery. They do not spring from dogma and superstition, but are an instinct of nature. Public and frequent discussion of sex details will destroy both. Good intentions will be thus frustrated.

The foundations of chastity are in elemental character training. Sex instruction can not give character; it is not deep and comprehensive enough. Without character, it is as chaff before the wind. The movement, to be successful, must reach to the very elements of character. Failure to form the child's soul does not come from the difficulty of the task, but from its neglect. But such formation alone is sadly inadequate. Life on the highest plane is impossible without God and religion, and chastity belongs to life on the highest plane. Appeal to religious sentiment in schools has sometimes raised so strong a protest that it has had to be discontinued; will not this happen if it is introduced into sex lectures? And if not introduced, will the lectures not be fruitful of evil? Be convinced that religion

alone will be of lasting benefit in this campaign. God, not hygiene, is the supreme need of the hour.

My convictions are not favorable to your movement in all its details. Neither are they adverse. Eliminate the details of sex hygiene; train character, teach that purity is noble and possible; that vice is vile and carries its own punishment; that marriage is inviolate; that the family is sacred. Teach boys that their bodies are vessels of honor, the habitation of a soul made in the image of God; train them to reverence womanhood and to venerate motherhood. Teach girls reserve, modesty of manner and dress, purity, and self-sacrifice. Carry your campaign further. Purge the press, cleanse the novel, elevate the theater, abolish animal dances, frown on coeducation after the age of puberty. Labor that all men may realize the great obligation of life, which is to know God and do His behests.

F. SOME METHODS OF TEACHING SEX HYGIENE.

LAURA B. GARRETT,

Teacher, New York, N. Y.

Sex hygiene is not a new subject, nor one of which children have never heard. Normal children are curious about sex as about other matters. They should have given them correct ideas and ideals. After correct training they will be less curious and do less talking. It is not sex, but reproduction of life, that is to be taught them, correlated with other vital interests.

What seems like filth in their drawings and remarks can be made clean by giving them plainly and honestly the facts they are ready to understand. They need a good vocabulary to use in seeking information and to dignify their ideas. They need a respectful knowledge of the form and appearance of the body, such as may be had by seeing the whole body of a baby or by the use of the best pictures or statues. The national committee for mental hygiene places sex ignorance as a cause of disordered minds. This is especially true of girls who worry over some mistake of youth, but when properly taught drop the burden and live according to new ideals.

Instructions may be given to groups, preferably of 15 or less. Boys and girls may be taught together in elementary work. Knowledge as to sex organs and functions is preferably given before adolescence, while the child is still largely unconscious of sex. This training ought to begin in the homes. In some homes the child is told to run away and not talk of such things. In others he hears with brutal frankness what he should know, but without the beauty, higher ethics, and social values. In others he is told plainly, honestly, and beautifully what he is ready for as he develops. This is

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