tion.

In our attitude toward the boy, we must show him that we respect him, that
we have faith and confidence in him, and expect great things of him. We
should meet him on the level of a boy's everyday interests in sport, use
simple language, and no unnecessary technical terms. Some workers with
boys unwisely force confessions of guilt. We should respect the boy's
right of privacy.

When we deal with boys in the mass, the grouping is difficult. Boys who
have reached the period of puberty should be in a separate group from
pre-pubescents, and boys who are well advanced in adolescence--those who
have been pubescent for two or three years--should be taught in still a
third group. This applies to single talks as well as to courses of
instruction.

As far as we know the best basis of division between the pubescent and
pre-pubescent boy (when physical examinations are not possible) is the
change of voice. Only one who understands these matters well and knows the
boys should do the grouping. Even such a man should not adopt an arbitrary
basis of grouping but must take one boy at a time and place him in the
group for which he seems best fitted.

We should endeavor to include the father in our plans of sex instruction
and be careful not to break down such confidence as exists between father
and son. We shall find that only a small proportion of fathers give their
sons any instruction in sexual matters, and that it is difficult to stir
them to action. In one investigation, it was found that one hundred boys
out of one hundred and twenty-one had received no sex instruction from
their fathers.[57]

When confidence between father and son does exist, we should help the
father rather than relieve him of his task. It is difficult to discover
fathers who have confidential relations with their boys unless each family
is dealt with separately. The Oregon Social Hygiene Society has conducted
father and son meetings, and has required the father either to accompany
the boy or sign a card signifying his willingness to have his son attend.
Few fathers have attended, sometimes none at all. On one occasion there
were thirty-five boys and not one father.[58] Requiring permission may be
regarded as an assumption that the talk is questionable; and, furthermore,
the requiring of special permission is likely to create an undesirable
attitude on the part of the boy. Plans for father and son meetings which
will be free from these objections will