boys and
girls to call for warnings to all children at the earliest ages; any
teacher or parent should be qualified to help in individual cases.
6. The education of adolescent boys must stress the six great truths that
will fortify them against the main arguments of the enemies of decency and
health:--
(1) Sexual intercourse is not a physiological necessity; continence was
never known to impair physical or mental vigor.
(2) There can be but one standard of chastity; the purity a man demands
for his sister, he must achieve for himself.
(3) Seminal emissions are natural among healthy men; usually they need
cause no concern.
(4) Gonorrhea is a terrible disease, with tragic consequences that one can
never fully foretell; syphilis is worse.
(5) Every woman who offers her body for prostitution is, sooner or later,
a probable source of contagion; clean living is the only positive
safeguard against venereal disease.
(6) Nearly every "advertising specialist" is a criminal of the most
contemptible type; the only safe adviser is the doctor in reputable
standing who is not afraid to sign his name to his prescription or to his
advice.
IV. IDEALS
1. "The function of education is to guide the intellect into a knowledge
of right and wrong, to supply motives for right conduct, and to furnish
occasions by which alone can moral habits be cultivated." (Drummond.)
2. The first aim of sex education is necessarily to bring about an
open-minded, serious, if possible a reverent, attitude toward sex and
motherhood, in place of the traditional secrecy and vulgarity; a teacher
who cannot do this should do nothing.[67]
3. In so far as the sex life of animals is made the basis of instruction,
the _difference_ between man and the lower animals is the point to
emphasize; otherwise the facts of animal life may appear to justify
irresponsible sex activities, whereas the glory of man is his control over
animal instincts.
4. Since it is not ignorance of what is right, but rather the will to do
the right, that is usually responsible for sexual delinquency among
adults, the program of public education must include more effective moral
education in all grades of all schools; every subject, properly taught, is
a means of cultivating will power, of strengthening character; but the
school curriculum is now made to yield but a small part of its
possibilities.
5. The appeal must be made to self-respect and to chivalry; especially
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