old in the dirtiest possible way and things also were
said that I now know were entirely wrong."

I cannot impress upon you too strongly the need of early talks with
young children on these matters. As soon as they enter school at the age
of six and even before this, in some cases, they are bound to hear these
things from their playmates. Usually the information is thrust upon the
child in a very vulgar manner, or entirely wrong impressions are given.
The very secrecy that always has surrounded these subjects makes them an
object of interest to children. The functions of the generative organs
are just as natural a process as the process of digestion. We make no
secret of the process of digestion, and children do not manifest any
morbid curiosity regarding it. If we would discuss the functions of the
generative organs in just as natural a way, many of our great problems
would right themselves.

A woman in one of the western states writes, "Once I had a heated
argument upon that subject with another woman. She always had lived in a
small community. In her opinion all city girls were morally depraved.
She had two daughters of her own. Both girls gave birth to babies at the
age of fourteen and sixteen years. It transpired later that these girls
first began the evil practice at school. And I will state here,
regardless of contradiction, that the village school is often the
breeder of immoral characters among both boys and girls.

"In a small farming community of California containing about forty
children of school age, it was discovered that immoral practices had
been carried on for years among the older children. One little girl,
being new to the school and also being in the habit of telling her
mother everything, repeated some of the sights she had seen during the
recess and noon hours, and also some of the conversation she had heard
among the children. The mother, being horrified at the child's
revelations and knowing the child must have some foundation for her
stories, told a friend about it. This woman told some of her friends who
were the mothers of the children the little girl had named to her
mother. Of course, the children were questioned and denied all knowledge
of things the child had mentioned. The mothers were indignant that their
children should be accused of anything like that. They unquestionably
believed the denial, making no effort to find out if there might be any
truth in the report. That mother and her