they may be connected with a definite scheme for sex-instruction.

Sec. 17. _The Aims as the Basis of Organized Sex-instruction_

I have placed first the aim to develop a serious and respectful
attitude toward sex and reproduction because at the root of the sexual
problems of our times is the prevailing vulgar interpretation of sex
and life discussed in a preceding lecture (Sec. 11).

[Sidenote: Biology and attitude.]

Recognizing the great importance of attitude, how may it be influenced
by instruction in home or school? The most widely accepted answer is
that the best beginning may be made through study of biology (including
botany, zoology, and physiology) and through nature-study and hygiene
taught on a biologic basis. No other method of introduction to
sex-instruction is so natural and so likely to lead to a serious,
scientific, and open-minded attitude concerning sex. In fact, a large
part of the study of reproduction of plants and animals in courses of
biology in schools and colleges has its value chiefly in the
overwhelming evidence that problems of sex and reproduction are natural
and dignified aspects of life. Such biological study determines
attitude in no small degree. This is the chief justification for study
of the reproductive processes in a series of animals and plants
representing stages between the complex development of the highest
animals which parallel human life and the lowest forms which the
microscope reveals. In all my classes of twenty years in high school
and college I have noted a marked development of serious, scientific,
and open-minded attitude in response to natural and frank presentation
of animal and plant life-histories. Moreover, I have many times
requested large groups of students to write freely and frankly
concerning the influence of biological courses upon their own attitude;
and their papers have strongly supported my observation that study of
animal and plant life-histories exerts a profound influence upon the
attitude of students towards the human problems of sex and
reproduction. If I were stating a defense for biology as one of three
or four essential science courses for general education, I should place
the greatest emphasis upon the study of animals and plants as a
foundation for sex-instruction. Certain critics would reply that all
the biological facts that are actually used in the direct human
application of sex-instruction could be taught in a few lectures
withou