588 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



sively in the boy's mind when his father speaks to him. In large 

 sections of the community the boys and girls leave the home in 

 early adolescence. The family is not the social unit it once was; 

 and while we do not wish to acquiesce in this as a necessity, we have 

 to admit it as a present fact. Furthermore, those children who most 

 need guidance, because of inborn predisposition to go wrong, are 

 the least likely to get help from their parents. It all comes to this, 

 that in many cases, if not in most, information regarding the most 

 important function in life is picked up haphazard, often in an inac- 

 curate and discoloured form, often from sexually precocious or per- 

 verted acquaintances. Is it not quite clear that instruction by 

 parents requires to be supplemented? 



It will probably be admitted by all that every college should have 

 its voluntary course of instruction in bodily and mental hygiene, 

 in the art of life, in genetics and eugenics, and that every college 

 should hav^e its wisely chosen confidential physician who would 

 save the nation untold wastage, who would save in the year the 

 salary of his lifetime. In many cases, however, advice at college 

 age comes late, not too late perhaps, but unfortunately late. Can 

 nothing be done earlier ? 



Instruction in regard to the facts of sex has been tried in a con- 

 siderable number of schools in America, Germany, Hungary, 

 Switzerland, and Finland, and in a very few cases in Britain. It 

 remains, howev'er, in an experimental stage. 



The instruction given deals with (i) the elementary physiology 

 of sex and reproduction— how life is continued; (2) the significance 

 and the dangers of adolescence ; (3) hygienic aids to self-control and 

 clean-mindedness, the ideal of physical fitness, and the racial 

 significance of sex. 



The instruction is sometimes given quite by itself, to which most 

 educationists object, and sometimes linked on to nature-study and 

 biology, human physiology, domestic science, home-making studies, 

 hygiene, economics, and social problems. 



The instruction is given by the headmaster or headmistress, or 

 by the class teacher, or by the teacher of biology, physiology, etc., 

 or by the school physician, or by means of books and pamphlets. 

 But there is great diversity of opinion in regard to the best method. 



But we must not hurry on too quickly. There is a previous 

 question, whether there should be in school any school-instruction 

 whatsoever bearing on sex and reproduction. Many wise people 

 think that there should be none, and for the following reasons: 



(a) It is pointed out that sex, which is the physical basis of one 

 of the noblest and most personal expressions of the human spirit, 

 is a very delicate matter. It is like religion; if you speak about it 

 unwisely, you may do much more harm than good. To which it may 

 be answered that if saying nothing were working well, we should 



