590 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



These are a few of the considerations which lead some who have 

 given careful attention to the subject to think that there should be 

 some sex-instruction in schools. And in working towards something 

 practicable, it may be of serx-ice to point out that the instruction 

 will need to be varied with reference to different sections of the 

 community, and with reference to the differences between girls and 

 boys. 



Taking the first point, one does not, of course, imagine that the 

 dangers and difficulties involved in sex are restricted to particular 

 sections of the community. They are universal — we are all tarred 

 with the same brush — but they alter with altered circumstances — 

 from the one-roomed house to the unnatural detachment from 

 home involved in the residential public school. The counsels given 

 by the wise headmaster or the wise school physician would be very 

 different in different cases. It must be remembered, too, that habits 

 are formed in the concrete, by habitually doing or not doing some- 

 thing, and that if the school conditions have tended to the estab- 

 lishment of a vicious habit of word, or thought, or deed, there is 

 not much hopefulness in the school discipline saying "don't". This 

 leads one to make the obvious remark that the problems of sexual 

 vice and the like cannot be dealt with, either theoretically or 

 practically, by themselves. They are wrapped up with problems of 

 housing, occupation, wages, interests, use of leisure hours, educa- 

 tion, civics, and what not. Everyone knows the dismal power of 

 the economic and occupational factor in keeping up the traffic in 

 immorality. 



What seems the practicable line of advance is to think out a 

 graduated series of educational methods, leaving it to the discretion 

 of the teacher to decide how far along the series it may be profitable 

 to go. 



(a) Much may be done in the nurture of adolescence by develop- 

 ing external preoccupations and interests and real responsibilities; 

 by opening paths of legitimate excitement (in work and play for 

 both boys and girls, in art and wholesome adventure, in dramatic 

 and musical exercise) ; and by discipline in enduring hardness 

 (e.g. in scouting, in boys' brigades, in girls' guildries, in climbing and 

 swimming and exploring). 



(6) The highest value is to be attached to all forms of education 

 (religious, ethical, and imaginative) which fill the mind with noble 

 examples, which exalt the conception of human love by associating 

 it with the chivalrous, the }X)ctic, and the romantic, and which set 

 a premium on self-control, courtesy, mutual respect, and healthy- 

 mindedness. 



(c) While respecting the natural instinct of reserve in regard to 

 sex questions, something might be done to suggest that the deep 

 reason for mystery is because sex is sacred, not because it is 



