164 SEX 



It is a fact that there are teachers both 

 men and women who at present give sex- 

 education consummately well, and to whom 

 the pupils express lasting gratitude. It is 

 obvious, of course, that sex-instruction may 

 be given blunderingly, just as religious 

 instruction may be given profanely, but 

 teachers are not falling off in efficiency or 

 goodwill. 



MODES OF INSTRUCTION. What forms 

 should the sex-education take? It will need 

 to be varied with reference to different 

 sections of the community, and with reference 

 to the difference between boys and girls. 

 The problems are indeed universal, but the 

 counsels given must be adapted to different 

 conditions and possibilities. We cannot think 

 for a moment of anything like a doctrinaire 

 scheme of instruction, coercively imposed 

 from without. Not only because this means 

 fixing what should be left elastic, and saying 

 farewell to spontaneity and enthusiasm, but 

 because it must be confessed that we have not 

 sufficiently consulted the child. If we are 

 ultimately to succeed we must first be humble 

 enough and scientific enough to try to find 

 out patiently and sympathetically what the 

 person most concerned thinks about all this. 

 This inquiry has begun, but it has not gone far. 



What seems practicable is to ask that 

 something should be done along 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. We therefore submit a tentative gradu- 

 ated series. 





