76 THE WAY LIFE BEGINS 



issues, not to trust to the exemptions of innocence, not to 

 feel that somehow the young person will stumble through as 

 others have, but to take the full measure of the situation. 

 Equip the contestant with a full knowledge of the enemy. 

 The conflict, however, is not to resolve itself into one of 

 Puritan against Satan, but rather into one of disciplining 

 and turning to useful service a power that, unregulated, may 

 wreck life. 



The Girl, as well as the Boy, Should Understand 

 the Biological Meaning of Sex 



The male, as we have had occasion to see, has by slow 

 process of selection, assumed the active part in propagation. 

 This fact makes the problem of the boy much more difficult 

 of solution than that of the girl. The disproportion in the 

 intensity of the impulse in the boy and the girl should not, 

 however, be taken to mean that the girl is less in need of 

 enlightenment and preparation. On the contrary, her igno- 

 rance of the manner in which sex expresses itself in the man 

 as contrasted with the woman, is responsible, both before and 

 after marriage, for much of the disharmony, disillusionment, 

 perhaps pain and misery of life. After marriage very serious 

 adjustments and adaptations of two highly different natures, 

 remain to be made, not once but constantly. It is a time 

 when sympathy, even love itself, is not enough. With these 

 qualities must go good insight and an understanding of the 

 meaning and purpose of sex. 



The Justification for Sex Education 



The revelations of the inner life of the soul in the modern 

 psychological laboratory show how great has been the havoc 

 of mind caused by the inability of the growing person to 

 bring about an equilibrium between the torrent of impulse 

 within and the many outward barriers which civilization 

 has raised against what it considers improper expressions of 

 sex. The youth of savages and of the native races experience 

 no such crisis, since the racial welfare usually demands all 

 of the procreative resources of these people. But modern 



