EDUCATION AND THE FUTURE OF THE RACE 313 



depends on the abuse, and not on the right use of 

 these functions. And it is also wise to make it clear 

 that the tendency to reticence in regard to all that 

 concerns sex springs from the intensely personal char- 

 acter of sexual experiences, and in this respect is not 

 different from reticence in regard to other intense 

 emotional experiences. 



Whatever there may be of truth and justice in 

 these recommendations, they tend to break down in 

 practice on account of the difficulties in carrying them 

 out. For it may be justly asked, Where are the 

 parents to carry out this kind of education ? Aside 

 from a few exceptionally cultivated and intelligent 

 mothers and fathers, there are at present almost no 

 adults who have had the necessary training to give 

 them the right point of view for a task that calls for 

 the knowledge, refinement, tact, and personal insight 

 and sympathy with child life which alone can render 

 them competent for this extremely difficult and 

 trying type of human service. The future must 

 provide such parents in increasing numbers, until 

 they become a telling factor in the elevation of the 

 race. But the education of adolescent children in 

 the physiology of sex is only one part of the duty of 

 parents and teachers in respect to education based 

 on the needs of the instinct of race preservation. 

 This wider racial education necessitates, in a measure, 

 a training of intellect, but it is in an equal degree 

 dependent upon a development of the emotional side 

 of human nature. The fundamental thing about 



