Inasmuch as the time to begin to teach children is while they are 

 very young, this careful selection of the parents of their pets is of 

 vital importance and leads to many interesting discussions with 

 regard to eugenics, reproduction and sex hygiene. 



The knowledge that the child gets about animal life should be 

 accurate and scientific. If the "life history" of an animal is pre- 

 sented to a child — as it ordinarily is — with reproduction entirely 

 omitted, it is not only a lost opportunity to give the child in a 

 natural way the information which he may otherwise acquire in a 

 twisted way, but it is an actual distortion of fact. It is essentially 

 an unscientific point of view to expurgate your material for ulterior 

 purposes. This does not mean that reproduction should be stressed. 

 It should not. It should merely be treated honestly as a part of the 

 situation when it really is a part. It thereby becomes related to 

 something understandable and ceases to have the glamor of mys- 

 tery. The children's own questions and attitudes are the best guide 

 in this matter. This teaching when young, prepares the children 

 for a better understanding and respect for the great surge of the 

 creative instinct which comes to them later. 



These discussions arise as an inherent part of the study of animals. 

 They create no undue interest and are very normal; they simply fall 

 into their rightful place. 



In connection with this animal work. Dr. Hornaday, the director 

 of the Bronx Zoological Garden, loans animals to supplement our 

 school study, and animals are chosen which are either related to our 

 residents or which are a strong contrast. The immediate result is 

 that the children want to go out of the school and to other parts of 

 the city to study the animal life they find. 



The Museum of Natural History loans mounted animals (cousins 

 of pets) which are studied with great care and with much interest 

 after the children have become familiar with the live animals. 

 Whenever young children are given their freedom, though wonder- 

 fully mounted animals are at their disposal, they crowd around one 

 little moving animal and desert the mounted specimen altogether. 



Laura B. Garrett 



New York, March 191 7 



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