Rural Problems of TodayGroves, Ernest R. (Ernest Rutherford)
Science
Rural Problems of Today
Groves, Ernest R. (Ernest Rutherford)
Rural conditions; Social problems
Parents also need training if they are to make successful use of the
opportunities placed in their hands. This training needs especially to
give the parents a right point of view respecting sex and
sex-instruction. At present there is a powerful taboo in most country
places regarding any constructive attempt to give helpful sex
information, although, as a matter of practice, conversation often
gravitates toward sex in a most unwholesome fashion. The taboo is fixed
for the most part upon any public recognition of sex, while privately,
interest in matters of sex is taken for granted. We have gossip and
scandal, but little right-minded attention to sexual knowledge. This
condition must change before many families will be fit to win the full
confidence of the children and to influence them toward a high-minded
outlook upon life.
We must appreciate the very valuable efforts that are already being put
forth to make the rural homes more efficient with reference to
sanitation, hygiene, and proper food. This instruction promises to
decrease much human suffering, discontent, and poverty. In some
respects such constructive service is more needed in the country than in
the city. Certainly, good results are already appearing as a result of
the efforts that institutions and people interested in the country have
put forth.
The rural family must be made to realize the consequential character of
childhood experience. The alienist especially has demonstrated the
significant influence of childhood upon adult motives and conduct.
Recent studies of human conduct have greatly magnified the importance of
early experience and have disclosed how often it is the first cause of
morbid thinking and anti-social actions. The conclusion is not to be
doubted--a still greater effort must be made to conserve human character
by a wiser control of the influences of childhood. One may discover for
himself how interested conscientious parents are in detailed
illustrations of childhood influence upon adult life and how impressed
they are with the seriousness of such facts. Rural families must be
taught more generally this impressive contribution of modern science.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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