Self Knowledge and Guide to Sex Instruction: Vital Facts of Life for All AgesShannon, Thomas W. (Thomas Washington)
Philosophy
Self Knowledge and Guide to Sex Instruction: Vital Facts of Life for All Ages
Shannon, Thomas W. (Thomas Washington)
Sex; Sexual health
=How to introduce each new story.=--I would introduce each new story by
reviewing the story of the plants and flowers. There are at least three
reasons for this. (1) You can go into all the details of reproduction in
the flower without danger of awakening the sex consciousness of the
child. (2) It saves going into the detail when you have come to the
higher animals and man. The child’s mind usually comprehends more than
we give it credit for. If he understands the details of reproduction in
the flower, his innocent fancy will fill in the details when he hears
the other stories. (3) If he has been so unfortunate as to fall in with
bad company at any time and his mind has been tainted with their
stories, there is no means you can use in ridding his mind of impurity,
quite so effectively, as by telling him the story of life in the flower.
=Teaching these truths in the public schools.=--The violation of the laws
of sex is the chief cause of physical, mental and moral degeneracy. The
degenerate classes are increasing at an appalling rate. Correct
sex-instruction in childhood is the most important and effective step in
the solution of this problem. There is a growing conviction among the
students of sociology that sex-hygiene should be taught in the public
schools. There are some teachers in all departments of school work, who,
in morals at least, are not fitted for this delicate work. At present,
an extremely few have the educational qualification for this delicate
work. When teachers are required to take a course of training in these
subjects, there will still be but few who are possessed of the natural
talent for effectively and wisely presenting these subjects to children
of the different grades.
Already colleges and universities and even a few high schools have begun
to teach sex hygiene in a limited scientific way. This work will first
be introduced into the high school work and later, gradually be
introduced into the lower grades. Definite instruction will not be
given, for many years at least, and possibly never, to boys under eight,
and girls under ten or eleven. If this statement is true, it will be
seen that the schools will have left the first and most important part
of this training to be done in the home. The teaching of morals in the
public school can never be substituted for the teaching of morals in the
home. The present great awakening on these subjects will shortly result
in three-fourths of the parents teaching these truths in their homes.
Since one-fourth of the children do not get any moral instruction in the
home and they do not go to Sunday school or church, the public school is
the only place where they can be given moral training for citizenship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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