Sex-education: A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its relation to human lifeBigelow, Maurice A. (Maurice Alpheus)
Science
Sex-education: A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its relation to human life
Bigelow, Maurice A. (Maurice Alpheus)
Sex instruction
It is a fact that many young people who refuse to be interested in
religious literature may be influenced for sexual purity by the
emotional appeal of some general literature. This is especially true of
romantic poetry. I believe that the high "idealism" of love inspired by
Tennyson's "The Princess" and "Idylls of the King," by Longfellow's
"Evangeline" and "The Hanging of the Crane," by some of Shakespeare's
plays, and by other great poetry with similar themes has had and will
continue to have greater influence on the attitude and ethics of many
young people than all the formal sex-teaching that can be organized.
Hence, I believe that teachers of literature should be led to take
interest in the larger sex-education to the end that by selection and
interpretation of great masterpieces they may contribute in a valuable
way to the solution of some of the problems that have their center in
the deeper nature of sex.
[Sidenote: Importance of interpretation.]
Interpretation of literature by teachers is very important for the
purposes of sex-education of young people. As an example, take
Tennyson's "Idylls of the King," whose movement centers in the life
problems that turn around love. The average reader is likely to miss
the great lessons if the poem is not critically interpreted either by
living teachers or by such critical essays as those by Henry van Dyke
in his "Poetry of Tennyson" and Newell Dwight Hillis in his "Great
Books as Life-Teachers." Without interpretation "The Idylls" may teach
false as well as true lessons of life. Some of the Knights of the Round
Table (Galahad and Percivale) were worthy followers of the good and
pure King Arthur, and some of them (like Lancelot and Tristram and
Merlin) proved unable to live up to the vow of chastity to which Arthur
swore all his knights. And on the part of the ladies of Arthur's court,
there was purity and devotion and true womanhood in Elaine and Enid,
while Guinevere and Ettarre and Vivien were unchaste and faithless. In
fact, all phases of the relations of men and women in the struggles and
perplexities of life are pictured; and therefore it is important that a
well-trained teacher should be the guide and interpreter if the "Idylls
of the King" are to be read with the idea of understanding their true
bearings on life, which includes their contribution to the larger
sex-education.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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