The Social Emergency: Studies in Sex Hygiene and Morals
Science
The Social Emergency: Studies in Sex Hygiene and Morals
Sex instruction
The next information and guidance needed by our boys and girls concerns
the influence of sex upon their own development. The objection is
continually raised that it is not well for little children to have sex
thoughts emphasized in their minds. But at present no boy or girl grows up
and plays among other children, or hears talk on the streets, or goes to
work in factory or store, without hearing these facts emphasized day by
day, emphasized unhealthily and distorted shamefully. We propose simply to
have the emphasis shifted and lightened for it will be lightened if the
facts are given truly and in right relations. Boys and girls should learn,
at the same time they are learning facts of nutrition, excretion,
respiration, and circulation of the blood, those facts regarding sex which
are most important for healthy growth of mind and body. They should know
that the organs of reproduction have a definite relation to the natural
and healthful development of the full powers of their bodies in future
years; that internal secretions of these organs coming into the blood help
to build up bones and muscles, help to make their nerve fibers active and
vigorous, help to form their brains, and help to equip them for manly
strength and womanly grace in the years that are to come. These are very
simple matters. These facts of sex can be conveyed by just a few sentences
of clear, considerate, wise information at the right time, in relation to
the other facts of bodily development.
Considering now the period of puberty, we find additional needs, for no
boy or girl reaches puberty, under ordinary conditions, without knowing
that it brings the possibility of fatherhood and motherhood, brings the
possibility of that process that we call fertilization, in which the life
of plants and animals begins. The boy or girl who reaches this age has a
right to know what fertilization means, and what fertilization implies;
has a right to the simple biological facts which will tell him the
relation between the life of the parents and the life of the child, the
mysterious relation in body and mind that we call heredity. The beginning
of the socializing of sex energy and sex power depends upon recognition of
the fact that this power that develops in the young man and young woman at
puberty is not to be used for selfish gratification, is not primarily a
source of pleasure, but has a very direct relation to the health,
intelligence, and happiness of others. This relation may be enforced by a
simple study of succeeding generations of flowers and the ways in which
forms, colors, and sizes originate and are handed down from generation to
generation in wonderful variety. Or it may be illustrated from an
observation of the beginnings of sex in infusoria; how tiny animals in
stagnant water grow to full size and each divides simply into two to form
a new generation; how this simple asexual process continuing for several
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