_At Home._—The best place for a child to learn the proper facts of sex is in the home. The right education at home is more than ever essential at present, since there is no attempt to teach such matters in the schools. But even when the schools have broadened to include this subject, it should be fully and adequately discussed at home. This education should begin as soon as the child manifests any curiosity on the subject. In general, a child is still very young when she asks, “Where did I come from?” The taboo-inhibited parent need not think that the child fully accepts the threadbare stork or rosebush story. The child may ask for fuller information, but more often, she merely remains silent. For several years, she may learn nothing to contradict this story. But, one day, through her reading or her companions, truth or near-truth will come to her. It will have two deep effects upon her young mind. First, it will start that hideous belief that there is something wrong with sex, something evil about it, that prompted her parents to hide it under a foolish legend. All right, that is what we want, the parent may answer. But the second effect is such that no parent can desire. It gives the child her first glimpse of deception, and breaks her faith in her parents. Remember, that all of the child’s early training has been to convince her that she must always tell the truth. She is punished for lies and deceptions. Then, she suddenly discovers that these parents, who taught her to speak the truth, have lied to her. She does not stop to reason why, she only sees the fact. And a very disillusioning fact it is. Very few parents realize that the art of lying is taught by themselves while they are trying to instil truth as a virtue into the young mind. Example is more powerful than words, or even punishment. The child learns that the parents teach truth, then lie themselves. If the parents are strict, and, by punishment, prevent the child from deception during its childhood, the lesson she learns is only that force has the right of deception. She comes to the conclusion that the elders can do as they wish, and need not be honorable, and the lesson lingers. How much better is the simple truth. Certainly no one advocates telling a child all of the scientific facts that govern sex. But when the child asks, tell her simply the truth, in a plain sweet manner. Tell her that she was carried close under her mother’s heart, until she was big enough to come out into the world. From this simple beginning, the story can be filled in as the child’s mind grows old enough to understand. This requires, first, proper knowledge on the part of the parent. It is the duty of every woman who is a mother or who expects to become one, to learn all of the facts about sex. This knowledge will have a twofold value. It will assist in her own life, and will equip her properly to answer her daughter’s questions.