Sex-education Part 16

X

CRITICISMS OF s.e.x-EDUCATION

In the preceding lectures we have considered the arguments for s.e.x-instruction. It will now be helpful to review some of the writings of those who oppose or at least point out the defects of the commonly accepted plan of s.e.x-instruction. None of those writers whom I shall quote is known to be absolutely opposed to all s.e.x-instruction, but some of them would limit the instruction so much that there would be little hope of the general movement having an important influence.

-- 44. _A Plea for Reticence Concerning s.e.x_

[Sidenote: Agnes Repplier.]

Miss Agnes Repplier, the distinguished essayist, discusses in the _Atlantic Monthly_ (March, 1914) the plain speech on s.e.x topics that are before the public to-day. While she holds no brief for "the conspiracy of silence," which she admits was "a menace in its day," she maintains that "the breaking of silence need not imply the opening of the flood-gates of speech." She goes on to say:

[Sidenote: Present frankness.]

"It was never meant by those who first cautiously advised a clearer understanding of s.e.xual relations and hygienic rules that everybody should chatter freely respecting these grave issues; that teachers, lecturers, novelists, story-writers, militants, dramatists, social workers, and magazine editors should copiously impart all they know, or a.s.sume they know, to the world. The lack of restraint, the lack of balance, the lack of soberness and common sense were never more apparent than in the obsession of s.e.x which has set us all ababbling about matters once excluded from the amenities of conversation.

"Knowledge is the cry. Crude, undigested knowledge, without limit and without reserve. Give it to boys, give it to girls, give it to children. No other force is taken account of by the visionaries who--in defiance, or in ignorance of history--believe that evil understood is evil conquered.

"We hear too much about the thirst for knowledge from people keen to quench it. Dr. Edward L. Keyes, president of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, advocates the teaching of s.e.x-hygiene to children, because he thinks that it is the kind of information that children are eagerly seeking. 'What is this topic,' he asks, 'that all these little ones are questioning over, mulling over, fidgeting over, worrying over? Ask your own memories.'

[Sidenote: One child's life.]

"I do ask my memory in vain for the answer Dr. Keyes antic.i.p.ates.

A child's life is so full, and everything that enters it seems of supreme importance. I fidgeted over my hair which would not curl.

I worried over my examples which never came out right. I mulled (though unacquainted with the word) over every piece of sewing put into my incapable fingers, which could not be trained to hold a needle. I imagined I was stolen by brigands, and became--by virtue and intelligence--spouse of a patriotic outlaw in a frontierless land. I asked artless questions which brought me into discredit with my teachers, as, for example, who 'ma.s.sacred' St.

Bartholomew. But vital facts, the great laws of propagation, were matters of but casual concern crowded out of my life and out of my companions' lives (in a convent boarding-school) by the more stirring happenings of every day. How could we fidget over obstetrics when we were learning to skate, and our very dreams were a medley of ice and b.u.mps? How could we worry over 'natural laws' in the face of a tyrannical interdict which lessened our chances of breaking our necks by forbidding us to coast down a hill covered with trees? The children to be pitied, the children whose minds become infected with unwholesome curiosity are those who lack cheerful recreation, religious teaching, and the fine corrective of work. A playground or a swimming pool will do more to keep them mentally and morally sound than scores of lectures on s.e.x-hygiene.

[Sidenote: Personal teaching approved.]

"The world is wide, and a great deal is happening in it. I do not plead for ignorance, but for the gradual and harmonious broadening of the field of knowledge, and for a more careful consideration of ways and means. There are subjects which may be taught in cla.s.s, and subjects which commend themselves to individual teaching.

There are topics which admit of _plein-air_ handling, and topics which civilized man, as apart from his artless brother of the jungles, has veiled with reticence. There are truths which may be, and should be, privately imparted by a father, a mother, family doctor, or an experienced teacher; but which young people cannot advantageously acquire from the platform, the stage, the moving picture gallery, the novel or the ubiquitous monthly magazine."

There is much in Miss Repplier's paragraphs which will win hearty approval from those who have come to believe, as advocated throughout this series of lectures, in conservative teaching of s.e.x-hygiene and a larger outlook for s.e.x-education.

[Sidenote: Current frankness not due to s.e.x-education.]

No doubt there has been too great a loss of a certain kind of reticence and a subst.i.tution of crude frankness, but it has not been caused by the s.e.x-education movement. On the contrary, there are two evident sources of the plain speech of which Miss Repplier and others have complained: First, the commercializing of s.e.x by novelists, dramatists, theater managers, and publishers--many of whom are reaping a golden harvest and few of whom have any sincere interest in promulgating s.e.xual information to any end except their own pocketbooks. Second, the development of the feminist movement which has its deepest foundation in the age-old s.e.xual misunderstandings of women by men, and which has led on and on into social and political complications of gravest significance. The very nature of the feminist revolt from masculine domination made plain speaking on s.e.x matters inevitable.

[Sidenote: Reaction against sensational frankness.]

Neither of these sources of plain speech need give us cause for alarm, for a great reaction is already coming. The sensationalism of s.e.xual revelations has had its day, and the intelligent public is recovering its balance. A lurid novel or play resembling "Damaged Goods" or "The House of Bondage" or certain vice-commission reports would not now be accepted by some prominent publishers who recently would not have hesitated to seize a first-cla.s.s commercial opportunity in this line.

The fact is that s.e.xual sensationalism has ceased to pay because the intelligent public knows the main facts and has become disgusted with crude frankness that amounts to lasciviousness. On the side of feminism there is hope in the widespread disgust with Cristabel Pankhurst's "Plain Facts on a Great Evil" as compared with the very general approval of Louise Creighton's polished masterpiece, "The Social Evil and How to Fight It." This represents exactly the present att.i.tude of numerous men and women who calmly discuss together the great problems of life fearlessly and without any elements of lasciviousness such as some people seem to think is necessarily a.s.sociated with either uns.e.xual or bis.e.xual discussion of s.e.x problems.

[Sidenote: Not a typical case.]

Miss Repplier's description of her own lack of youthful interest in things s.e.xual is of value simply as applied to a limited number of extra-protected girls. Her experience teaches us nothing regarding boys or even girls under average conditions. We know beyond any doubt that average children in or near adolescence do seek the kind of information that Miss Repplier denies having thought about. It is not "pressed relentlessly upon their attention" by teachers, but by instinct and by environment. Playground and swimming pools and religious influence and work are all helpful in our dealings with young people, but all together they are inadequate without some information concerning s.e.x.

[Sidenote: Conclusion.]

Finally, Miss Repplier, like so many other critics of s.e.x-instruction, has in mind only the physical consequences of wrong-doing. Here again is the influence of the pioneer s.e.x-hygiene. However, she pleads for the "gradual and harmonious broadening of the field of knowledge and for a more careful consideration of ways and means" for s.e.x-instruction. This makes us believe that she will favor the larger s.e.x-education which gives a place to "the cheerful recreation, the religious teaching, the childish virtues, the youthful virtues, the wholesome preoccupation," as well as essential knowledge of physical facts; and all as factors in preparing young people consciously and unconsciously to face the inevitable problems of s.e.x. On the whole, we must regard Miss Repplier's discussion as a helpful contribution to the saner aspects of s.e.x-education.

-- 45. _A Plea for Religious Approach to s.e.x-instruction_

[Sidenote: Cosmo Hamilton.]

Another prominent author who does not agree with the current tendencies of s.e.x-instruction is Cosmo Hamilton in his little book ent.i.tled "A Plea for the Younger Generation" (Doran Co.). He agrees with the s.e.x-education writers that children should be instructed early, and as far as possible by their parents; but he wholly disagrees with the method of biological introduction. He would have parents go straight to the heart of the matter and tell the child, as simply and truly as can be, just how he came into the world. And he would fill the teaching with reverence by using as an ill.u.s.tration the birth of the babe of Bethlehem. Referring to those who in recent years have been working for a scientific introduction to s.e.x-education, Mr. Hamilton says:

[Sidenote: Religious appeal.]

"I think that these professors and scientists are wasting their time, and I have written this small volume not only in order to make a plea for the younger generation as to the way in which they shall be taught s.e.x truths, but also in order, if possible, to prove to the advanced thinkers of the day that it is not old-fashioned to beg that G.o.d may be put back into the lives of His children, but a thing of urgent and vital importance. Without faith the new generation is like a city built on sand. Without the discipline and the inspiration of G.o.d the young boys and girls who will all too soon be standing in our shoes will go through life with hungry souls, with nothing to live up to, and very little to live for."

[Sidenote: Many not reached by religious appeal.]

All this is very good so far as it appeals to the religious type of mind, but Mr. Hamilton seems to forget that vast numbers of people cannot be approached from this point of view. How can the ill.u.s.tration of the Christ-child help those who do not accept certain orthodox religious beliefs?

-- 46. _The Conflict between s.e.x-hygiene and s.e.x-ethics_

[Sidenote: Richard Cabot.]

It has been said in an earlier lecture that several writers have declared that s.e.x-ethics and s.e.x-hygiene are essentially conflicting and should not be a.s.sociated in teaching; that is to say, that hygienic facts should not be taught with the hope of improving morals. Most prominent of those who have declared that hygienic and moral teaching should be dissociated is Dr. Richard C. Cabot, of Boston. I shall give in this lecture attention to his writings because they have tended to introduce confusion by critical attention to certain weak details and unessentials in the original suggestions for s.e.x-education, and by wrongly a.s.suming that the original "s.e.x-hygiene" was aimed at improved morals, whereas it was aimed directly at health. In a paper ent.i.tled "Consecration of the Affections (often misnamed 's.e.x-hygiene')," read at the fifth (1911) Congress of the American School Hygiene a.s.sociation, Dr. Cabot attacked the kind of s.e.x-instruction that is limited to s.e.x-hygiene. He has later returned to the attack on many occasions. I shall quote a number of his paragraphs and follow each with a discussion of its contents.

[Sidenote: Hygiene and conduct.]

(1) "The straight, right action in matters of human affection has nothing to do with hygiene. For hygiene has no words to proclaim as to why you and I should behave ourselves. Hygiene has the right and the duty to make clear the perverted and the diseased consequences of certain errors. But these consequences are far from constant.... Let us disabuse our minds, then, of the idea that there are always bad physical consequences of mistake, error, or sin in this [s.e.x] field, and that those consequences are reasons for behaving ourselves. But even if there were such consequences, I think it even more mischievous for us to preach a morality based upon them."

That hygienic knowledge makes many people control their s.e.xual selves is beyond dispute. Because the consequences of s.e.xual error are far from constant is a weak argument against pointing out possible results.

The consequences from pistols are far from constant, and yet I have no doubt that Dr. Cabot would teach small boys the danger of shooting themselves and other people.

[Sidenote: Hygiene and ethics for health.]

The last quoted sentence suggests Dr. Cabot's whole basis of contention against s.e.x-hygiene. He seems to have inferred from the earlier papers, especially those by Dr. Morrow, that the hygiene of s.e.x is to be taught as an approach to morality. On the contrary, the truth is that the aim of most of the first leaders in s.e.x-instruction was to teach hygiene and ethics primarily in order to improve health. Dr. Morrow and others believed that hygienic teaching would secondarily react on s.e.xual morality; but the original aim of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis was to limit the spread of venereal disease by sanitary, moral, and legal means. In other words, moral appeals were to aid in checking disease, and knowledge of disease was not claimed to improve morality, although such knowledge might react against immorality. It is this misunderstanding or overlooking of the real reasons for teaching concerning s.e.x health that seems to have led Dr. Cabot into apparent opposition to the general movement for s.e.x-instruction. One infers from all his lectures that he believes it good to teach hygiene for health, ethics for morality, and biology for science; but that these should not be correlated because to him they are unrelated. It seems to me that he has simply been misled by the overenthusiasm of some of the first writers on s.e.x-hygiene and by the widespread use of that limited term instead of s.e.x-education.

[Sidenote: Is s.e.x-hygiene immoral?]

(2) "Now I say that the preaching about s.e.x-hygiene that is going on in recent books and in the periodical press is immoral in its tendency. It is like saying, 'Don't lie, for if you do, you won't sleep at night, and insomnia is bad for the health.'"

If insomnia often follows lying, then it should be taught as _one_ reason why falsehoods should be avoided. This is not opposed to ethical teaching, for at the same time we can teach the other reasons for not telling lies. Likewise, s.e.x-hygiene offers certain reasons for conduct and may be supplemented by s.e.x-ethics.

[Sidenote: Information and morality.]

(3) "The attempts to consecrate affection and to safeguard morality by teaching in public or private schools what is called 's.e.x-hygiene' will, I believe, prove a failure. I have very little confidence in the restraining or inspiring value of information, as such. I have seen too much of its powerlessness in medical men and students. No one knows so much of the harm of morphine as the physicians do, yet there are more cases of morphine habit among physicians than among any less informed profession. It is, of course, easy to make young children familiar with the facts of maternity and birth. Compared to the ordinary methods of concealment and lying by parents to children about these matters this is doubtless an improvement, but it does almost nothing to meet the moral problems of s.e.x which come up later in the child's life. One may know all about maternity, without knowing anything of the difficulties and dangers of s.e.x. Many have thought that by thorough teaching of the physiology of reproduction in plants and animals we can antic.i.p.ate and to a considerable extent prevent the dangers and temptations referred to above."

It is not proposed "to consecrate affection" or "to safeguard morality"

by hygienic knowledge; but simply to protect health. Of course, information will not restrain everybody; but if physicians did not know the dangers of morphine many more would be victims of the drug. Dr.

Cabot overlooks the fact that physicians know how to use and obtain morphine, while other professional men do not. Teaching concerning maternity and birth will not directly meet the moral problems of s.e.x, but it will help develop an att.i.tude, "a consecration of the affections," that will guard against the dangers of s.e.x. Such teaching to children is only one of many steps in the scheme of s.e.x-education.

No responsible advocate of s.e.x-instruction claims that teaching children concerning the reproduction of animals and plants does antic.i.p.ate and prevent s.e.xual temptations; but it is a foundation for practical knowledge of human s.e.x problems. I have elsewhere referred to the effect of such studies on att.i.tude.