Sex-education Part 18

Ex-President Taft has expressed his views against the s.e.x-education movement. The newspapers quote as follows from an address delivered in Philadelphia in 1914:

"There is another danger in our educational influences and environment. I refer to the spread of lubricity in literature, on the stage and indirectly in education, under the plea that vice may be avoided by teaching the awful consequences. By dwelling on its details and explaining its penalties, s.e.xual subjects are obtruded into discussion between the s.e.xes, lectures are delivered on them, textbooks are written, and former restraints of modesty are abandoned.

[Sidenote: Mr. Taft's alarm.]

"The pursuit of education in s.e.x-hygiene is full of danger if carried on in general public schools. The sharp, pointed and summary advice of mothers to daughters, of fathers to sons, of a medical professor to students in a college upon such a subject is, of course, wise, but any benefit that may be derived from frightening students by dwelling upon the details of the dreadful punishment of vice is too often offset by awakening a curiosity and interest that might not be developed so early and is likely to set the thoughts of those whose benefit is at stake in a direction that will neither elevate their conversations with their fellows nor make more clean their mental habit.

"I deny that the so-called prudishness and the avoidance of nasty subjects in the last generation has ever blinded any substantial number of girls or boys to the wickedness of vice or made them easier victims of temptations."

[Sidenote: Evident misunderstanding.]

The above requires little comment, for its misunderstandings are obvious to one who has followed the s.e.x-education movement. Clearly Mr.

Taft has been impressed by the social-hygiene side of the problems and does not realize the existence of a larger outlook for s.e.x-education.

Like so many other writers who seem to know little concerning the s.e.xual life of children, especially of boys, Mr. Taft fears "the awakening of curiosity and interest"! This, of course, depends upon the facts taught and the age of the learner, but it hardly applies to children in or near adolescence who are taught along the lines suggested by the committee of the American Federation for s.e.x-Hygiene (1913). The last paragraph quoted from Mr. Taft will be denied completely by all who are familiar with the problems of adolescent education. To say the least, it is unfortunate that a man prominent in law and statesmanship should have lent the weight of his name to such superficial conclusions that are so obviously based on exceedingly limited information regarding both the established facts of s.e.x and the most approved methods of s.e.x-instruction.

-- 49. _Conclusions from the Criticisms of s.e.x-education_

I have selected for discussion the criticisms of several of the most prominent people who have expressed opposition to the s.e.x-education movement. I think that all the important lines of arguments against the movement are represented in the extracts that I have quoted. We have seen that all of the criticisms have decidedly vulnerable points. Most of them refer to the discarded s.e.x-hygiene of ten years ago; but some of them prove that the authors are quite ignorant of the s.e.x problems that must be faced by numerous young people.

[Sidenote: Criticisms important.]

With the hope of locating the weaknesses of s.e.x-education, I have for years examined carefully every criticism published, and it seems to me thoroughly scientific to conclude that all the important criticisms have not harmed the essentials of the s.e.x-education movement; but, on the contrary, have been helpful in forcing reconstruction. In fact, the present-day conception of the larger s.e.x-education must be credited to the severe critics more than to the friends of the original narrow movement for reducing venereal disease by hygienic instruction.

XI

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE OF THE s.e.x-EDUCATION MOVEMENT

-- 50. _The American Movement_

[Sidenote: Dr. Morrow leader in America.]

In America the movement for s.e.x-education began with the organization of the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis on February 9, 1905, under the leadership of Dr. Prince A. Morrow. It is true that before this time there were various local and sporadic attempts at instruction concerning s.e.xual processes, but such teaching was chiefly personal and there was no concerted movement looking towards making s.e.x-instruction an integral part of general education. In 1892, thirteen years before the organization of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, a group of members of the National Education a.s.sociation considered briefly the importance of instructing young people. However, this meeting was of ephemeral significance and had no genetic relation to the present-day movement. Other early interest in s.e.x-instruction is indicated in Professor Earl Barnes's bibliography which was published in his "Studies in Education," Vol. I, p. 301, 1897.

The educational activities, especially the publications of the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, soon attracted the serious attention of numerous physicians, ministers, and educators in various parts of the United States; and about twenty other societies for study and improvement of the s.e.x problems were organized within a few years after the original society.

[Sidenote: Original aim for sanitary ends.]

The s.e.x-education movement both in Europe and America had its origin as an attempt to check the spread of the venereal or social diseases. The idea that education should work for s.e.xual morality for its own sake and not simply for protection against venereal diseases has only recently begun to appear in the literature of s.e.x-education, and so far it seems to have made only a limited impression on many of those who have been active in the prophylactic campaign against social disease.

In fact, the tardy recognition of the moral aim of s.e.x-education makes it seem probable that very little interest would have been aroused in the movement if it had been organized on purely ethical grounds and without any reference to the sanitary problems of social diseases. To one who looks at s.e.xual morality as a question of right conduct which brings its own rewards, it is a shock to find so many thinking people who accept calmly the traditional views of the relation of the s.e.xes and seem to take no interest in the immorality of men except as it is likely to lead to venereal disease or to illegitimacy which demands forced marriage or monetary payments. The truth is that the civilized world at large is very far from a working code of s.e.xual morals which will be practiced because of promised rewards rather than because of probable punishments. It is natural, then, that the s.e.x-education movement should have started with a proclamation of physical punishments for immorality rather than an offer of ethical and psychical rewards for morality.

[Sidenote: Both sanitary and moral.]

However, the fact that s.e.x-education, under the name of "s.e.x-hygiene,"

was at first a sanitary propagandism need not interfere with the larger development of s.e.x-education. It now seems probable that before many years pa.s.s we shall learn how to make a satisfactory combination of both the sanitary and moral sides of s.e.x-education, and so it is best that the educational movement started on the foundation of the undisputed facts of sanitary science which have made a powerful impression on the people who do and who do not recognize a code of s.e.xual morals.

[Sidenote: Medical interest.]

The deep interest of the medical profession is directly responsible for the close a.s.sociation between the beginning of the s.e.x-education movement and the diseases of immorality. At the organization meeting of the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, Dr. Prince Morrow in the opening paragraph of his address said: "We have met for the purpose of discussing the wisdom and the expediency of forming a society of sanitary and moral prophylaxis. The object is to organize a social defense against a cla.s.s of diseases which are most injurious to the highest interests of human society." Thus, the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis started as an avowed enemy of the social diseases and so it has continued to the present. The very name of its official journal, _Social Diseases_,[19] indicated the central idea of the Society. Likewise, most of the local American societies for s.e.x-hygiene have names including such phrases as "social hygiene,"

"prevention of social diseases," "sanitary prophylaxis"; and only one, the Ma.s.sachusetts Society for s.e.x Education, has a name which does not directly suggest the medical problems of s.e.x.

[Sidenote: In Europe.]

In Europe, the s.e.x-instruction movement has been concerned chiefly with spreading information concerning the social diseases. In 1902 an international congress for consideration of the venereal diseases was held in Brussels, and this congress recommended that in all countries there should be organized sanitary, social, moral, and legal societies for the prophylaxis of these diseases. As a result of this recommendation, prophylactic societies were formed in France, Germany, Italy, Holland, the United States, and other countries. Of these, the German society for the prevention of venereal disease became the strongest, with over five thousand members and twenty branch societies.

[Sidenote: National societies.]

The fact that the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis was organized by a group of people in New York City tended from the beginning to make it a local society. While for several years it took the lead in s.e.x-hygiene and enrolled members residing in many parts of the United States, it was never a national organization. In recent years the word "American" has been omitted from its name, and its work has been limited to New York City and vicinity.[20] Many independent state and city societies were organized within a few years after the original s.e.x-hygiene society in New York. This multiplication of societies called attention to the need of a national organization, and in 1910 the various societies were affiliated in the American Federation for s.e.x-Hygiene. Dr. Morrow was the leading spirit in the Federation until his death. In 1913, the Federation and the American Vigilance a.s.sociation (a society especially concerned with the social evil) were united in the American Social Hygiene a.s.sociation. Its offices are at 105 West 40th Street, New York City.

-- 51. _Important Steps in the s.e.x-education Movement in America_

May 23, 1904. Dr. Prince Morrow's plea for the organization of a society of sanitary and moral prophylaxis, read before the Medical Society of the County of New York.

February 9, 1905. Organization meeting of the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, in New York.

March, 1906. Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Social Diseases organized.

October, 1906. Chicago Society of Social Hygiene organized.

December, 1907. Portland (Ore.) Social Hygiene Society organized.

October, 1908. Spokane Society of Social and Moral Prophylaxis organized.

June, 1910. American Federation for s.e.x-Hygiene organized.

1911. Oregon Social Hygiene Society organized.

July 20, 1912. Resolution of the National Education a.s.sociation favoring training of teachers with the view, ultimately, of s.e.x-instruction in schools.

September 23-28, 1912. Meeting of subsection on s.e.x-hygiene, Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography.

Washington, D.C.

February, 1912. Organization of American Vigilance a.s.sociation.

October, 1913. Merging of the American Federation for s.e.x-Hygiene and the American Vigilance a.s.sociation into the new American Social Hygiene a.s.sociation.

1913. Organization of Pacific Coast Federation for s.e.x-Hygiene, changed to Pacific Coast Social Hygiene a.s.sociation in June, 1914.

July, 1914. The National Education a.s.sociation, at Minneapolis, adopted the following resolutions in line with the latest principles of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis and the American Social Hygiene a.s.sociation:

"The a.s.sociation, re-affirming its belief in the constructive value of education in s.e.x-hygiene, directs attention to the grave dangers, ethical and social, arising out of a s.e.x consciousness stimulated by undue emphasis upon s.e.x problems and relations. The situation is so serious as to render neglect hazardous. The a.s.sociation urges upon all parents the obvious duty of parental care and instruction in such matters and directs attention to the mistake of leaving such problems exclusively to the school. The a.s.sociation believes that s.e.x-hygiene should be approached in the public schools conservatively under the direction of persons qualified by scientific training and teaching experience in order to a.s.sure a safe moral point of view. The a.s.sociation, therefore, recommends that inst.i.tutions preparing teachers give attention to such subjects as would qualify for instruction in the general field of morals as well as in the particular field of s.e.x-hygiene."