The New Zealand TABLET THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1912. SEX HYGIENE' FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

New Zealand Tablet, 2 May 1912, Page 33

The New Zealand TABLET THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1912. SEX HYGIENE' FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

NE of the latest, and, we feel bound to add, one of the least commendable developments \V\Vr j/ill eu ß en^cs movement is an agitation §NE of the latest, and, feel bound to add, one of the least commendable developments of the eugenics movement is an agitation which aims at inducing the Government authorities,in the countries in which the agitation is on foot, to make provision for detailed and systematic instruction on sexual matters of the children in the public schools. The agitation is making considerable headway; and ‘ sex hygiene’——as this comprehensive sexual instruction is somewhat euphemistic cally calledis, so to speak, in the air. .In, America the subject bulks largely in books and magazines, and in current literature generally. Not only so, but the State governments have in many cases taken the /matter up, and are issuing pamphlets on sexual matters which are officially distributed as being suitable reading for children of fourteen. In South Australia a deputation has just waited on the Minister of . Education. with, a request that instruction on * sexual subjects should be given in the State schools; and. the Director of Education in Victoria has been similarly approached. In New Zealand, also, the -question is a live one. In January last the Educational Institute, after some debate, declared in favor of the appointment of lecturers on sex hygiene for. the State schools; and the subject was discussed the other day at some length, and with much good sense, by a Church of England conference at Auckland. At the present time a more or less accredited lecturer on sexual subjects is filling engagements at various of our public schools and colleges; and this is his fourth tour of the Dominion on this particular mission.

Although all rightly constituted minds feel a natural reticence in speaking on matters that are by their nature of so essentially private a character, and one instinctively shrinks from facing the task of dealing with such subjects, nevertheless sober reason tells us that at some stage or other, and in some way or other, children should be taught at least the chief facts of the' sexual life. The objection to making such a subject a part of the regular programme of school work is that under such a method it is impossible to discriminate between the children who are, and the children who are not, ripe for such instruction. The physical development, like the mental development, of children varies greatly; and it is impossible to lay down any particular age as a fixed point at which sexual instruction becomes desirable and safe. The danger is that in initiating youth in this wholesale and more or less indiscriminate, way into the facts of sex, numbers of children who are 7, in a state of baptismal innocence on the whole subject will have their curiosity stimulated and their thoughts unnecessarily and prematurely directed into undesirable channels. The innocence of a child is surely a sacred thing; and, up to a certain point, its ignorance and in-'

.experience will prove a better safeguard to ; its y purity than all the -dangerous learning ..which the lectures and pamphlets on sex hygiene undertake to supply. 'A further ; objection to the State lecture : or State pamphlet method : of imparting sexual instruction to the ! young is that' for the most part it does not place the subject on & definitely religious basis. * The arguments advanced, and the ' sanctions invoked, for leading a virtuous life are almost exclusively physiological. - It is one of the common-places of human- experience that growth in knowledge 1 is not necessarily accompanied by growth in virtue, and that mere mental enlightenment does not, of itself, result in moral, uplifting. Unless the subject can be.treated, all the: way through, from a religious, even more than from a physical stand-point, sexual instruction to the young s is in danger of doing more harm than good. ■ There is a tendency, also, on the part of school lecturers to overdo the physiological argument, and to terrorise children to a degree that may be harmful. The following paragraph, from the. N.Z. Times of a recent date, will illustrate our point. It is headed 'A Strange Incident,' and runs thus: - An incident of which the Wellington College Governors might take some notice occurred yesterday afternoon. Mr-. R. H. W. Bligh, described as a white cross lecturer, was giving a demonstration illustrated with physiological diagrams, when six of the boys were overcome with fainting fits. : One; it is said, took upwards of an hour to recover.' The official explanation of the occurrence was that the boys were overcome by the heat, but the explanation is not convincing. .; '. The general view of Catholic writers and authorities is that the work of instructing the young on such subjects is appropriately left to parents and spiritual advisers. Parents, in particular, have an unmistakable duty in the matter. To leave our young men and women absolutely ignorant 'on this point,' says a recent Catholic work, '-' when they stand in need of education in every other domain, or to dismiss them with a few meaningless phrases when the question is broached, is to run the grave danger of leaving them without knowledge and without direction on a most dangerous path. . Y . What is the result of your studied secrecy? The; imparting of the needed information is left to the apostles- of the flesh, who, with a thousand voices, on the street, in many a school, and even in the home, are. ever striving to reach the ears of the young.' That the subject is a most difficult and delicate one, must be admitted; but this can hardly be accepted as a justification for a do-nothing attitude. To parents who recognise ; their obligation, but who are in perplexity as to when and how the requisite information should be imparted, we cordially recommend the volume on Marriage and Parenthood : the Catholic Ideal, by Father Thomas J. Gerrard, price ss. In reviewing the book some time ago we singled out for special praise the chapter on Sexual Instruction for the Young' ; and on re-reading this portion we are more pleased with it than ever. Another work which has received warm encomiums from competent authorities is the volume quoted from above— Die Erziehung Zur Keuscheit—published by two professors of theology at the Catholic University of Innsbruck, Austria. It has not yet appeared in English dress, but is certain to be translated in the near future. If there be a genuine willingness to discharge this admittedly delicate duty, parents will find the necessary instruction easily available.