XI
The Past and the Future of the Sex-education Movement[ToC]
§ 50. The American Movement
Dr. Morrow leader in America.
In America the movement for sex-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 sexual processes, but such teaching was chiefly personal and there was no concerted movement looking towards making sex-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 Association 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 sex-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 sex problems were organized within a few years after the original society.
Original aim for sanitary ends.
The sex-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 sexual morality for its own sake and not simply for protection against venereal diseases has only recently begun to appear in the literature of sex-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 sex-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 sexual 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 sexes 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 sexual morals which will be practiced because of promised rewards rather than because of probable punishments. It is natural, then, that the sex-education movement should have started with a proclamation of physical punishments for immorality rather than an offer of ethical and psychical rewards for morality.
Both sanitary and moral.
However, the fact that sex-education, under the name of "sex-hygiene," was at first a sanitary propagandism need not interfere with the larger development of sex-education. It now seems probable that before many years pass we shall learn how to make a satisfactory combination of both the sanitary and moral sides of sex-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 sexual morals.
Medical interest.
The deep interest of the medical profession is directly responsible for the close association between the beginning of the sex-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 class 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 sex-hygiene have names including such phrases as "social hygiene," "prevention of social diseases," "sanitary prophylaxis"; and only one, the Massachusetts Society for Sex Education, has a name which does not directly suggest the medical problems of sex.
In Europe.
In Europe, the sex-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.
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 sex-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 sex-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 Sex-Hygiene. Dr. Morrow was the leading spirit in the Federation until his death. In 1913, the Federation and the American Vigilance Association (a society especially concerned with the social evil) were united in the American Social Hygiene Association. Its offices are at 105 West 40th Street, New York City.
§ 51. Important Steps in the Sex-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 Sex-Hygiene organized.
1911. Oregon Social Hygiene Society organized.
July 20, 1912. Resolution of the National Education Association favoring training of teachers with the view, ultimately, of sex-instruction in schools.
September 23-28, 1912. Meeting of subsection on sex-hygiene, Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography. Washington, D.C.
February, 1912. Organization of American Vigilance Association.
October, 1913. Merging of the American Federation for Sex-Hygiene and the American Vigilance Association into the new American Social Hygiene Association.
1913. Organization of Pacific Coast Federation for Sex-Hygiene, changed to Pacific Coast Social Hygiene Association in June, 1914.
July, 1914. The National Education Association, 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 Association:
"The Association, re-affirming its belief in the constructive value of education in sex-hygiene, directs attention to the grave dangers, ethical and social, arising out of a sex consciousness stimulated by undue emphasis upon sex problems and relations. The situation is so serious as to render neglect hazardous. The Association 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 Association believes that sex-hygiene should be approached in the public schools conservatively under the direction of persons qualified by scientific training and teaching experience in order to assure a safe moral point of view. The Association, therefore, recommends that institutions 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 sex-hygiene."
§ 52. The Future of the Larger Sex-education
Public has lost interest in sensationalism.
I hear many questions as to the probable future of sex-education. I am asked: "Is it moribund?" "Is it a disappearing fad?" "Has not the high tide of interest passed?" No doubt such questions are inspired by the oft-repeated statement that public interest in sexual questions has waned decidedly in the last few years. This is true, and it is a most fortunate indication of approaching sanity. The public interest in the last decade has been most deplorable, because it has centered in the abnormal and sensational aspects of sex. Authors have vied with each other in presenting the most lurid cases of social diseases, white slavery, sexual perversions, and every other available aspect of sexual degeneracy. Of course, the reading public was bound to grow tired of this, just as it wearies of a horrible murder trial or of a sensational divorce case. It is certainly true that there is a marked decline of general interest in sexual abnormality and sensationalism; but that does not mean that the sex-education movement is moribund.
Sex-education permanent.
The wave of sensational revelation has passed; but the intelligent public is no longer ignorant of the nature and causes of the great problems of sex, and is well aware that young people need definite guidance for facing the facts of life. It is unthinkable that intelligent parents who are now well informed concerning sex will ever again stand for the old policy of mystery and silence. It is, therefore, impossible to believe that there is any danger of sex-education disappearing. Of course, we have not reached a permanent system of sex-education. There certainly will be vast changes in our approved subject matter and methods of teaching; but the main idea of the sex-education movement is gaining support every day.
Sex-education fundamental.
There is another reason why sex-education will be permanent. In addition to the great need of educational help with information and influence which will mold the individual life with regard to the problems of sex, it must be evident to all that even the legislative, sanitary, social administrative, religious, ethical, and other attacks upon the problems depend upon knowledge and attitude, at least of the leaders. Look at the problems of sex outlined in the earlier lectures from whatever angle we will, and it appears that, in the final analysis, education offers the only key to a possible solution. Therefore, I assert that sex-education—the larger sex-education—is an absolutely fundamental factor in every phase of the social-hygiene and sex-ethical movement.
Ultimate effect of sex-education.
In closing the last lecture of this series, let me state my confession of faith in sex-education: It is certainly only one of several possible lines of attack on the alarming sex problems of our time; but it offers the most hopeful outlook towards improved sexual morals and health, both physical and psychical. However, we shall gain nothing of permanent value by extravagant claims or hopes as to the ultimate effect of sex-education. We must expect incomplete results. It will not entirely solve the sex problems for all individuals who receive instruction; but it will solve all of the problems of many individuals and help many others. It will not eradicate the social evil and its characteristic diseases, but it will protect many young people and so reduce the sum total of awful consequences. It will not prevent all divorces and matrimonial disharmonies, but already the biological teaching is helping and some day the social-ethical problems will be understood and then most intelligent men and women will understand the fundamental principles for permanent and harmonious monogamic marriage. Finally, sex-education will not enforce universal sexual morality in conformity with our accepted code, but it will help many individuals through decisive battles with sex-instincts.
Sex-Education and general education.
Such are some of the lines along which extreme claims and hopes for sex-education have been and are still being made. There is some truth in each; in fact, there is more than enough to justify the present movement for sex-education. To all those who see nothing in the movement because it will not solve all the sex problems which have created a demand for special instruction, we may reply by simply pointing to the fact that general education makes some better and more efficient citizens, but many times it fails to give desirable results. We believe in general education because it aims to offer all individuals help in preparation for more efficient life, although it succeeds only in part. Likewise, we should stand for the instruction of all young people in matters concerning sex because it is certain that such knowledge will function completely in many lives and will work appreciable good in many others.
A permanent and essential part of education.
I cannot believe that sex-education is one of the long line of modern educational fads which quickly pass their day, for no other phase of education so closely touches life. History and geography and even a large part of the "three Rs" may be of little use in the lives of numerous people, but sex-education deals with problems which the normal human life cannot possibly avoid and which each individual must be prepared to solve for himself. Therefore, we may confidently assert that instruction concerning the most important aspects of sex processes and relationships will soon be recognized as an absolutely necessary part of a rational and efficient scheme for the education of young people.
The never-ending problem of good and evil.
The larger sex-education is sure to have a permanent place in the never-ending work of preparing coming generations for the highest development of life's possibilities. Each succeeding generation of young people must be prepared by educational processes to face intelligently and bravely the problems of sex that are sure to come into every normal life. Of course, sex-education at its best development can do no more than give the individual a basis for intelligent choice between good and evil; but here, as in all other upward movements of human life, the decision must depend upon a clear and positive recognition of the advantages of the good as contrasted with the evil. Hence, the one essential task of sex-education in its broadest outlook is to guide natural human beings to recognition and choice of the best in the sexual sphere of life. And in so far as each coming generation of individuals may be thus guided by the larger sex-education, the problems of sex will be pragmatically solved, for the social aggregate of human life will become better, happier, nobler, truer, more in harmony with the highest ideals of life, more like our vision of perfected humanity.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] The name was changed in 1913 to Journal of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis.
[20] While this book was in press, the name was changed to New York Social Hygiene Society.