CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XXVI
Science and practice have hitherto, for the most part, ignored the sexual — The danger of blind chance in the sexual province — Necessity for the enlightenment of the coming generation — Sexual education as a part of general pedagogy — The right to the knowledge of one’s own body — Sexual enlightenment of young people — The dispute regarding the when and the how — Distinction between the youth of the country and the youth of the town — Points of association — A passage from Gutzkow’s autobiography — Disastrous sources of early sexual enlightenment — Character of the pedagogic enlightenment — Importance of this — Suggestions regarding the methods of sexual enlightenment (Sigmund, Lischnewska, F. W. Förster) — My own views — Education of the character and of the will — Principal rules of sexual pedagogy — Education to manhood.
CHAPTER XXVI
The manner in which up to the present day humanity has, properly speaking, completely ignored the fact of sexuality is at once remarkable and difficult to understand. Until recently people went so far as to regard scientific research into sexual matters by adult persons as improper! The mystical idea of the sinfulness, of the radically evil character, of the sexual, was a dogma which even natural science appeared to admit. Our attitude towards the sexual was as if it were at once Sphinx and Gorgon’s head, as if it were the veiled statue of Sais. We stood helpless, in the face of this mysterious and malignant power, against the blind hazard of chance which plays so momentous a part, more especially in sexual affairs. As everywhere in life, so here also, the dominion of chance could be overcome only by means of knowledge. The solution of the sexual problem demands, in the first place, openness, clearness, learning in the department of the sexual, knowledge of cause and effect, and the transmission of this knowledge to the next generation, so that this latter may without harm become wise. Sexual education is an important chapter in general pedagogy.[696]
Regarding animals, plants, and stones the youthful human being of to-day acquires the most exact information, but we have hitherto refused him the right to understand his own body, and to acquire a knowledge of certain important vital functions of that body. There can be no doubt about the fact that the modern human being, who has learned to so large an extent to regard himself as a social being, has a sacred natural right to this knowledge.
Celebrated pedagogues of a hundred years ago, such as Rousseau, Salzmann, Basedow, Jean Paul, etc., expressed themselves in favour of the early sexual enlightenment of youth, and gave the most valuable advice regarding the methods to be employed;[697] but their views remained for the most part devoid of practical effect, and it is only in recent years, in connexion with the question of the protection of motherhood, with the campaign against prostitution, and with the attempt to suppress venereal diseases, that interest in this matter has been reawakened; and there now exists in this department an extensive literature, belonging chiefly to the last few years, proceeding from the pens of physicians, pedagogues, hygienists, and advocates of woman’s rights.[698] It is, in truth, the burning question of our time, the solution of which is here attempted. Correct sexual education forms the foundation for the ennoblement and resanation of our entire sexual life. Only knowledge and will can here effect a cure. Thus, sexual pedagogy naturally falls into two parts—sexual enlightenment and the education of the will.
The need for sexual enlightenment is now recognized by all far-seeing social hygienists and pedagogues. The only difference of opinion concerns the when and the how. Some plead for enlightenment as early as possible, in the first years of school life; others wish to defer enlightenment until puberty, or even later. I am of opinion that the circumstances in this respect are entirely different, according as we have to do with small towns and the open country, where more careful watching of children is possible, and where the dangers of premature sexual development and of seduction are not so great, or as we have to do with large towns, where, in my view, the children cannot be enlightened too early, since town life brings the children of all classes, and social misery brings more especially the children of the lowest classes of the population, so early into contact with sexual matters that a purposive enlightenment becomes absolutely indispensable. Children living in large towns should, from ten years onwards, be gradually and carefully made acquainted with the principal facts of the sexual life. We find here more points of association than is usually imagined. Gutzkow, in his admirable autobiography, “From the Days of My Boyhood” (Frankfort-a.-M., 1852, pp. 263, 264), has beautifully described this:
“The first appearances of love in the heart of the child occur as secretly as the fall of the dew upon flowers. Playing and jesting, innocence gropes its way through the darkness. Words, perceptions, ideas, which to the adult appear to be full of dangerous barbs, the child grasps with careless security, and takes the duplex sexual life of humanity to be a primeval fact which came into the world with man as a matter of course, and one which requires no explanation. Born from the mother’s womb, to the child the mother is the secure bridge by which it is conducted past all the riddles of womanhood. The child imitates the love of the father for the mother, plays the game of the family, plays father and mother, plays at being himself, a child. From the rustling autumn leaves, from abandoned bundles of straw, huts and nests are built, and for half an hour at a time a completely blameless boy can lie down besides his girl playmate, quietly, and as if magnetized by the intimation of love. Danger is in truth not far distant from such a practice of childish naïveté; it lurks in the background, and seeks only an opportunity to lead astray. But a child never understands the significance of the severe punishment which it so often receives for its imitative imaginary family life. The amatory life of the adult first breaks upon the imagination of the child and upon his quiet play like the opening of a door into a house. People take so little care of what they do before the innocent; they exhibit passionate affection for one another; they caress when the children are by. The child sees, ponders, and listens. Certain hieroglyphics alarm it; tales are laughed at—tales which suddenly throw a strange and wonderful light upon quite familiar human beings. The boy will notice that his elder sister has a joy or a sorrow, the nature of which he cannot completely grasp. He sees an elder brother filled with the joy of life, with the lust of youth, with the love of adventure, and no attempt is made to conceal these passions from the child.... Such and similar experiences succeed one another without cessation, and tales which the child hears are listened to with eagerness. The red threads of love and of the charm of beautiful women are not to be grasped by the hand of a child, and yet they have upon the child a certain secret influence.”