6. In conferences with parents, the parents can be kept informed regarding the nature of the instruction which is being given to their children, and can at the same time be led to work in unison with the school in this matter.
Maria Lischnewska advises beginning already in the third class of primary schools—that is, when the child is only eight years old—to give instruction in the elements of natural science, more especially utilizing, as the first means of sexual enlightenment, the examples of vegetable fertilization, as well as the reproduction of fishes and birds. Even to the question “Whence do little children come?” an answer should be given, more or less in the following terms:
“The child lies in the body of the mother: when she breathes, then the child breathes; when she eats and drinks, the child also obtains his food. It lies there warm and safe. Gradually it becomes larger and begins to move. It has to lie somewhat curled up, because there is so little room for it. But the mother feels that it is alive; she is full of joy, and makes ready the child’s clothing and its bed. Finally it is fully grown. The mother’s body opens, and the child comes to the light. Then the mother takes it into her arms with joy and nourishes it with her milk.” Then the teacher would pause, and continue after a while: “Now, would you like to see the child?” Then there would naturally be a many-voiced “Yes, yes!” and the teacher would show to the class a picture such as our anatomical atlases exhibit now in beautiful form. The abdominal walls of the mother are turned back, and the child is seen slumbering. Then the teacher would say: “Thus you also slept within the body of your mother. You belong to her as to no other human being in the whole world. For this reason you should always love and honour her.”
Thus is the child’s urgent demand for knowledge satisfied. He is freed from all prying into nooks and corners. He experiences a feeling of honourable respect towards the primary source of life.
In the fourth school year further examples of the reproduction of plants, fishes, and birds should be given; in the fifth and sixth years the first demonstration of the process of sexual union among the mammals, with some account of embryology; and the process of birth should also be described. Then there should follow (at about the age of thirteen or fourteen) enlightenment regarding the development of the sexual life and regarding venereal diseases—information, that is to say, concerning hygiene and concerning the protection of one’s own body. Physicians such as Oker Blom and Dr. Agnes Hacker definitely demand that elucidation regarding this latter point should not be deferred until the time of puberty.
F. W. Förster proposes to postpone the whole process of enlightenment until the twelfth or thirteenth year; and if at an earlier age a child expresses any natural doubt regarding the stork fables, the following answer should be given (op. cit., p. 606):
“Where small children come from is a matter which you cannot yet understand. We grown-up persons even understand very little about it. I promise you that I will explain to you what we know of the matter on your twelfth birthday, but only if you promise me something in return. Do you know that there are boys and girls so bumptious that they behave as if they already knew all about it, because they have somewhere picked up a word or two without really understanding it? Promise me that you will never listen when such as these begin to talk about the matter; for you may be certain that the true secrets are matters of which they are ignorant, for this reason—they would not speak about it. He who really knows holds it as a sacred matter; he is silent about it, and does not call it out at the street comers.”
Förster strongly advises against associating sexual enlightenment with a knowledge of the reproductive process in plants and animals, for this reason: that if this is done “the human being is brought too near to the vegetable and animal life,” and the “sacred thought” of the elevation of humanity above the animal is obscured. He then gives very beautiful examples and modes of instruction for such sexual enlightenment of children twelve years of age.
I myself am of opinion that, without in any way making light of the difference between man and animal, the earlier elucidation at about the age of ten years should be associated with the general instruction in natural history regarding the reproductive process of animals and plants; and then very gradually, up to the age of fourteen, all important points in this department can be explained, including, finally, an account of the venereal diseases. It is obvious that after this time, more especially in the dangerous years of puberty, systematic enlightenment must be continued. That which is good and useful in this department of knowledge cannot be too often repeated.
But all enlightenment will be useless unless hand in hand with it there proceeds a process of education of the character and the will. Our school youth thinks and dreams too much, and does too little. Up to the present time it has been believed that it is sufficient to teach children, and to continue to teach them, to care for their health, to see that they have good food and sound sleep, without also taking into consideration the necessity for awakening the individuality and the energy slumbering in each one of them. The “gymnasium” must concern itself with the gymnastics, not only of the body, but also of the mind, and must thus restore that harmony between body and mind which appears to have been quite lost at the present day. Bodily education by games and sports is only one of the means for this purpose. The principal aim is to strengthen the character, to induce the habit of self-command and self-denial by a profound and intimate grasp of sexual problems. Nowhere does fantastic dreaming take revenge more thoroughly than in sexual relationships, for which reason also the so-called “only children” are especially endangered;[701] nowhere do clear knowledge, objective acquirements, and a firm will celebrate finer triumphs over blind impulses than they do here. The principal rule of sexual pedagogy runs as follows: Avoid the first opportunity and the first contact; keep the child and the young man and the young woman at a distance from all the stimulating pleasures and enjoyments of the adult. The production of manliness, as it has recently been described by Mosso,[702] Güssfeldt,[703] Georg Sticker,[704] and Ludwig Gurlitt,[705] has the greatest importance, more especially as regards the sexual life. This has been insisted on, above all, by Hans Wegener[706] and F. W. Förster (op. cit.). Moral statistics have incontrovertibly proved that progress in civilization and morals does not depend upon punishment or upon prophylactic measures against errors and excesses of passion, but only upon the subjective improvement and strengthening of the single individual. Guizot declared: “C’est de l’état intérieur de l’homme que dépend l’état visible de la société.” Drobisch,[707] in his “Moral Statistics,” has established this fact yet more firmly. Energy is the magic word for all vital activities of the present day, both spiritual and physical. Discipline, work, abstinence, bodily hygiene, are the means for educating the character, and these also play the principal part in sexual pedagogy.[708]