Teaching the Child Patriotism

by Kate Upson Clark

But true patriotism, to say nothing of other motives, bids us discard every habit and stamp out every malady which lowers the morale or impairs the efficiency of the people.

One of the most subtle foes of our national health, and only lately dragged out of its secret lair for the open contumely and united attack of all good men and women, is the most terrible of sex-diseases, which is said to be frightfully prevalent.

Mr. Cleveland Moffett, in McClure's Magazine, pleads for specific sex-instruction in our educational institutions. He says: "The youth of America are taught everything, with the exception of the most essential of all, the great secret of life. One result of this inexcusable neglect is seen in alarming high school conditions reported in various cities."

He advises home instruction in these important and delicate matters, but admits, what we all know, that few parents are qualified to give it. Those few should do so; but if the most terrible disease known to civilization, and probably, in a more or less virulent form, the most common, is to be successfully combated, such instruction should be imparted. Under the circumstances, it must be done, apparently, by regular teachers, who should be high-minded, tactful and thoroughly trained.

This instruction should be given to each pupil separately and when alone with his teacher. Two or three interviews, of perhaps twenty minutes each, ought to be sufficient each year. It should be possible to arrange that number in every school in the land.

There is another great curse which operates especially against the health of our girls.

A well-known woman is in the habit of saying, "I have scarcely a woman-friend who either has not just had an operation, or is not having one now, or is not going to have one soon."

This statement always raises a laugh, but is no joke; it is a solemn, awful fact.

Now why are so many of our splendid women, well-fed, living largely in the open air, busy, educated, passionately devoted to the study of hygiene and sanitation, inevitably destined to be cut up on the operating-tables of our hospitals?

Why,—it is so commonly expected, that we hear of these operations now without a quiver, even though we know they are likely to be fatal. We accept them as though they were decreed by an inescapable Fate, and there was no remedy.