INTRODUCTION.
There is scarcely any subject which is of greater importance or of greater interest to parents than this subject of teaching children the truth about life and birth.
Every parent knows that at one day their little boy or girl will have matured into the possessor of the powers of procreation, yet they fail to teach the child how to care for, or how to regard these powers they possess.
Biologically speaking, these creative powers are the most important functions of the body, but they are the only functions of the human body which are utterly ignored by both parents and teachers.
In order to perpetuate the species, nature has endowed all animals with sexual instinct, and man is the only animal who is ashamed of this instinct. Man is the only animal who voluntarily limits his offspring, though he continues in his sexual relation. Man, and man alone, is the only animal who is subject to disease directly inimical to the integrity of the organs of reproduction.
So, with this last assertion before our eyes, we parents cannot help but see that the danger signal is out. It is there and shows itself in the death list, in statistics, in the hospitals, where thousands of innocent girls and women are being operated upon. In fact, the danger signal is everywhere about us, if we could but understand what it really is.
In the public schools all over this country there is a general cry for help. Teachers are calling out for assistance to help them check the degrading and immoral atmosphere which is pervading the school rooms today. The words and language of the children (of all ages) found whispering together, the writings in the notes and on the walls of the buildings, all tend to show childrens’ thoughts. And in these actions the teacher sees the danger signal. She realizes this is the first awful step, and not knowing how to cope with these conditions, she calls for help.
The time comes to every mother when she first hears her child say: “When I get big and have a little girl I’ll, etc.”—showing that the natural average child takes it as a matter of course that at some future time he or she will have children, too. Shortly after this, questions are likely to begin, as when the parents speak of things they did, or places they went to either before marriage or early after, and the child asks: