1. "The function of education is to guide the intellect into a knowledge of right and wrong, to supply motives for right conduct, and to furnish occasions by which alone can moral habits be cultivated." (Drummond.)
2. The first aim of sex education is necessarily to bring about an open-minded, serious, if possible a reverent, attitude toward sex and motherhood, in place of the traditional secrecy and vulgarity; a teacher who cannot do this should do nothing.[67]
3. In so far as the sex life of animals is made the basis of instruction, the difference between man and the lower animals is the point to emphasize; otherwise the facts of animal life may appear to justify irresponsible sex activities, whereas the glory of man is his control over animal instincts.
4. Since it is not ignorance of what is right, but rather the will to do the right, that is usually responsible for sexual delinquency among adults, the program of public education must include more effective moral education in all grades of all schools; every subject, properly taught, is a means of cultivating will power, of strengthening character; but the school curriculum is now made to yield but a small part of its possibilities.
5. The appeal must be made to self-respect and to chivalry; especially through history and literature the idea of sex must be spiritualized; the right education of the emotions is fundamental.[68]
6. Through the study of heredity and eugenics, the social responsibility of the individual may be made to serve as a higher incentive for right conduct than the fear of disease.
7. If there is one truth concerning sex education that needs emphasis above all others, it is that all plans for meeting the social emergency must strengthen the control of moral and spiritual law over sex impulses; otherwise sex education may be antagonistic not only to physical health, but as well to the highest development of personality and to the progressive evolution of human society.
FOOTNOTES:
[61] The best expression of the consensus of opinion of those who should know most about the subject is the Report of the Special Committee on the Matter and Methods of Sex Education issued by the American Federation for Sex Hygiene, New York, December, 1912.
[62] Sex Education, by Ira S. Wile, M.S., M.D. (New York, 1912), aims to assist parents to banish the difficulties and to suggest a course of instruction. It is a brief and wholly admirable treatise.