WITHIN the last year or two, a question affecting in a degree the moral and physical welfare of every child of school going age in the United States has been receiving much attention in the press and from the platform, and for a time it seemed that the good sense and the sense of propriety of many communities had been or would be overridden by the persistence with which those who advocated the compulsory teaching of so-called sex hygiene in the public schools urged their views upon educators and school committees. Fortunately the current which for a time seemed to be setting so strongly in favor of this precocious and pernicious education as to threaten a tidal wave of wrecked ideals, has at length taken a turn, and in some communities, Chicago for instance, the determination to force this subject upon the attention of boys and girls of tender years has been abandoned because of the protests of parents who have revolted in amazement and disgust from the ruthless, needless wound and shock to the sensibilities of the children who have been subjected to lectures on this subject. One cannot touch pitch without defilement, neither can good come from the teaching of evil.
Turning from all that has been urged in favor of this offensive intrusion upon the natural modesty and innocence of the young, it is a relief to find men like Professor Taft speaking to the point on this question. In an address before the graduates of a Philadelphia school he said:—
The sharp, pointed, and summary advice of mothers to daughters, of fathers to sons, of a medical professor to students in a college upon such a subject is of course wise, but any benefit that may be derived from frightening students by dwelling upon the details of the dreadful punishment of vice is too often offset by awakening a curiosity and interest that might not be developed so early, and is too likely to set the thoughts of those whose benefit is at stake in a direction that will neither elevate their conversation with their fellows, nor make more clean their mental habit. They will learn all that is wise for them to learn through the natural communications of their parents and their family medical advisers.
